Typical responsibilities for L7 SDE (Principal Enginer) @ Amazon ?

Google / Eng
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Go to company page Google Eng

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Jan 19, 2018 42 Comments

What does a typical day look like ?

What kind/scale of project you are expected to lead ?

How much of the day to day work is coding yourself vs Architectural decisions ?

Also, Is PE equivalent to a Director Engineering role, or is that L8/L10 ?

Also what can be expected salary range ?

Answers to all or a subset of questions are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

#amazon

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TOP 42 Comments
  • Amazon / Ops
    SomebodyI

    Go to company page Amazon Ops

    SomebodyI
    L7 SDE’s are very rare at Amazon.
    Jan 19, 2018 8
    • Amazon
      Benny Lava

      Go to company page Amazon

      PRE
      Amazon
      Benny Lava
      Very org dependent, in mine we have sde 2 and 3 only at the ratio of 10/4. I have never seen a PE.
      Jan 20, 2018
    • Amazon
      dadiator

      Go to company page Amazon

      dadiator
      PEs will generally help set the technical direction for a Sr Manager or director who can oversee 100 or more engineers. They have extremely broad influence and generally don't code on a daily basis. They are expected to pick up interesting parts of a project here or there to keep their skills up.
      Jan 21, 2018
  • Amazon / Eng
    somecsdude

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    somecsdude
    In Amazon, Director (L8) is a management role. Its IC counterpart is senior PE.
    Jan 19, 2018 10
  • Amazon / Eng
    Probably🍆

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    BIO
    Brb bio.
    Probably🍆
    It’s around ~350 PEs and growing after this OLR. ~50 SrPE, though we’ll get the real numbers in March at the offsite.

    Source: Sr PE now. PE for many years before that: there were less than 80 when I became a PE.

    Feel free to PM me.
    Jan 20, 2018 2
  • Amazon
    KYNQ07

    Go to company page Amazon

    KYNQ07
    PE here. It’s generally a fantastic job.
    Most PE’s are snowflakes so there is a lot of variation in what their days look like.

    Most spend some time actually coding (though not likely every day), some mentoring and hiring, design review for teams all across amazon doing things you may be familiar with, working on the health of your org, code review, reviewing and writing strategy docs and other 6 pagers, etc.

    Some PE’s spend a lot of time coding. But the average time is probably 15%. There is absolutely an expectation of coding. This is different than most architect roles at other companies.

    Salary range is very broad. Like probably a 3x band. Amazon has few levels.
    Jan 20, 2018 3
  • Amazon / Eng
    kuro

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    kuro
    PEs are gods at Amazon
    Jan 19, 2018 0