System Development Engineer, Policy & Access Control Engineering (PACE)

The Policy & Access Control Engineering (PACE) team, under Operations Infrastructure Services (OIS) organization is looking for an experienced System Development Engineer to join team in Austin. The PACE team provides network security solutions to Amazon fulfillment centers (FCs) using Access Control Lists (ACLs) deployed on on premise firewall as well as cloud firewall devices. ACLs act as a gatekeeper, allowing or blocking network traffic flow in and out of FCs based on predefined rules. Changes in the underlying infrastructure necessitate updates in deployed ACLs to ensure seamless operation of FC solutions. To maintain the right security posture while enabling FC solutions to get network connectivity within defined Service Level Agreements (SLA), the PACE team focuses on two aspects: 1) ACL Freshness: the frequency with which ACLs are deployed to network devices, 2) ACL effectiveness: determines if the ACLs defined by the FC solutions using OIS tools are used effectively and are not adding unnecessary complexity to the OIS network.

Key job responsibilities
In the PACE team, the System Development Engineer (SysDE) plays a crucial role in ensuring the smooth and secure operation of Amazon's FC solutions. The ideal candidate will:
- Identify business problems, gathers data, proposes solutions and leads implementation.
- Lead the development and maintenance of systems accountable for generating and deploying ACLs information to network devices. These systems must ensure high availability, scalability, and performance to meet stringent SLAs for ACL freshness and effectiveness.
- Partner closely with cross-functional teams to align on requirements, security guidelines, and best practices for ACL management and network security.
- Proactively identify and address technical debt, architectural limitations, and performance bottlenecks, proposing and implementing refactoring and optimization strategies to improve the systems' efficiency and maintainability.
- Ensure robust monitoring, alerting, and troubleshooting mechanisms are in place for the ACL management systems.
- Give careful consideration of availability, operations, maintenance, and cost.
- Exercise high judgement, skepticism, and scrutiny of requests to ensure that changes do not lead to unsupportable systems, non-compliance, security vulnerabilities or detrimental impact.
- Design the complete solution stack and delivers through others.

A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:
1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options
3. Paid Time Off (PTO)
4. 401(k) Plan

If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!

About the team
The Policy & Access Control Engineering (PACE) team builds software that translates network security intent into enforceable policy, validates every change before deployment, and deploys across 2,300+ sites. In 2026, the team delivered three production capabilities: Cloud Firewall enforcement for internet-bound traffic; zone-based ACL generation, deployed to two greenfield site types with an 89% reduction in ACL rule count; and event-based deployment prioritization, reducing solution onboarding time from 7 days to 2.

Basic Qualifications

- Experience in automating, deploying, and supporting large-scale infrastructure
- Experience programming with at least one modern language such as Python, Ruby, Golang, Java, C++, C#, Rust
- Experience with Linux/Unix
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines build processes
- 3+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with distributed systems at scale
- Bachelor's degree
- Experience building services using AWS products

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, TX, Austin - 129,200.00 - 174,800.00 USD annually