Software Development Engineer, Amazon Prime Video Play Starts

Software Development Engineer, Amazon Prime Video Play Starts

Are you eager to shape the future of video entertainment, from movies and TV shows to live sports events? Do you enjoy tackling complex challenges within large-scale systems? If so, we invite you to help build the future of entertainment with us at Prime Video!

Since its launch in 2007, Prime Video has been transforming the traditional television and movie industry. With a rapidly expanding library of high-quality content and availability in over 240 countries and territories, Prime Video is now a key strategic priority for Amazon. We invest heavily in acquiring, producing, and programming a diverse range of TV shows, movies, and live events. Our exclusive titles include "The Lord of the Rings," "The Boys," "The Wheel of Time," and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," among others. Beyond our extensive On-Demand catalog, Prime Video offers a wide selection of Linear Channels and Live Sports, featuring major events like Thursday Night Football, the English Premier League, NBA, MLB, ATP tennis, French Open, and the UEFA Champions League. If this sparks your interest, read on!

Key job responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain highly scalable systems that power Prime Video’s streaming services.
• Define the architecture for our software, utilizing a broad range of technologies, programming languages, and systems.
• Implement and operate APIs that manage billions of playback start requests, ensuring seamless, low-latency content delivery.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to influence the overall technical strategy and contribute to the team’s long-term roadmap.
• Communicate effectively across teams and stakeholders, ensuring alignment with technical goals and project timelines.
• Apply creative problem-solving skills to address complex challenges.
• Stay ahead of industry trends and new technologies, integrating them where appropriate.
• Mentor and guide other engineers, contributing to the overall growth and success of the engineering team.

A day in the life

As a software engineer, I design and build the APIs that power every title on Prime Video — ensuring seamless, low-latency streaming at massive scale. My day blends deep coding sessions, architectural decisions, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to shape the platform’s future. I tackle challenges using AWS services like EC2, S3, DynamoDB, and Kinesis, and find real joy in seeing my work in action when friends stream their favorite shows. I also mentor junior engineers and explore new ideas that push the boundaries. Knowing my work impacts millions of viewers makes each day deeply rewarding.

About the team

The Play Starts team is at the core of Prime Video’s streaming experience. We manage essential services that handle customer interactions from the moment they press play. Our mission is to ensure seamless content delivery, personalizing each viewer's experience based on their subscriptions and device specifications. We handle content manifest delivery, synchronize play states across devices, and manage concurrent streaming, all while securing the content. The services we operate are critical to both Live and Video-on-Demand playback, and we handle billions of playback start requests every month.

Basic Qualifications

• 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 2+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• 3+ years of Video Games Industry (supporting title Development, Release, or Live Ops) experience
• Experience programming with at least one software programming language

Preferred Qualifications

• 3+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

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