From Liberal Arts Major To Amazon Principal Engineer (Part 1)

I've never properly introduced myself and told you all my story.

For the next two issues, I will give you a view of how I got to where I am today. Please enjoy!

From Liberal Arts Major To Amazon Principal Engineer

I was a Principal Engineer (L7) at Amazon before I quit in March of 2024. The last team I was on was the Prime Video Sports organization, which was a critical part of a streaming business that serviced hundreds of millions of customers worldwide with low-latency, high-quality live events. 

I was the most senior engineer for well over 400 people, the vast majority of which were software developers, located in half a dozen countries spread over three continents. I’ve launched several lines of business for Amazon, conducted over 850 technical interviews, and I have been awarded 13 software patents.

You might think that I have a Computer Science degree from a prestigious school, but I don’t. In fact, I have an English degree from the University of Washington (Go Huskies!). If you’re …