Design and deliver confidential computing capabilities including Nitro Enclaves, memory encryption, and cryptographic attestation
Lead deep-dive investigations for complex production issues spanning hypervisor, firmware, hardware, and control plane interactions
Mentor and grow engineers across multiple teams through code reviews, design reviews, and hands-on technical guidance
Drive kernel upgrades to latest LTS versions while maintaining backward compatibility and minimizing downstream patch footprint
Design qualification processes for new platforms ensuring high reliability and minimal annual failure rates
Participate in on-call rotation providing expert-level support for production systems and drive operational excellence initiatives
A day in the life
As a Principal Engineer in the EC2 Nitro System organization, you will oversee multiple projects collaborating with internal and external organizations. Projects range from designing and launching next generation EC2 Core Platforms to building Nitro Hypervisor features, Nitro Card components, and confidential computing capabilities. You'll participate in day-to-day development, debugging, and release management to deliver customer value. Your work spans collaboration across time zones, including the US West Coast, engaging with Nitro Firmware, Launch, hardware engineering, control plane, and service teams. You'll balance hands-on technical work with strategic leadership through architecture reviews and mentorship.
About the team
The EC2 team builds the foundation of modern cloud computing, delivering the Nitro System that powers millions of instances globally. Our mission is providing customers with near bare-metal performance while maintaining industry-leading security. You'll collaborate with engineers across firmware, hardware, control plane, and service teams to solve complex problems at the hardware-software intersection—from hypervisor optimizations to confidential computing features protecting customer workloads. Based in Berlin, we're a global team that values technical excellence, continuous learning, and sustainable engineering practices. You'll help customers run their most critical workloads securely and efficiently.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience
Experience in professional software development building scalable production systems
Experience with systems programming in C/C++ or similar low-level languages
Experience with systems software, embedded systems or distributed systems
Experience leading technical initiatives across multiple teams
Proficiency in software engineering practices for the full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations
Experience communicating with peers, technical teams, and senior management to collect requirements and describe technical designs
Openness to leveraging AI tools and technologies to enhance productivity and technical problem-solving
Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
Experience with firmware development (BIOS, UEFI, embedded systems)
Background in hardware-software co-design or platform engineering
Experience with high-performance computing, real-time systems, or bare-metal optimization
Strong verbal and written communication skills with ability to present complex technical information clearly to diverse audiences
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to navigate ambiguity
Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across organizations
Track record of delivering complex, cross-functional projects from concept to production
Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.
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