Amazon Leo is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite network. Our mission is to deliver fast, reliable broadband connectivity to customers beyond the reach of existing networks. From households to small businesses, schools, hospitals, and government agencies, Amazon Leo will serve communities and organizations operating in places without dependable internet access.

Amazon Leo is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer to design, build, and maintain the software that powers in-flight connectivity for commercial airlines. You will be a core contributor to the Leo Aviation Solution - the software platform that runs aboard aircraft, managing cabin Wi-Fi networks, satellite connectivity, over-the-air software updates, and operational services for passengers, crew, and airlines simultaneously.

This is a hands-on engineering role with immediate, high-visibility impact. The Leo Aviation Solution is early in its development, which means the decisions made now - in architecture, interfaces, and implementation approach - will shape the platform for years of production operation across a growing fleet. You will not only write production code but actively contribute to the technical direction of the system. In the near term, you may operate with significant autonomy, making forward progress on the platform's foundational software. Strong engineering judgment, clear documentation practices, and the ability to work through ambiguity are as important as implementation skill.

The platform spans a technically demanding stack: containerized software running on embedded aircraft hardware; a multi-segment cabin network managing VLAN-based traffic prioritization across passenger, crew, and airline operational services; satellite uplink quality-of-service scheduling; cryptographically validated over-the-air software deployments; and a security infrastructure designed to protect certified airborne systems.

The ideal candidate brings experience in aviation or aerospace embedded software, distributed systems, and cloud-to-edge solutions. The team is early, which means you'll contribute into the solution’s architecture and technical approach. You'll work in productive ambiguity, where problems are not always clear and solutions need to be invented.

Export Control Requirement:
Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Key job responsibilities
Design and implement core Leo Aviation Solution modules - cabin network management, software/configuration lifecycle, connectivity monitoring, observability, and operational portal - owning each from design through production deployment.

Build production-quality software for certified embedded environments, meeting DO-178C Level E standards.

Build and maintain the OTA software lifecycle pipeline - cryptographic validation, staged activation, automatic rollback, and version reporting to ground-side fleet systems.

Develop observability infrastructure - health endpoints, telemetry collection, built-in test execution, and the ground-side data pipeline for fleet monitoring.

Contribute to interface definitions and Architecture Decision Records, ensuring cross-workstream alignment before implementation.

Build and execute DO-178C-aligned tests, including unit, integration, requirements-based, and hardware-in-the-loop tests across cabin platforms.

Integrate software across multiple cabin hardware platforms, maintaining hardware abstraction layers for codebase portability.

Raise the engineering bar through code reviews, design feedback, and knowledge-sharing on aviation-grade development practices.

About the team
Amazon Leo is building technology that most engineers have never encountered. Our team brings together engineers from avionics and embedded systems, enterprise networking, distributed cloud infrastructure, and aviation certification. Our team includes engineers with backgrounds ranging from embedded software to large-scale distributed systems - and we value the full range of that experience.
We are continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth's Best Employer. You will find extensive knowledge-sharing, mentorship, and career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded technical leader.

Basic qualifications

• 6+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
• Experience in embedded development in C/C++, or experience designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems
• Experience in managing and troublshooting network, or experience managing full application stacks from the OS up through custom applications and experience with automation and any version control tools
• Experience in software QA testing including writing test plans, use cases, and issue reports
• BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Aerospace Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in Kubernetes, Docker or containers ecosystem, or experience in software development and experience with virtualization (Hypervisors, VMware, Xen)
• Experience in the application of network design, including knowledge of major routing protocols, topology design, network hardware, device configuration, and traffic engineering
• Experience in any combination of the following: application security frameworks, security code reviews, incident response, secure infrastructure, penetration testing, mobile security, cloud security, AI security, identity and access controls, threat modeling, cryptography, threat intelligence, or secure software development
• Experience in Linux and Networking protocols, or experience with programming/scripting (Batch, VB, PowerShell, Java, C#, Chef, Perl, Ruby and/or PHP) and experience in Linux OS and network troubleshooting
• Experience in aviation, aerospace, or other safety-adjacent embedded software development - including familiarity with DO-178C Level E software development lifecycle. Experience integrating software with hardware interfaces common in aviation or industrial environments - including serial bus protocols (e.g., ARINC 429), discrete digital signal processing, or hardware abstraction for multi-vendor hardware platforms.

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, Redmond - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually