Leo is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite broadband network. Its mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world, and we've designed the system with the capacity, flexibility, and performance to serve a wide range of customers, from individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.
This position requires that the candidate selected be a U.S. Citizen in order to comply with U.S. government-imposed requirements related to the nature of the work and/or where it will be performed.
We are looking for a Systems Development Manager to take the helm of an established, high-caliber engineering team and own the reliability, security, and strategic direction of the ALPINE service portfolio. You will inherit a mature team and lead them through the next phase: sustaining critical Tier-1 services while advancing AI-integration readiness across the portfolio. You will operate primarily within AWS GovCloud and partner daily with Amazon Leo Security, Global Trade & Compliance, and teams across Production Operations.
Key job responsibilities
Lead, grow, and develop a team of systems development engineers; own hiring, performance, and career growth.
Own the operational health, reliability, and security of ALPINE's Tier-1 service portfolio across commercial and GovCloud environments.
Set technical and operational strategy across the portfolio; partner with the Sr. Engineers to steer architecture and roadmap.
Uphold export-control compliance (ITAR/CUI) across all services, in partnership with Global Trade & Compliance and Leo Security.
Drive AI-integration readiness; enabling AI agents to interact safely with ALPINE services within user permission boundaries.
Represent ALPINE in cross-org forums (Production Operations, Security, Compliance, LeoLX); manage stakeholder relationships and escalations.
Own operational excellence: OnCall leadership, incident response, runbooks, monitoring, and change management.
Balance sustaining critical production services with advancing platform modernization and automation.
Set and communicate priorities, remove blockers, and shield the team so engineers can do their best work.
A day in the life
Your day balances people and portfolio. You start with the ALPINE operational picture: overnight alarms, OnCall health, and any escalations that need your attention. You spend focused time with your engineers: 1:1s on growth and direction, unblocking a stalled dependency, or coaching through a tricky design decision. Mid-day you might represent ALPINE in a cross-org review like aligning on a shared roadmap, or briefing leadership on service health. In the afternoon you set strategy: shaping the portfolio's AI-integration direction with the Sr. Engineers, planning headcount, or driving an operational improvement. Throughout, you shield the team from organizational noise so they can keep Tier-1 services healthy and build what comes ne
About the team
ALPINE owns and operates the core engineering infrastructure for Amazon Leo's 7,000+ workforce — Jira, Confluence, SAP ERP & MES, engineering test platforms, requirements management, and a license server fleet, much of it in AWS GovCloud under ITAR/CUI constraints. At the center is the "Jedi Council," a group of senior engineers who collectively own technical direction and operational health. This is an established, high-performing team. You will take the helm — not build from scratch — and lead them through both sustained Tier-1 operations and the organization's AI-forward transformation.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
- 5+ years of managing system or software development teams experience
- Experience leading the design, automation, deployment, and support of 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
- Experience designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems
- Experience with managing a high velocity team
Preferred Qualifications:
- Knowledge of systems engineering fundamentals (networking, storage, operating systems)
- Experience with AWS platforms, services, and design patterns
- Experience with distributed systems at scale
- Experience in mentoring, leading, or managing more junior engineers
- Experience in data retrieval techniques
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, WA, Bellevue - 166,300.00 - 225,000.00 USD annually
