Software Development Manager, Rendering

AWS Deadline Cloud is transforming how the Media & Entertainment industry renders content at scale. Launched in 2024, our service is rapidly evolving to meet growing customer demands. We're looking for a Software Development Manager who is passionate about building and leading high-performing engineering teams, and who is excited about service development, client software, and open source to help us expand our capabilities, improve customer experience, and scale our service to support new use cases and integrations.

As an SDM on the Rendering team, you will lead a team of software engineers building the core rendering infrastructure that powers AWS Deadline Cloud. You'll define the technical vision for your team, drive execution on critical deliverables, and grow your engineers through mentorship and career development. You'll collaborate closely with product managers, partner teams, and customers to deliver solutions that delight creative professionals worldwide.

Work/Life Harmony Our team puts a high value on work-life harmony. We are distributed mainly across Seattle and Vancouver. We try to keep core availability hours from 10am to 4pm, and we have our fair share of early birds and night owls, so there is almost always someone available to chat, help or answer questions.

On-Call Responsibility This position involves on-call responsibilities. We don't like getting paged in the middle of the night or on the weekend, so we work to ensure that our systems are fault tolerant and that our alarms are well calibrated. Every week we review our operations as a team and audit our mechanisms to make it easier for our engineers and better for our customers. When we do get paged, we work together to resolve the root cause.

Mentorship & Career Growth Developing our people is celebrated as part of our team culture. As an SDM, you'll play a central role in growing your team members through regular 1:1s, constructive feedback, and career development planning. We are dedicated to supporting each other, and you will help create an environment where engineers have plenty of opportunities to share their unique knowledge and mentor others. We believe that developing others is an integral part of developing yourself and we have a very diverse collection of backgrounds, levels of experience, and Amazon tenure to support this.

Inclusive Team Culture Our team is intentional about attracting, developing, and retaining amazing talent from diverse backgrounds. Yes, we do get to work on a really cool service, but we also think a big reason for that is the inclusive and welcoming culture that we cultivate every day. We're looking for a leader who is enthusiastic, empathetic, curious, motivated, reliable, and able to work effectively with a diverse team of peers; someone who will help us amplify the positive & inclusive team culture we've been building.

Key job responsibilities
Lead and grow a team of software development engineers building rendering infrastructure for AWS Deadline Cloud. Define technical strategy and drive execution on service features, DCC integrations, and operational improvements. Hire, mentor, and develop engineers at multiple levels — set clear goals, provide regular feedback, and support career growth. Own your team's operational excellence: on-call health, alarm quality, COE follow-through, and weekly ops reviews. Partner with product management, UX, and peer engineering teams to shape the product roadmap and deliver solutions that delight customers in the Media & Entertainment industry. Drive architectural decisions and ensure your team builds scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems. Champion an inclusive team culture where diverse perspectives are valued and every team member can do their best work.

A day in the life
You'll start your day reviewing operational metrics and checking in on your team's blockers. You'll have 1:1s with your engineers, discussing technical challenges and career development. Mid-day might include a design review for a new DCC integration or a sprint planning session. You'll partner with product managers to prioritize customer requests and collaborate with peer SDMs across Seattle and Vancouver. You'll review code and architecture documents, coach engineers through complex problems, and ensure your team is delivering high-quality work. No two days are the same — but building people and building great software are always at the center.

About the team
The Rendering team is part of AWS Deadline Cloud, helping Media & Entertainment customers — VFX studios, animation houses, and game developers — render content at scale in the cloud. We're a collaborative, distributed team mainly across Seattle and Vancouver, with a strong emphasis on work-life harmony and inclusive culture. We build service infrastructure, DCC integrations, and open-source tools that creative professionals rely on every day. We celebrate mentorship, value diverse perspectives, and take pride in supporting each other's growth. If you want to lead a team solving real problems for creative people, this is the place.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

- 3+ years of engineering team management experience
- 7+ years of engineering experience
- 8+ years of leading the definition and development of multi tier web services experience
- 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

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.