Software Development Manager, Leo Flight Software Team

We are looking for an Embedded Software Development Manager to lead the team building and scaling VirtSat — Leo's virtual satellite simulation platform. KSS enables developers and pipelines across Leo to create, provision, and test virtual satellites, ground gateways, customer terminals, and TT&C antennas on EC2 bare-metal infrastructure running KVM/QEMU. You will own the Graviton virtualization layer and lead the team responsible for VM lifecycle, LRU boot, subsystem provisioning, and software deployment for every virtual entity in the constellation. You'll work at the intersection of cloud infrastructure, embedded Linux, and satellite operations — leading the team that builds the platform every Leo satellite software release is tested on before launch.

Key job responsibilities
* Lead a team of embedded engineers building and operating the Graviton bare-metal virtualization layer (KVM/QEMU VM management, subsystem provisioning, health monitoring, and fault recovery)
* Partner with 10+ client teams across satellite, ground, networking, and security organizations to drive VirtSat adoption
* Drive platform reliability to 99.96% availability with optimized latency (target: <5 min VirtSat spin-up)
* Own the custom AMI pipeline, provisioning scripts, and plugin framework that deploy satellite software onto emulated LRUs
* Scale the platform to 4K+ concurrent virtual entities
Hire, develop, and retain top embedded engineering talent
* Define technical roadmap for fidelity improvements (HSM crypto emulation, EFUSE emulation, CAN bus simulation, error injection frameworks)
* Reduce HITL dependency by expanding the scope of tests that run on VirtSat

Export Control Requirement:
Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Basic Qualifications

- 5+ years of people management, managing engineers experience
- Experience with embedded systems, Linux systems programming, or virtualization (KVM/QEMU)
- Experience building and operating distributed systems at scale (AWS services — EC2, ECS, Step Functions, DynamoDB)
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code (CDK, CloudFormation)
- Track record of hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineering teams
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience managing teams that own both service infrastructure and embedded/guest-OS layers
- Experience with ARM64/Graviton bare-metal instances
- Experience with QEMU device emulation or custom QEMU plugins
- Experience with network virtualization (WireGuard, Transit Gateway, IPAM)
- Familiarity with satellite systems, HITL test environments, or simulation platforms
- Experience with embedded Linux (Yocto, systemd, device trees, boot processes)
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing (Hydra, Spock), and developer tooling
- Experience with Rust for systems programming
- Experience with certificate provisioning, secure boot, or HSM interfaces

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, WA, Redmond - 184,900.00 - 250,200.00 USD annually