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      Amazon

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      Amazon Principal Systems Development Engineer reviews

      2.7

      44% would recommend to a friend

      (79 total reviews)
      avatar

      Andrew Jassy

      38% approve of CEO

      65% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.8

      Career opportunities

      3.7

      Compensation and benefits

      3.4

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.2

      Culture & values

      2.5

      Senior management

      2.0

      Work/Life balance

      Principal Systems Development Engineer employees have rated Amazon with 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 79 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Principal Systems Development Engineer professionals have an average working experience there. Amazon is rated 30% below average by Principal Systems Development Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      79 reviews
      5.0
      Jun 22, 2017

      Lots of interesting problems and opportunities

      Principal engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      My perspective is as a pretty senior developer: Good compensation - note that glassdoor only shows salary by default while at higher levels at Amazon you can get the majority of your pay from stock. If you show ownership you can take on a lot and go far quickly. Behaves like a mix of a lot of semi-coordinated startups rather than a single company. It's so giant and does so many things that you can always find something interesting to work on. It's doing really amazing work in a lot of fields and I've got a lot of confidence in the company being successful. The senior technical management is pretty impressive - a lot of the tech VP's are super technical, which is pretty valuable.

      Cons

      There's less centralized management and fewer standard ways of doing things. This can lead to some duplication of work and lack of clarity on how to proceed. But it also results in more innovation. Culture varies a lot here - some of the old school teams are more aggressive than I like. So I've stayed out of them, which has been easy.

      5.0
      Nov 27, 2016

      Good place to get things done and learn

      Principal
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Awesome datasets, lot of smart people around you, career opportunities (inside and outside), learning opportunities, impactful work. If you are a builder and have the right "it can be done" attitude, you can do great at amazon.

      Cons

      You need to show independence from the start in getting things done, you won't get much help from others. Doing only what you are asked to do will not enable you to get promotions, good stock grants etc... There is a max cash compensation at 160k. At higher levels most of the compensation is in the form of stocks if you do well. Benefits could be better.

      Viewing 73 - 75 of 79 Reviews
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      Glassdoor has 251,317 Amazon reviews submitted anonymously by Amazon employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Amazon is right for you.