Amazon Software Development Engineer (SDE) I reviews

3.6

59% would recommend to a friend

(3,136 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

48% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineer SDE I employees have rated Amazon with 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,136 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineer SDE I professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineer SDE I professionals compared to other employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
May 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Massive scale — you work on problems most companies will never see, and the resume signal is real. - Strong internal mobility; transfers between teams and orgs are common once you're in. - Compensation is competitive at senior levels, with meaningful RSU refreshers if you perform. - Ownership culture means you get autonomy early — no one is holding your hand, for better or worse.

Cons

- On-call and operational load is heavy; work-life balance depends entirely on your team and manager. - Frugality principle shows up in tooling, travel, and perks — expect less polish than peer FAANGs. - Stack-ranking and PIP culture (URA/Focus) creates real anxiety, especially in years 2–3 when RSUs cliff. - Bureaucracy and doc-writing overhead (6-pagers, narratives) can slow execution to a crawl.

Viewing 13 - 15 of 3,136 Reviews

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