Amazon Software Development Engineer II reviews

3.5

58% would recommend to a friend

(953 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

19% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineer II employees have rated Amazon with 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 953 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineer II professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineer II professionals compared to other employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

953 reviews
2.0
Jul 14, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Opportunities are vast and easy to come by, and Amazon's resources allow decent amounts of experimentation. Internal transfers between teams is easy and supported. Promotions are relatively easy and are very self guided.

Cons

Getting projects required for promotions is up to luck, capacity, and how much management likes you. RTO mandates have NO flexibility causing discrimination against disabled employees CEO has repeatedly ignored employee feedback and has instead publicly announced things that employees do not want. Pay increases are never over 2% unless you are promoted.

2.0
Jul 8, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- agile, fast-paced development - smart, supportive teammates - you will learn a lot very quickly - lots of stock, but base pay is on the lower end for a FAANG company

Cons

- company prioritizes fast deliverables over quality - terrible work-life balance, it was very normal to work 12-15 hour days to keep up with the heavy workload. I didn't meet a single engineer there who hadn't burned out at some point - unclear longterm goals and lots of pivoting, especially after pivoting to AI - stack ranking system is unfair, not data-driven, and forces cutthroat competition between teammates because management has to meet a quota of employees to PIP every year

3.0
Jul 2, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pays well in general, although lower on FAANG totem pole. Ability to freely work with AWS ecosystem and lots of opportunities to move around. Working with some truly excellent engineers. Great name recognition.

Cons

Stack ranking is used, can lead to toxic environments and managers. The overhead of development can be especially burdensome, with round after round of product meetings, design reviews, code reviews, as well as scrum ceremonies. Work life balance can be difficult as well.

Viewing 49 - 51 of 953 Reviews

Glassdoor has 250,403 Amazon reviews submitted anonymously by Amazon employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Amazon is right for you.