Software Development Manager, Life Sciences Applied AI

As part of the AWS Applied AI Solutions organization, we have a vision to provide business applications, leveraging Amazon’s unique experience and expertise, that are used by millions of companies worldwide to manage day-to-day operations. We will accomplish this by accelerating our customers’ businesses through delivery of intuitive and differentiated technology solutions that solve enduring business challenges. We blend vision with curiosity and Amazon’s real-world experience to build opinionated, turnkey solutions. Where customers prefer to buy over build, we become their trusted partner with solutions that are no-brainers to buy and easy to use.


Every year, clinical trials take 7+ years and cost $1B+ to bring a single drug to market. We're changing that.

AWS Life Sciences is building a first-of-its-kind AI agent application that orchestrates a fleet of AI agents to reimagine the entire clinical trial lifecycle. This isn't incremental improvement. This is a paradigm shift.

We're looking for a Software Development Manager who wants to build something that has never existed before — and save lives doing it.

What Makes This Role Different:
- Ground floor, massive impact. You won't inherit a legacy system. You'll define the architecture, the culture, and the product from Day 1.
- AI agents, not just AI features. We're building autonomous AI teammates that work alongside clinical teams to accelerate every phase of the trial process.
- Real customers, real urgency. You'll work directly with pharmaceutical and biotech companies running active trials. The feedback loop is fast, the stakes are high, and the impact is tangible.
- Startup energy, Amazon scale. Move fast with a small, elite team — backed by the full power of AWS infrastructure and AI services.

What You'll Own:
- Technical vision & architecture — Design and evolve the AI agent orchestration layer that powers the platform's core capabilities
- Team building — Recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing engineering team of builders who thrive on ambiguity
- Customer obsession — Partner directly with beta customers, product managers, and UX designers to translate clinical trial pain points into elegant, agent-driven solutions
- Regulatory rigor — Ensure AI explainability, auditability, and compliance with FDA and ICH-GCP standards — because in healthcare, trust is non-negotiable
- Operational excellence — Own the end-to-end delivery of production-grade AI agents deployed into customer AWS environments

You're the Right Fit If You...:
- Have a proven track record of shipping innovative software products from 0→1
- Bring deep technical leadership — you can whiteboard an agent architecture and review a pull request in the same afternoon
- Have built and scaled high-performing engineering teams that punch above their weight
- Thrive in ambiguity and speed — you see a startup-like environment as a feature, not a bug
- Are passionate about AI and believe agents will fundamentally reshape how industries operate
- Lead with customer obsession — you start with the customer problem and work backwards
- Bonus: Experience in life sciences, healthcare, or regulated industries

Why Now?
AI agents are redefining what's possible in clinical trials. The window to lead this transformation is open — and we need a builder who's ready to walk through it.

Join us. Build AI agents that accelerate cures. Change an industry.

About the team
ABOUT AWS:

Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Mentorship and Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Basic qualifications

- 3+ years of engineering team management experience
- 7+ years of working directly within engineering teams experience
- 3+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- 8+ years of leading the definition and development of multi tier web services experience
- Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations
- Experience partnering with product or program management teams

Preferred qualifications

- Experience in communicating with users, other technical teams, and senior leadership to collect requirements, describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy
- Experience in recruiting, hiring, mentoring/coaching and managing teams of Software Engineers to improve their skills, and make them more effective, product software engineers
- AI/ML systems experience — hands-on experience building or leading teams that deliver AI agent architectures, LLM-powered applications, or multi-agent orchestration systems
- Life Sciences or Healthcare domain experience — familiarity with clinical trial workflows, regulatory frameworks (FDA, EMA, ICH-GCP), or experience working with pharma, biotech, or CRO customers

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, Seattle - 184,900.00 - 250,200.00 USD annually