Software Development Manager, AWS catalog

Amazon Web Services is looking for an experienced Software Development Manager to lead a two-pizza team building the next generation of access control for AWS Glue Data Catalog. This is a high-impact, technically complex role at the intersection of data governance, security, and large-scale distributed systems — sitting within the AWS Catalog organization in Palo Alto, CA.

You will own a team responsible for AWS Lake Formation and a greenfield initiative to build a new access control layer that fundamentally simplifies how access control works in Glue Data Catalog. Your work directly enables customers — from Fortune 500 enterprises to government agencies — to securely share and manage data at scale.

Key job responsibilities
- Lead and grow a two-pizza team of engineers, owning their hiring, development, and performance.

- Own the Lake Formation service — ensure continued reliability, operational health, and feature evolution for one of AWS's core data governance services.

- Drive the Glue Grant surface — lead a major greenfield initiative to simplify how access control is expressed and enforced in Glue Data Catalog, from design through GA.

- Define and execute technical strategy for data access control and permissions in Glue Data Catalog, working closely with senior leadership and principal engineers.

- Partner cross-functionally with product, security, and adjacent service teams to deliver cohesive, scalable customer experiences.

- Drive delivery of multi-quarter programs with well-defined milestones, managing dependencies, risks, and trade-offs in a fast-paced environment.

- Raise the technical bar — set standards for design, operational excellence, and code quality; actively participate in design reviews and architectural decisions.

- Manage operational health of production services including on-call rotations, incident response, and continuous improvement of reliability and performance.

- Champion customers — translate ambiguous customer problems into crisp engineering requirements and deliver solutions wit

About the team
- Greenfield build: The Glue Grant surface is a new effort to fundamentally simplify access control in Glue — you'll have the opportunity to shape the design from the ground up.

- Own a flagship service: Lake Formation is a core AWS data governance service used by hundreds of thousands of customers; you'll own its continued evolution.
- Broad impact: Your work directly influences how customers protect their data across every major AWS region.
- Strong leadership support: You will work closely with senior leadership who are deeply invested in this space, with clear organizational backing and executive visibility.

- Growth opportunity: This role sits at the center of a fast-growing intersection of data, security, and governance — areas that are top priorities for AWS.

Basic Qualifications

- 3+ years of engineering team management experience
- 10+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
- Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations
- Experience partnering with product or program management teams

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience in communicating with users, other technical teams, and senior leadership to collect requirements, describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy
- Experience in recruiting, hiring, mentoring/coaching and managing teams of Software Engineers to improve their skills, and make them more effective, product software engineers
- Experience delivering products against plan in a fast-paced, multi-disciplined, distributed-responsibility and often ambiguous environment
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field

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

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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, CA, East Palo Alto - 212,700.00 - 287,700.00 USD annually