Amazon EC2 is a foundational part of the AWS cloud, powering millions of instances worldwide. The EC2 OS engineering organization builds, distributes, and releases the Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) that customers trust to run their most critical workloads across all AWS Regions and Partitions.
Amazon is seeking an experienced Software Development Manager to lead the Windows and Commercial Linux AMI teams within EC2. This role focuses on delivering secure, high-quality, and performant AMIs that enable customers to launch Windows and partner Linux workloads efficiently across AWS.
The successful candidate will own the end-to-end delivery of Windows Server AMIs and related systems that meet the highest standards. As an SDM, you will combine deep technical expertise in operating systems and cloud infrastructure with exceptional people management skills to drive innovation, scalability, and operational excellence.
After joining, you will quickly become a key partner to the EC2 leadership team, where you will understand core business goals and customer requirements. In the first three months, you will review existing AMI release processes and operational mechanisms. You will be guiding your team of initially 9 engineers to collaborate with Microsoft, commercial Linux partners, security teams, and AWS service owners.
In the upcoming months, you will drive continual improvements to AMI delivery pipelines while maintaining the highest bar for security, compliance, and availability. You will own key parts of the infrastructure that enables customer workloads across AWS regions and partitions worldwide.
Key job responsibilities
Lead and manage a team of systems and software development engineers focused on Windows Server and Commercial Linux AMI building, testing, and release across all AWS regions and partitions.
Own the technical roadmap, architecture, and delivery of secure AMI pipelines optimized for performance on AWS architectures.
Drive adoption of best practices in AMI automation, security scanning, patch management, and integration with upstream operating system vendors.
Partner closely with commercial Linux vendors (Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE) to onboard, validate, and publish AMIs at AWS scale, ensuring seamless customer experience.
Partner with Nitro teams to sure full testing of these operating systems on new EC2 Instance Types, ensuring full compatibility.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including EC2, Security, Marketplace, and Region/Partition teams to prioritize features, resolve dependencies, and accelerate time-to-market.
Hire, mentor, coach, and develop top engineering talent; foster an inclusive team culture focused on innovation, operational excellence, and high standards.
Partner with product management and stakeholders to define priorities, working backwards from customer needs for security, compliance, and performance.
Influence long-term strategy for AMI delivery systems, including tools, processes, and contributions to open-source projects.
Ensure operational excellence: monitoring, incident response, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement of AMI build and release systems.
Communicate effectively with senior leadership on progress, risks, and technical designs through Amazon-style documents and operational reviews.