Software Development Manager, Shield (Anti-DDoS)

AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help. You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion. Ever wondered how AWS protects its infrastructure from the ever-evolving threat of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks? The Shield team serves as AWS's central defense force, standing at the forefront of protecting AWS infrastructure and millions of customers from sophisticated attacks across the internet. Our mission is critical: safeguard the AWS cloud infrastructure that powers a significant portion of the modern internet. We build sophisticated services and tools to detect incoming threats and prevent or mitigate their impact on our cloud services. In today's rapidly changing threat landscape—from advanced botnet attacks to emerging attack vectors—we must constantly evolve our defenses to stay ahead of adversaries. What we do makes a real difference, and we're far from done. We're seeking passionate software developers who want to make an impact by preventing DDoS attacks against our cloud services and continuously evolving our defenses as the threat landscape shifts. What Makes This Role Exciting: Internet-Scale Impact: Process and protect traffic representing a substantial portion of global internet activity. The systems you build will defend some of the world's most critical infrastructure. Scaling Challenges: Work on problems that few engineering teams ever encounter. Handle traffic volumes and attack patterns that push the boundaries of distributed systems design. Creative Problem Solving: Operate in an ambiguous, fast-moving space where the threat landscape evolves daily. Your creativity and adaptability will be your greatest assets as you design solutions for attacks that don't exist yet. High-Stakes Engineering: Balance competing priorities - massive scale, rapid iteration, effective mitigation - while ensuring customer traffic flows safely and reliably. Every decision matters. Key job responsibilities - Lead and grow a team of software engineers building AWS Shield's DDoS detection and mitigation systems - Define technical strategy and roadmap for scalable, real-time threat protection services - Drive architecture decisions for distributed systems operating at massive network scale - Own operational excellence — ensure high availability, low latency, and rapid incident response during active attacks - Partner with product, security, and networking teams to translate customer needs into engineering deliverables - Establish engineering best practices including code quality, testing, CI/CD, and on-call processes - Hire, mentor, and develop engineers across multiple levels; foster a culture of ownership and innovation - Manage sprint planning, prioritization, and delivery against pressing timelines - Analyze DDoS threat landscape and drive proactive improvements to detection algorithms and mitigation capabilities - Communicate technical progress, risks, and trade-offs to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders - Balance long-term platform investments with short-term operational demands - Champion automation to