Software Development Manager, Production and Post Production Technology
Amazon
Description
Amazon MGM Studios is seeking an experienced Software Development Manager III to lead engineering teams building our Studio in the Cloud (SITC) platform. SITC is transforming entertainment content creation by moving all major production and post-production workflows from traditional on-premises infrastructure to AWS cloud-based solutions. This initiative encompasses nine core workflows—Dailies, Editorial, VFX, Sound, Conform, Color, Mastering, QC/Delivery, and Remote Production—representing the complete content creation lifecycle from Original Camera Footage (OCF) ingestion through final delivery.
In this role, you will independently lead a software development team that owns critical components of the SITC platform. You may own engineering for specific workflows (e.g., Dailies ingestion and transcoding infrastructure, Editorial collaboration systems, VFX rendering platform, or QC/Delivery pipelines), architecting and delivering distributed systems that enable creative professionals to collaborate globally using industry-standard tools integrated on AWS. Your team will solve complex technical challenges including high-bandwidth media transfer, low-latency playback for creative review, GPU virtualization for rendering workloads, and real-time collaboration across global productions.
As an SDM III, you will operate independently with minimal guidance, owning your team's structure, software architecture, and strategic technical direction. You will define a 1-2 year technical vision for your domain, make critical architectural decisions that enable SITC to scale to 100+ concurrent productions, and balance feature velocity with operational excellence. You will partner closely with Product Management (PMT) who defines product vision and customer requirements, while you own technical execution, system design, and engineering delivery.
Your team will integrate with leading creative tool providers including Avid, Adobe, Colorfront, and Blackmagic, ensuring their applications perform optimally in cloud environments. You will architect solutions that meet the demanding requirements of creative professionals—directors, editors, colorists, VFX artists—who expect near-instantaneous response times, 4:4:4 10-bit color fidelity, and reliability comparable to local workstations. Your systems will support Amazon MGM Studios' production slate spanning 150+ titles annually across International Originals and Global Originals.
This role requires deep technical expertise in distributed systems, media processing pipelines, high-performance computing, and cloud infrastructure. You must understand the unique constraints of media workflows—large file sizes (terabytes per production), latency-sensitive creative operations, specialized hardware requirements (GPUs for rendering/color), and integration with proprietary vendor systems. Success requires balancing technical excellence with pragmatic delivery, building scalable architectures while meeting production timelines.
Key job responsibilities
Independently lead a software development team (6-12 engineers) that owns critical SITC platform components, managing team structure, software architecture, technical strategy, and delivery execution for workflows such as Dailies infrastructure, Editorial collaboration systems, VFX rendering platform, or Mastering/QC pipelines
Own team-wide and product-wide architectural decisions for your domain including system design, technology choices, API contracts, data models, and integration patterns. Define a 1-2 year technical vision and roadmap that enables SITC to scale from supporting 70+ productions to 150+ concurrent titles
Architect and deliver distributed systems that handle OCF ingestion (terabytes per production), real-time transcoding and processing, low-latency media playback, GPU-accelerated rendering, and global asset distribution across AWS regions. Ensure solutions meet creative quality requirements
Solve complex technical problems including high-bandwidth/low-latency challenges for regions with varying network infrastructure, elastic compute scaling for rendering workloads that must complete on production schedules, multi-region disaster recovery for live productions that cannot tolerate downtime, and integration with vendor systems (Avid, Adobe, Blackmagic) that have specific infrastructure requirements
Partner with Product Management (PMT) to translate customer needs and workflow requirements into technical solutions, providing technical feasibility assessments, effort estimates, and architectural options. Challenge product assumptions when technical constraints require alternative approaches
Lead technical discussions with Principal Engineers and Senior Engineers on system design trade-offs, contribute to architectural reviews across SITC platform, and identify when designs add complexity or impair future innovation. Facilitate technical discussions within your team and in cross-team collaborations
Establish and own operational excellence for your systems including SLAs (uptime, latency, throughput), monitoring and alerting, incident response, capacity planning, and cost optimization. Productions cannot tolerate downtime during active shoots
Contribute to OP1/OP2 planning for Studios Tech organization, influencing engineering roadmaps and resource allocation. Work with peer SDMs and product leadership to align on cross-team dependencies, shared infrastructure, and technical standards
Build and develop your engineering team through effective hiring, performance management, career development, and creating sustainable work/life harmony. Delegate oversight of components, processes, and operations to grow future technical leaders. May manage 1-2 other managers (SDM IIs) or senior ICs leading critical technical areas
Communicate technical vision, system architecture, and delivery status to engineering stakeholders, product leadership, and Studios executives. Write technical narratives, architecture documents, and contribute to PR/FAQs that explain how technical solutions enable customer outcomes