Smitha Desai
Sr Engineering Leader @AWS | eCommerce | Retail | Secure and Scalable Cloud Native systems | Marketing and Advertising| End User Workspaces | Vibe coding | AI champion
- Role
- Head of Engineering at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Location
- Seattle, WA, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Smitha Desai
Seasoned and results-driven Senior Engineering Manager with 18+ years of experience…
Experience
Head of Engineering
May 2019 — Present · Seattle, WA, US
Introduced and led AI initiative improve the developer tools and improved delivery by 70%.• Designed a real-time, signal-based authentication framework using user context (device fingerprint, login history, location signals) to dynamically adjust login flows—reducing friction for trusted users and laying groundwork for personalized user experiences in account security.• Led globally distributed engineering teams effectively managing development across multiple time zones to ensure 24/7 progress, seamless handoffs, and continuous delivery for mission-critical systems.• Led a high-performing to design distributed AWS cloud-based Tier-0/ Tier-1 applications that are secure, distributed, available (99.99) and resilient for 2+Billion Amazon customers.• Initiated and led automation that reduced manual testing by 80%• Grew team from 3 to 25 within ~8 months while maintaining high engagement scores (98th percentile).• Demonstrated strong program leadership and stakeholder management, ensuring coordination between Product, Marketing, Operations, and Security teams to achieve business success.• Participated in on-call rotations and incident triaging, leading root cause analysis and ensured platform reliability and SLA adherence.• Oversaw project management activities, ensuring timely delivery, adherence to allocated budgets, and maintaining a high level of quality across all projects.• Collaborated effectively with cross-functional teams, such as Product Management, Marketing, Sales, etc, to align actions and schedules that supported program expectations and overall success. • Built and nurtured a high-performing engineering organization by hiring critical talent, driving retention, providing career mentorship, and fostering an inclusive, accountable, and results-driven team culture.
Education
University of Illinois Springfield
Master's
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