Now we’re here

I am being promoted to Senior Software Engineer (SDE III) at Amazon in the company-wide Privacy organization. Going from SDE I to SDE III over the past five years has been a journey, and I want to take a moment to share my experience.

I joined Amazon as an SDE I in 2020, five and a half years ago. I applied in the early months of the pandemic. When I was just beginning to realize the impact it would have on our lives, I thought, “I don’t want to go back to doing the same things that I was doing before the pandemic when it’s over.”

I interviewed for an SDE II role, and afterwards the recruiter told me that the hiring team wanted to go in a different direction. However, some people fought hard for me in the room, and they wanted to offer me an SDE I role inside a different org.

Initially, it bruised my ego to get down cycled, but that feeling evaporated after my first week on the job. I was placed on a team in PXT with several seasoned SDE II members, and they were the most inspirational and talented people I had ever worked with. The brief period we worked together before they individually moved on, some going on to build entire new teams in the org, had a profound impact on me.

During my first year at Amazon, I found my flow. I adapted incredibly well to the hands-on, frontline problem-solving culture here. My first manager was a major influence in shaping the way I worked. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could reach that SDE II mark that I originally aimed for, and in less than two years I did, which was incredibly validating for me. I continued forward in my new role and launched some products I still feel proud of like the Amazon Alumni program.

A lot of other things happened in my life during this time. I moved from Seattle to Austin, I bought my first house, the pandemic finally waned, and I started spending a lot more time in the office. I was comfortable in my role in PXT, but I wanted to find an org with a bigger presence in Austin so I could spend more time in office collaborating instead of video conferencing. I also wanted the chance to work directly on our most well known and used product, Amazon.com. This lead me to joining the Privacy team.

Working in Privacy is fun and challenging in a good way. We support Amazon.com, but we also work directly with PrimeVideo, Alexa, Amazon Music, Fire TV, Audible, IMDb, and more on a growing list. Early on, I accomplished my goal of contributing to the foundational service that fronts every single shopping request, (thank you for accepting my cookies). I learned a lot along the way and once again found myself working with great people everyday.

After launching several new and improved privacy and consent experiences, I was recognized as a leader in my space. I was spending more time thinking about strategies to deliver faster, finding more effective patterns to build in Amazon’s peculiar architecture, and mentoring other engineers. When promo conversations began coming up, I pushed back at first because I was too busy shipping, and it took a little while for me come around to the idea.

One reason I didn’t focus on promotion earlier was because I kept thinking about the people that I had worked with on my first team who reached SDE III, and they still looked like giants to me. I have immense respect for them and the role. Knowing that the people I worked with could have that confidence in me is empowering. I’m thankful to have a manager and other senior engineers to help me continue to grow in my new role.

Looking down the road, I’m eager to create the new projects we have planned and can’t wait to show them to you. I’m excited to see how AI innovations change the ways we work and interact with information. I enjoyed a lot of success in my career, but sometimes I still wonder if I hadn’t met a few key people along the way, at Amazon and before Amazon, leaders I could look up to and peers I could lean on, would I even be here? I carry these interactions and lessons with me in everything I do.