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2 Amazon Support
3 Engineer (SupEng)
4 Role Guideline
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6

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15 Guideline Last Updated: April 2025
16 Contains expectations for: Individual Contributors only. Managers use the Tech Mgr Role
17 Guideline.
18 Guideline Notes: For questions about the SupEng Role Guideline, contact supeng-level-
19 [email protected]. For guidance on updating role guidelines to include Accessibility,
20 review resources in Ivy. You can also review Engineering Excellence’s Accessibility Learning Hub.

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21 Table of Contents
22 Terminoogy.............................................................................................................4
23 SupEng Role Levels.................................................................................................5
24 SupEng 1_____________________________________________________________________________________5
25 SupEng 2_____________________________________________________________________________________7
26 SupEng 3_____________________________________________________________________________________9
27 SupEng 4___________________________________________________________________________________11
28 SupEng 5___________________________________________________________________________________13
29 Principal SupEng___________________________________________________________________________15
30 Appendices...........................................................................................................17
31 Appendix A: SupEng Level Matrix________________________________________________________17
32 Appendix B: Functional Dimension Definitions__________________________________________20
33 Appendix C: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)_________________________________________20
34

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35 Introduction to the Amazon Support Engineer Role
36 Guideline
37 This guideline contains general expectations for the Support Engineer (SupEng) role. No two
38 teams at Amazon are identical, so the specific technologies Support Engineers use differs across
39 the company. This document is technology agnostic, and captures the shared expectations of the
40 role across all teams.
41 This guideline is divided into six SupEng Role Levels (Not equivalent to Amazon job level -
42 SupEng 1, SupEng 2, SupEng 3, SupEng 4, SupEng 5, and Principal SupEng) which reflect growth
43 along multiple dimensions. Our level structure is designed to reflect the development stages of
44 employees as they begin their career, gain experience, grow their skills, and take on more
45 challenging projects. An employee’s level is acknowledgment that they demonstrate the skills
46 outlined in both their current and any previous levels. Each of these five levels has its own
47 section in this document, each are divided into two subsections:
48  What you do: This section explains the day-to-day expectations of someone successfully
49 operating at that level and guides hiring strategies, coaching, and career growth
50 discussions. It can be used by SupEngs, managers, mentors, recruiters, and bar raisers to
51 understand what it takes to successfully operate at each level.
52  Moving to the next level: This section describes behaviors required to be consistently
53 demonstrated for promotion. It can be used by SupEngs who are trying to understand
54 what it takes to get to the next level as well as managers to assess readiness to promote
55 to the next level. This is not a checklist. Every promotion case is unique; the results
56 delivered (and how they are delivered) play a role in promotion evaluations.
57 Appendix A: “SupEng Level Matrix” has a high-level view for quick comparisons between levels,
58 but is not a substitute for the full material.
59 This guideline lists behaviors in a bulleted form while aligning with the standard functional
60 dimensions: Scope & Influence, Ambiguity, Problem Complexity, Execution, and Impact. The
61 behaviors detailed are the basis for all leveling discussions in performance reviews, promotion
62 discussions, and debriefs. For example, when evaluating if an engineer is exhibiting L4 or L5
63 "Customer Obsession," you would assess relevant anecdotes associated with these behaviors.
64 Prior to the five SupEng levels and their subsections is a Terminology section that defines key
65 words used throughout the rest of the role guideline. Finally, this guideline concludes with a set
66 of Appendices which include the SupEng Leveling Matrix Table, Functional Dimensions
67 Definitions, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
68 As a reminder, an employee’s level is acknowledgment that they demonstrate the skills outlined
69 in both their current and any previous levels. When looking towards the next level be sure to
70 review all level expectations, up to and including that level.
71 For questions regarding career growth and promotions at Amazon, please visit Ivy Help &
72 Resources.
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 74 Terminology
75 The following terms are used throughout this guideline and have specific meanings, included
76 below.
77  System: the product of the interactions of a connected set of two or more components,
78 products, features, architectures and/or processes. Some systems contain other systems,
79 referred to as subsystems. In the context of this document, the term is used as an agnostic
80 catch all to avoid software or technology specific terminology and remain inclusive to all
81 teams working with different technology types.
82  Product: any good or service that is used by customers. Customers can be external or
83 internal to the company.
84  Project: a point-in-time endeavor with an end date, undertaken to create a unique product,
85 service or result.
86  Program: an ongoing (generally multi-year) endeavor to improve customer
87 experience/outcomes. Generally, a program impacts multiple products through multiple
88 projects.
89  Team: works together on a daily basis to deliver features to customers. Teams generally
90 report to the same manager. In some cases, more than one team may report to the same
91 manager.
92  Organization (Org): a group of teams that together provide one or more related products or
93 business functions. Organizations vary in size and leadership anywhere from a Sr. Manager to
94 VP.
95  Tactical: actions to achieve specific goals, implemented as one or more specific tasks or
96 projects. Includes setting priorities and measuring success based upon known current goals
97 and roadblocks and making short-term trade-offs.
98  Strategic: focus on the long-term impact of decisions and anticipating future needs. Includes
99 using judgment and collecting the data to make trade-offs between short-term
100 needs/constraints and long-term customer impact.
101  Mechanism: a closed-loop “virtuous cycle” that reinforces and improves itself as it operates.
102 It includes building a tool/process, driving adoption and inspecting results in order to make
103 course corrections. See also Jeff Bezos’s talk on mechanisms.
104  Force multipliers: actions or behaviors that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of a
105 group, giving the group the ability to accomplish greater things. Force multipliers often utilize
106 mechanisms, templates, processes, and communication frameworks.
107  Operational Excellence (OE): the ability of a team to operate their systems in ways that
108 maximize customer value (e.g., highly available, performant, bug-free) while minimizing
109 engineer effort (e.g., via automation, standardized processes).
110  High-Quality: work that contains few defects and is a good example to others.
111  Cost: the financial cost of a technology solution as well as its overall efficiency and frugality.
112 Cost may come in terms of dollars, time/effort, total cost of ownership or opportunity cost.
113  Straightforward: problems where what to accomplish is clear and how to accomplish the
114 outcome has few known risks or blockers.
115  Difficult: problems where finding the solution requires a lot of effort or critical thinking. A
116 difficult problem typically has known risks or roadblocks.
117  Complex: problems that are made up of a lot of pieces. A complex problem typically has
118 multiple dimensions that require expertise, judgment and/or ability to drive consensus.
119  Significantly Complex: problems where constraints conflict with each other. Achieving
120 consensus amongst leaders and stakeholders is challenging, and the trade-offs have long-
121 term impact. Significantly complex problems require expertise to see around corners, make
122 the right trade-offs and design solutions which avoid the unnecessary.
123  Workflow: a sequence of administrative, technology or set of processes through which a
124 piece of work passes from initiation to completion.

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125 Support Engineer Role Levels
126 SupEng 1 (L3, non-exempt)
127 What you do as a SupEng 1
128 SupEng 1s who consistently demonstrate the following capabilities are exceeding in their role.
129 Scope and Influence
130  You work on support projects that require a limited scope or are well documented.
131  You interface with other teams to resolve tickets and complete projects.

132 Ambiguity
133  You handle issues that are well-defined, with clear documentation to follow.
134 Problem Complexity
135  You have working knowledge of the tools used by your team and are able to drive issue
136 resolution with these resources.
137 Execution
138  You manage trouble tickets to resolution or escalation using existing documentation,
139 procedures, and tools.
140  You provide data and communication in tickets detailing your investigation actions and
141 next steps.
142  You communicate in a professional and concise manner in all of your interactions and
143 escalate when appropriate.
144  Your work is accurate and thorough and you strive towards excellence.
145 Impact
146  Your work impacts team metrics related to issue handling and resolution.
147
148 Moving from SupEng 1 to SupEng 2
149 SupEng 1s looking to move to a SupEng 2 role are most likely to be successful if they
150 consistently demonstrate the following capabilities. These criteria are not a checklist. Every
151 promotion case is unique; the results you deliver (and how they are delivered) also play a role in
152 promotion evaluations.
153 Scope and Influence
154  You may contribute to internal team project goals and timelines.
155  You have working knowledge of your team’s tenets and goals and can work cross
156 functionally to solve problems. You achieve this by establishing good working relationships
157 with relevant personnel.
158  You have general knowledge across all processes, products, and systems within the
159 support scope of your team or workflow and are developing or may have developed
160 expertise in one or more focused areas that are straightforward in complexity.
161 Ambiguity
162  You troubleshoot documented issues and have demonstrated the ability to deep dive with
163 limited or no documentation.

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164 Problem Complexity
165  You have a solid understanding of the technologies needed to support the processes,
166 products and systems within your scope.
167  You learn and utilize new technologies or products within the scope of your team.

168 Execution
169  You work backwards from the customer experience, navigating difficult interactions,
170 maintaining composure and leading constructive dialogue through issue resolution or
171 escalation when appropriate.
172  You contribute to support documentation and may identify areas of improvement.
173 Impact
174  You understand Amazon monitoring best practices and apply them to identify
175 improvements to support processes and monitoring mechanisms.
176  You identify improvements to support documentation to improve operational efficiencies.
177

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178 SupEng 2 (L4, non-exempt)
179 What you do as a SupEng 2
180 SupEng 2s who consistently demonstrate the following capabilities, in addition to the capabilities
181 of a SupEng 1 are exceeding in their role.
182 Scope and Influence
183  You begin to mentor junior members of the team.
184  You may lead internal team projects and deliver on defined goals and timelines.
185 Ambiguity
186  You are active in operational support for your team, and ensure that the root causes of
187 operational issues are identified and resolved.

188 Problem Complexity

189  You use tactical processes to solve straightforward problems.
190 Execution
191  You drive resolution efforts and provide clear direction and updates to users, customers,
192 and other team members.
193  You maintain products and systems within the scope of your team or workflow and
194 perform change management activities using existing documentation or with support from
195 peers.
196 Impact
197  You identify improvements to existing support processes and may contribute to support
198 documentation updates and creation.
199 Moving from SupEng 2 to SupEng 3
200 SupEng 2s looking to move to a SupEng 3 role are most likely to be successful if they
201 consistently demonstrate the following capabilities. These criteria are not a checklist. Every
202 promotion case is unique; the results you deliver (and how they are delivered) also play a role in
203 promotion evaluations.
204 Scope and Influence
205  You are active in discussions related to your team’s work and provide inputs to operational
206 policies and procedures used by your team.
207  You begin to operate as a mentor to junior members of the team and may be assigned as
208 a training buddy for new hires.
209 Ambiguity
210  You have knowledge of work done by other teams in your department and work cross
211 functionally to solve problems.
212 Problem Complexity
213  You independently lead constructive dialogue on straightforward issues and only escalate
214 when necessary.
215  You are developing subject matter expertise in one or more areas within your team or
216 workflow.
217 Execution

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218  You detect ongoing trends or problems before they occur and define proactive actions.
219  You support critical issues for the products and systems within the scope of your team
220 using existing documentation.
221 Impact
222  You author new content in your area of technical expertise.
223  You identify improvements to existing and new support tools that would improve
224 operational efficiencies.

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225 SupEng 3 (L4, exempt)
226 What you do as a SupEng 3
227 SupEng 3s who consistently demonstrate the following capabilities, in addition to the capabilities
228 of all prior levels are exceeding in their role.
229 Scope and Influence
230  You participate fully and constructively in the planning of your team’s work and help
231 develop and refine operational policies and procedures used by your team.
232  You serve as a mentor to junior members of the team and may operate as a training
233 buddy or assist in hiring activities.
234  You begin to play a leadership role on your team by becoming a subject matter expert on
235 one or more focus areas and are the technical point of contact within your team or
236 workflow for this area.
237  You lead internal team projects and deliver on defined goals and timelines.
238 Ambiguity
239  You maintain good working relationships with relevant personnel across Amazon, have
240 knowledge of work done by other teams in your department and work cross functionally to
241 solve problems and improve processes.
242 Problem Complexity
243  You have developed expertise in multiple focus areas or within a single area of strategic
244 importance.
245  You are able to resolve straightforward problems with limited documentation and with
246 minimal escalation.

247 Execution
248  You confidently and competently impart knowledge to users, customers, and other team
249 members.
250  You lead constructive dialogue on straightforward issues and only escalate when
251 necessary while maintaining composure through difficult interactions until issue resolution.
252  You maintain products and systems within the scope of your team or workflow and
253 perform change management activities using existing documentation or with support from
254 peers.
255  You give technical direction to others, identify areas of improvement to support
256 documentation and processes, and create new documentation where gaps exist.
257 Impact
258  You identify improvements to existing and new support tools that would improve
259 operational efficiencies and drive implementation or creation.
260 Moving from SupEng 3 to SupEng 4
261 SupEng 3s looking to move to a SupEng 4 role are most likely to be successful if they
262 consistently demonstrate the following capabilities. These criteria are not a checklist. Every
263 promotion case is unique; the results you deliver (and how they are delivered) also play a role in
264 promotion evaluations.
265 Scope and Influence
266  You possess knowledge of Amazon’s businesses relevant to your team and mentor others.

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267  You influence the growth and development of your team by assisting in onboarding and
268 mentoring.
269  You partner across teams within projects or programs that are tactical or strategic in
270 nature. You influence issue prioritization, best practices, or design decisions.
271  You influence issue prioritization and best practices.
272 Ambiguity
273  You are skilled at deconstructing difficult problems into simple, straight-forward, and
274 actionable solutions.
275  You are active in operational support for your team, and ensure that the root causes of
276 operational issues are identified and resolved.
277  You don’t settle for the status quo and routinely identify and execute on opportunities to
278 improve your team’s operations.
279 Problem Complexity
280  You have developed expertise in multiple focus areas or within a single area of strategic
281 importance.
282  You lead and execute operational best practices and give technical directions to others.
283 Execution
284  You author and are a lead reviewer for content in your area of technical expertise.
285  You detect ongoing trends or problems before they occur and define proactive
286 mechanisms.
287  You begin leading support retrospectives and may contribute to COEs.
288 Impact
289  You are able to identify and drive improvements to product or system performance and
290 availability by deep diving metrics and monitors.
291  You may begin to influence design decisions.
292

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293 SupEng 4 (L5)
294 What you do as a SupEng 4
295 SupEng 4s who consistently demonstrate the following capabilities, in addition to the capabilities
296 of all prior levels are exceeding in their role.
297 Scope and Influence
298  You understand the business impact of support decisions and mentor others on the
299 Amazon businesses relevant to your team.
300  You take a role in the strategic direction of the team and influence the growth and
301 development by assisting in onboarding, mentoring, or hiring.
302 Ambiguity
303  You have a proven ability to identify and execute on opportunities to improve your team’s
304 operations.
305  You are skilled at deconstructing difficult problems into simple, straight-forward and
306 actionable solutions.
307 Problem Complexity
308  You are a technical leader within your team and set the standard for other support
309 engineers.
310  You lead and execute operational best practices and give technical direction to others.
311  You have general knowledge across all processes, products, and systems within the
312 support scope of your team.
313  You have developed expertise in multiple focus areas or within a single area of strategic
314 importance.
315  You are the technical point of contact within your area of expertise for engineers within
316 your team as well as stakeholders in partner groups from the larger organization.
317 Execution
318  You are active in operational support for your team, and ensure that the root causes of
319 operational issues are identified and resolved.
320  You use data to identify and drive development of new support mechanisms, processes,
321 and tools within the scope of your team.
322  You lead support retrospectives and contribute to COEs.
323  You partner across teams within projects or programs that are tactical or strategic in
324 nature and partner with management to delegate tasks and sub-projects to other Support
325 Engineers.
326  You author and are a lead reviewer for content in your area of technical expertise.
327 Impact
328  You detect ongoing trends or problems before they occur and define proactive
329 mechanisms.
330  Your work improves team efficiency and drives delivery against team goals.
331 Moving from SupEng 4 to SupEng 5
332 SupEng 4s looking to move to a SupEng 5 role are most likely to be successful if they
333 consistently demonstrate the following capabilities. These criteria are not a checklist. Every
334 promotion case is unique; the results you deliver (and how they are delivered) also play a role in
335 promotion evaluations.

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336 Scope and Influence
337  You emerge as a technical leader in your organization and set the standards for other
338 support engineers.
339  You influence your organization’s technical and business strategy by making insightful
340 contributions and driving technical priorities.
341  You partner with leaders to help them make data-driven decisions which result in
342 measurable outcomes for your team or organization.
343  You play a significant role in the growth and development of your team by onboarding,
344 mentoring, or hiring new employees. You partner with managers to guide the career
345 growth of their team members and may operate as a team lead.
346  You lead and drive projects or programs that are tactical or strategic in nature.
347  You partner across teams in your organization to drive projects to completion.
348 Ambiguity
349  You are skilled at deconstructing complex problems into simple, straight-forward, and
350 actionable solutions.
351  You work backward from customer experience and handle complex issues which may
352 require multi-team engagement to get issue fixed.
353  You know how to break down problems into sub problems that can be worked in parallel
354 by other SupEngs.
355 Problem Complexity
356  You have a breadth of knowledge of the technologies, systems, and engineering best
357 practices related to the support scope of your team. You use them to solve ambiguous
358 problems in your team.
359  You troubleshoot and resolve complex technical problems by harmonizing discordant
360 views and leading the resolution of contentious issues.
361 Execution
362  You lead support retrospectives, drive resulting process or system improvements, and
363 may contribute to or write COEs to ensure long term resolution.
364  You communicate your ideas effectively to all leaders to achieve the right outcome for
365 your team or organization. You seek diverse perspectives, listen to feedback, and are
366 willing to change direction if it creates a better outcome.
367 Impact
368  Your work efficiently and routinely delivers valuable customer outcomes.
369  You proactively identify opportunities to improve OE in your organization by identifying
370 patterns and collaborating with other teams.
371  You emphasize leveraging existing solutions or improve them before building new.
372  You build mechanisms and repeatable solutions to start force multiplying.
373

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374 SupEng 5 (L6)
375 What you do as a SupEng 5
376 SupEng 5s who consistently demonstrate the following capabilities, in addition to the capabilities
377 of all prior levels are exceeding in their role.
378 Scope and Influence
379  You are a technical lead for your team or organization and you are regarded as a support
380 leader by peers across the company.
381  You lead or participate in organization-wide user groups to exchange support information,
382 procedures, and best practices.
383  You scale your technical expertise and lead large initiatives, projects, or programs to build
384 repeatable solutions that require cross functional alignment within your organization.
385  You play a significant role in the growth and development of your team by onboarding,
386 mentoring, and hiring new team members. You partner with managers to guide the career
387 growth of their team members and may operate as a people leader.
388 Ambiguity
389  You deconstruct complex problems into simple, straight-forward, and actionable solutions
390 that can be worked in parallel by multiple Support Engineers.
391  You own problems where the support strategy may not be defined.
392  You deliver independently with limited guidance.
393 Problem Complexity
394  You are an expert in system design and contribute to design reviews for the organization,
395 including new products.
396  You have a solid understanding of the business strategy as it relates to the processes and
397 systems within your support organization.
398 Execution
399  You manage organization-wide outages, ensuring accurate documentation and timely
400 resolution.
401  Your approach to technical solutions and implementation sets the standards for OE and
402 engineering best practices.
403  You proactively identify opportunities for improvement in your organization through gap
404 analysis, trend identification, and cross-functional collaboration.
405  You lead support retrospectives, author COEs, and drive resulting actions to ensure long
406 term resolution.
407 Impact
408  You are involved in major technical decisions in the organization and work with
409 development teams to help increase system supportability, scalability, and performance.
410  You influence leaders to determine the right goals and make informed decisions which
411 result in measurable outcomes for your team or organization.
412  You build mechanisms and repeatable solutions to start force multiplying and developing
413 leaders across your organization.
414

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415 Moving from SupEng 5 to Principal SupEng
416 SupEng 5s looking to move to a Principal SupEng role are most likely to be successful if they
417 consistently demonstrate the following capabilities. These criteria are not a checklist. Every
418 promotion case is unique; the results you deliver (and how they are delivered) also play a role in
419 promotion evaluations.
420 Scope and Influence
421  You manage strategic technical projects providing status updates to organization leaders
422 while coordinating support and engineering efforts towards issue resolution/project
423 milestone completion.
424  You are an expert with significant depth in a single technology domain or breadth of
425 expertise in multiple domains. You apply this technical knowledge to invent, evolve,
426 improve, simplify, etc.
427  Your contributions are noteworthy and recognized both inside and outside of your
428 organization (e.g., improves support engineer productivity/efficiency, scales existing
429 mechanisms and solutions for global adoption through cross functional partnerships,
430 simplifies/improves service quality, and/or reduces bottlenecks across your organization).
431  Your deliverables set the standard in your organization for OE.
432  You participate in the hiring/interview process (where possible) and help managers guide
433 the career growth of their team members by mentoring and performing promotion
434 assessments.
435  You actively educate and advise the larger technical community. You are a steward for
436 your role on technology trends and operational best practices.
437 Ambiguity
438  You operate independently, showing high judgment in decisions that have technical and
439 business implications.
440  You identify and tackle intrinsically challenging problems (e.g., architectural complexity,
441 persistent defects, critical business risks, undefined opportunities). The problems you help
442 solve for your customers, internal owners, and organization are highly complex and
443 ambiguous; your solutions are as simple as possible.
444 Problem Complexity
445  You solve and help others solve significantly large, complex, and/or strategically important
446 issues with lasting impact across your organization or multiple organizations.
447 Execution
448  You are a pragmatic problem solver, applying judgment and extensive engineering
449 experience to balance trade-offs between competing interests.
450  You are flexible, adapting your approach and advise solutions that meet the style and
451 business needs of the customer, team, project, and service.
452 Impact
453  You are able to represent clearly, both verbally and in writing, significantly complex
454 decisions, trade-offs, and potential solutions to technical leaders of any level that impact
455 strategic product/service decisions and organizational planning.
456  You are adept at building consensus. You influence product roadmaps, improve system
457 delivery, and align cross-functional teams towards coherent strategies. You bring clarity
458 and simplicity to complexity, probe assumptions, illuminate pitfalls, and foster shared
459 understanding.

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460

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461 Principal SupEng (L7)
462 What you do as a Principal SupEng
463 Principal SupEngs who consistently demonstrate the following capabilities, in addition to the
464 capabilities of all prior levels are exceeding in their role.
465 Scope and Influence
466  You are a trusted part of the technical leadership of an organization. As a key influencer in
467 planning strategy, you bring context to technology and business decisions.
468  You are an expert with significant depth in a single technology domain or breadth of
469 expertise in multiple domains, inclusive of domains outside your immediate technical
470 organization. You apply this technical knowledge to invent, evolve, improve, simplify, etc.
471  Your deliverables set the standard for OE in your organization.
472  You influence service owners to prevent future problems and risks.
473  You educate, keeping your broader organization up to date on advanced technical issues,
474 technologies, and trends. You present at internal conferences and Principal Engineer
475 community events, or find alternative approaches to share your knowledge with a broad
476 audience.
477  You help grow the Principal Engineering community (e.g., through candidate
478 informationals, interviews, and promotion assessments).
479  You are a steward for your role on technology trends and operational best practices.
480 Ambiguity
481  You identify and own intrinsically hard problems, but your solutions are as simple as
482 possible.
483  You are able to solve significantly complex problems where solutions are not readily
484 available.
485  You operate independently and often focus on areas where the business and/or
486 architectural strategy has not yet been defined.
487  The exact role you play may change based on organization or customer need.
488 Problem Complexity
489  You solve and help others solve large, significantly complex, and/or strategically important
490 challenges.
491 Execution
492  Your escalation management practices are exemplary. You anticipate issues and manage
493 critical incidents bringing strong, data-driven business and technical judgment.
494  You amplify your impact by participating in design reviews for new systems and products.
495  You may spend most of your time broadly influencing multiple teams while occasionally
496 taking a deep dive to illuminate and clarify a significantly complex problem area local to
497 one team. However you apply your expertise, you drive appropriate simplicity and
498 demonstrate significant creativity, especially in circumstances with high ambiguity.
499  You split your time based on where your skills will have the greatest impact. For example,
500 your technical fearlessness may be broadly applied – spread across many teams –
501 involved in influencing the technical strategy, new system support, adoption of new
502 automation and definition of solutions that maintain harmony between operational and
503 engineering excellence.
504

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505 Impact
506  You bring new perspectives and educate and guide others on best practices or
507 architectural approaches that improve the maintainability and adoption of our technology
508 products.
509  You are able to represent clearly, both verbally and in writing, complex decisions, tough
510 trade-offs, and potential solutions to technical leaders of any level.
511  You drive architecture or operations changes to enable teams to work independently
512 and/or achieve significant efficiency improvements.
513  You assess where to apply the same approach and/or engineering effort year-over-year to
514 determine what requires the customer, support team, or engineer group to exert the same
515 effort multiple times.
516 Moving to Senior Principal - Tech
517 For Principal SupEngs looking to move to a Senior Principal Technologist role, please
518 refer to the Sr. Principal – Tech role guideline.
519

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520 Appendices
521 Appendix A: SupEng Level Matrix
Dimension L3: Support Engineer 1 L4 NE: Support Engineer 2 L4 E: Support Engineer 3
:
Scope and Generally works on Generally works on technical Generally works on technical
Influence well-defined technical support problems within a team support problems within a
support problems or a specific workflow. team. Develops and maintains
within a team. Developing expertise in one or expertise in one or more focus
more focus areas. Serves as a areas. May lead internal team
mentor to junior members of projects. May operate as a
the team and may operate as a training buddy or assist in hiring
training buddy. activities.
Ambiguity Issues are well defined Issues may have limited Issues may be undocumented.
with clear documentation. Able to provide Able to provide solution
documentation to solution recommendations recommendations and deliver
follow. Escalates when when documentation exists or independently with occasional
needed. with support from peers. guidance. Can identify
improvements to support tools
and processes.
Problem Able to troubleshoot Able to resolve straightforward Able to resolve straightforward
Complexit using existing technical problems. Can give technical problems and may
y documentation, technical direction to others. operate as a technical point of
procedures, and tools. contact for one or more areas
Escalates when actions within the team or workflow.
needed deviate from
available procedures.
Execution Manages issues to Maintains products and Maintains products and systems
resolution or systems within the scope of within the scope of your team
escalation using your team or workflow and or workflow and operates
existing performs change management independently while escalating
documentation, activities using existing when necessary. Identifies
procedures, and tools documentation or with support areas of improvement to
detailing actions and from peers. Identifies areas of existing processes and creates
next steps. improvement to existing new documentation where gaps
documentation. exist.
Impact Team metrics through Team and customer metrics Team and customer metrics
issue handling. through issue resolution. through process improvements
and project ownership.
Suggested No experience okay. No experience okay. No experience okay.
Experienc
e
522
Dimension L5: Support Engineer L6: Support Engineer 5 L7: Principal Support Engineer
: 4
Scope and Generally works on Generally works on problems Generally works on problems
Influence problems within a within an organization. within an organization. Some
team. Some roles may Regarded as a support leader roles my work across multiple
work across teams. by peers across the company. organizations. Maintains
Have developed Maintains a breadth of significant depth expertise in a
expertise in multiple knowledge of the technologies, single technology domain and
focus areas or within a systems and engineering best breadth expertise in multiple
single area of practices within the team or domains. Deliverables set the
strategic importance. organization. Lead large standard in your organization
May partner across projects that require cross for OE. Manages strategic
teams on projects that functional collaboration. Plays a technical projects providing

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 are tactical or role in the growth and status updates to organization
strategic in nature. development of the team by leaders while coordinating
Takes a role in the assisting in onboarding, support and engineering efforts.
strategic direction of mentoring and hiring. Partners Ensures the organization grows
the team and with managers to guide the by training, recruiting,
influences the growth growth team members and assessing, and providing career
and development by may operate as a people guidance to senior ICs within
assisting in leader. their organization.
onboarding,
mentoring or hiring.
Ambiguity Issue solutions may Support strategy and approach Support strategy and technical
not be readily may not be defined and can approach are not defined.
available. Able to deliver independently with Delivers with complete
provide solution limited guidance. Able to work independence. Able to identify
recommendations with backward from the customer and tackle intrinsically
little to no guidance. experience and handle challenging problems (e.g.,
Able to deconstruct complex issues which may architectural complexity,
difficult problems into require multi team persistent defects, critical
simple, straight- engagement. Able to break business risks, undefined
forward and down problems into sub opportunities, etc.). Problems
actionable solutions. problems that can be worked in are highly complex and
parallel by others. ambiguous; but solutions are as
simple as possible.
Problem Able to troubleshoot Able to troubleshoot and Able to resolve significantly
Complexit and resolve difficult resolve complex technical complex or persistent technical
y technical problems problems. Able to harmonize problems. Able to operate
which may span discordant views and lead the independently and often focus
across focus areas. resolution of contentious on areas where the business
Operates as a issues. Solutions set the and/or architectural strategy
technical leader and standard for engineering best has not yet been defined.
sets the standard for practices.
other support
engineers. Gives
technical directions to
others.
Execution Handles problems of Handles escalated cases. Handles strategically important
any severity. Detects Manages organization-wide cases, anticipates issues and
ongoing trends or outages ensuring accurate manages critical incidents,
problems before they documentation and timely bringing strong, data-driven
occur and define resolution. Leads support business and technical
proactive postmortems, drives resulting judgment. Resolves escalations
mechanisms. Authors process or system and balances trade-offs to
and is a lead reviewer improvements and may mitigate long-term one-way
for content in an area contribute to or write COEs to door risks. Technical
of technical expertise. ensure long term resolution. fearlessness may be broadly
Uses data to identify applied – spread across many
and drive teams – involved in influencing
development of new the technical strategy, new
support mechanisms, system support, adoption of
processes and tools new automation and definition
with the scope of a of solutions that maintain
team. harmony between operational
and engineering excellence.
Impact Team goals and Organization goals related to Organizational best practices
process efficiency operational excellence and and operational efficiency.
through proactive customer performance. Influences organizational
issue identification Influences system availability strategy by balancing trade-offs
and project and product roadmap. between potential solutions with

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 leadership. technical leaders.
Suggested 2+ years in role or 5+ years in role or domain. 10+ years in role or domain.
Experience domain.
523

524 Appendix B: Functional Dimension Definitions

525 Functional dimensions are high-level themes that are useful for level calibration. Functional
526 dimensions are not additional Leadership Principles. As the foundation of our culture, Leadership
527 Principles apply to every Amazonian at every level and are not restated in this guideline or in any
528 Role Guideline.
529  Scope and Influence: This dimension is the size of work and/or area of ownership for
530 which an employee is responsible and the people influenced in that scope (e.g., peers,
531 partner teams, vendors, leaders). Scope is specific to a job, making it one of the most
532 challenging dimensions to clarify. To calibrate a level accurately, scope also requires
533 Impact to be defined.
534  Ambiguity: The degree to which work expectations are unclear, uncertain, inconsistent,
535 or novel. It describes the 1) level of supervision and structure with respect to manager,
536 department, organizational goals, and 2) availability of resources, trainings, and
537 mechanisms available to navigate ambiguity. The level of workplace ambiguity should
538 match the employee’s ability to independently and effectively organize, prioritize,
539 delegate, and use judgement when developing a solution, strategy, process, framework,
540 etc.
541  Problem Complexity: This dimension clarifies the types of problems and opportunities
542 that an employee at a particular level can reasonably be expected to handle, as well as a
543 type of trade-offs they may make. As levels get higher complexity increases, often due to
544 factors in other dimensions.
545  Execution: This dimension provides an example of how employee expectations (what
546 they do to deliver for their customer) change as levels increase. Lower levels range from
547 task-based to procedural. As levels increase, work shifts from tactical to strategic. The
548 types of problems and opportunities that are reasonable for this role/level, as well as the
549 types of trade-offs they make. As levels get higher, complexity increases, balanced by
550 factors in the other dimensions. Complexity terms are aligned to level on the GLG and not
551 meant to be mixed and matched with other levels.
552  Impact: This clarifies the effect the employee’s work has on their business or technology
553 area, at that level. Impact is the blast radius of a job and is commensurate with level.
554 Examples are for context. When defining this dimension, work groups provide details (e.g.,
555 customer experience, revenue, adoption, engagement, metrics, goals, etc.)

556 Appendix C: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

557 1. What if I need further clarification about the SupEng role?
558 You should start by speaking with your manager about the role and its expectations. If you and
559 your manager need further clarification, you should consult with your HR partner together. If you
560 are unable to clarify with your manager and HR partner, please email supeng-level-
561 [email protected] and include your manager and HR partner for further support. The
562 SupEng Role Guideline is a “living document” and will be updated periodically based on feedback
563 to improve its usefulness.
564 2. Why is there a separate guideline for Support Engineer - External
565 (SE-E)?

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566 The technology and customer base of an SE-E are different enough to constitute a separate job
567 code and role guideline. The scope of SE-E is within the AWS and consumer devices space. SE-Es
568 support external customers and rely on different mechanisms and success criteria to track
569 organizational aptitude. While the SupEng guideline is written general enough to encompass all
570 SupEngs across Amazon, the SE-E role and guidelines provides engineers and leaders added
571 details to understand and implement their growth paths. For additional questions related to the
572 SE-E role guidelines, please reach out to [email protected].
573 3. How do I use the SupEng Role Guideline? Is it to be used for
574 hiring as well?
575 Yes. Role guidelines convey company-wide role and level expectations. They are used in all
576 aspects of performance and career management including hiring, performance reviews, next-
577 level goal setting, promotion justification, promotion reviews, and moving from another role. As
578 cited in the introduction, hiring loops should use the “What you do” sections of this guideline to
579 evaluate candidates against the requisite bar and promotion discussions should use the “Moving
580 to” sections of this guideline to evaluate candidates under promotion consideration.
581 4. What is the SupEng Technical Bar?
582 The minimum requirements to be a successful SupEng are those described in the “What you do”
583 section of SupEng 1. Of note, a degree is not required if the employee can meet the
584 requirements. Keep in mind that the levels build upon each other, so a SupEng 2 is expected to
585 be proficient with all skills of an SupEng 1. All successful SupEngs have both technical and non-
586 technical skills; all skills described in “What you do” sections make successful and well-rounded
587 SupEngs.
588 5. Do we need a Tech Bar Raiser (BRs) for SupEng interview loops?
589 Yes. We recommend interview loops utilize Tech BRs who are SupEngs or in Tech leader roles
590 with significant experience working with SupEngs. It’s important that the right technical
591 questions are asked and any conclusions about the skill of a SupEng candidate are correct.
592 6. Are there examples of the types of SupEng projects at each
593 level?
594 No. This document describes company-wide expectations. The company has a huge variety of
595 technologies, customer needs, and organizational structures. It is expected that SupEngs and
596 their management teams understand their space and how to map this Role Guideline to
597 appropriate goals and expectations in their team.
598 Another reason that we do not include specific examples is to avoid anchoring bias. By providing
599 a reference or example for each level, we risk teams overly indexing on the exemplar’s projects
600 and behaviors. They may attempt to pattern match rather than applying more critical thought on
601 whether an employee is meeting the criteria to be considered for promotion. Thus, we avoid
602 citing artifacts that could be used as inappropriate barriers. (“The project described is similar to
603 project X on the list of projects that got people promoted, but this particular project is missing
604 things that X had; therefore, I’m not inclined to promote.”)
605 The projects that SupEngs work on are only one significant part of their performance evaluation.
606 Leadership, ownership, and technical excellence are important SupEng skills in addition to a
607 track record of project delivery.
608 7. Do employees have to keep growing in their role?
609 Yes, as we are continuously improving and everyone must grow to keep up with the ever-rising
610 bar. But career growth can come in many forms. In some cases, growth is reflected in

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611 promotions in the same job family. In others, it’s learning new skills or trying different types of
612 roles. For SupEngs, we expect that SupEng 1s and 2s will naturally graduate to the next SupEng
613 level as they learn and gain independence. SupEng 3s and above may find more variability in
614 what career growth looks like for them: a rise up the SupEng individual contributor path; a path
615 to a Manager role; a path to a different role often in a technical field such as SysDE, SDE, TPM,
616 PMT, etc.; or a path remaining at their current level, learning and exploring new skills applicable
617 to their work.
618 8. What tools and mechanisms are available that can help an
619 SupEng looking to get promoted?
620 There is no rubric or checklist for getting promoted. The best way to achieve success is to get
621 guidance and feedback from both your manager and other SupEngs more senior than yourself.
622 Below are some specific tips and guidance from a set of well-calibrated Principal, Senior
623 Principal, and Distinguished engineers:
624  Understand the criteria. You should have a conversation with your manager to
625 understand the expectations for an SupEng at the next level. Use this document as a
626 guide for having that conversation.
627  Understand your areas for development. Work with your manager or mentor to
628 identify the areas you are already strong and areas where you have not yet demonstrated
629 the expectations of the next level. You should have this same conversation periodically
630 with your manager as you deliver features and projects. Growth Conversations is a tool
631 where you can plan and track targeted conversations about your career growth with your
632 manager.
633  Find a mentor. You should work with your manager to identify someone who can help
634 you grow to demonstrate next level expectations. For example, if writing is identified as a
635 skill you need to demonstrate, a good mentor is someone who is a good writer. For
636 SupEng 1s, a good mentor will generally be an SupEng 2 on the same team. For SupEng 2s
637 and 3s, sometimes the best person is a SupEng on a different team, or possibly not even a
638 SupEng at all. For SupEng 4s and above, the mentor may not even be the next level. The
639 Amazon Mentoring Program is also a useful resource. The focus should be on the skills you
640 need to develop, not the level of the person who is your mentor. Your mentor’s role is to
641 help you develop your skills, not provide feedback for promotion. A mentor can be a great
642 resource for employees at all levels and stages of career growth, not just those ready for
643 promotion.
644  Develop a plan. With your mentor and manager, develop a plan to help demonstrate
645 next level criteria. This sometimes will involve developing new skills and/or taking on new
646 projects. You should expect to do this at work and it should not be an overtime or after-
647 hours activity. You should also ensure that you continue to demonstrate areas you are
648 already strong, not just focus on areas where you need to develop.
649  Set reasonable expectations. Promotions happen when you consistently demonstrate
650 next level criteria. For promotions into SupEng 5 and Principal SupEng, developing a body
651 of work which demonstrates the next level takes a while. Work with your manager to
652 develop a reasonable expectation of how close you are to promotion. If you need help
653 understanding your manager’s assessment, reach out to SupEngs more senior in your role
654 who are knowledgeable about your work to get their inputs. No one person knows
655 everything about your work, so getting multiple perspectives can help get an accurate
656 picture.
657 9. How long do SupEngs need to demonstrate the next level to be
658 considered for promotion?

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659 Every individual promotion case is unique and there are no strict guidelines. The SupEng being
660 evaluated for promotion must be consistently demonstrating a combination of the required
661 “Moving to” next level criteria, our Leadership Principles, and/or have other evidence that they
662 will be successful at the new level.
663 10. Is tenure a factor in promotion readiness?
664 No. A manager needs behavioral examples and artifacts to justify readiness for the next level.
665 They also need enough feedback about the SupEng from calibrated individuals at the next level
666 or higher to assess areas where they are still growing. Promotions into more senior positions
667 such as SupEng 5 or Principal SupEng typically require delivering multiple projects to
668 demonstrate most of the behaviors expected of someone at the next level. It takes some time to
669 demonstrate all of these next-level capabilities.

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