STEM OPT Software Engineer Jobs
Software Engineer roles sit squarely within STEM OPT eligibility, letting you work for up to 36 months total on your F-1 authorization. Your employer must be enrolled in E-Verify, and your degree in computer science, engineering, or a related STEM field qualifies you for the 24-month extension. Use that runway to build U.S. experience and transition to long-term sponsorship.
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Want to change the world with Big Data and Analytics? Come join us on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic MapReduce (EMR) team!
EMR is a massively scaled distributed service that gives users fast and predictable Big Data performance with clusters running Hadoop, Hive, Pig, Impala, Spark, Presto, HBase and more, with the ability to effortlessly scale up and down as needed. We run millions of customer clusters, enabling processing on vast datasets.
We are developing innovative new features including the next-generation cluster management system, real-time processing for big data and intuitive ways of interacting with data, and we’re looking for top engineers to build them from the ground up.
This is a hands-on position where you will be doing everything from designing and building extremely stable components and features for the savviest customers in the business to help them get the best results.
You will have a chance to work with the open source community and contribute significant portions of its software to open source projects possibly including Hadoop, Spark, Pig and HBase. You need to not only be a top software developer with excellent programming skills, an understanding of big data and parallelization, and a stellar record of delivery but also excel at leadership and customer obsession and have a real passion for massive-scale computing. If you want to truly test your mettle against the hardest challenges in distributed systems to build solutions for large scale problems in a wide variety of domains, come join our group.
Utility Computing (UC)
AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations — from foundational services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (IoT), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS, including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.
Key job responsibilities
- Translation of complex functional and technical requirements into detailed architecture and design
- Deliver systems and features with top-notch quality, on time
- Develop new technologies for monitoring production clusters
- Own the software development process end-to-end, including: working with engineers and product managers to develop requirements; designing, architecting, planning, implementing, and testing new systems and features; deploying, and operating the production EMR systems.
About the team
About AWS
AWS values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.
Why AWS? Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Inclusive Team Culture Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Mentorship & Career Growth We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.
Work/Life Balance We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 2+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience programming with at least one software programming language
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 3+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.
Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
LOCATION
USA, CA, East Palo Alto - 165,200.00 - 223,600.00 USD annually
DESCRIPTION
Want to change the world with Big Data and Analytics? Come join us on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic MapReduce (EMR) team!
EMR is a massively scaled distributed service that gives users fast and predictable Big Data performance with clusters running Hadoop, Hive, Pig, Impala, Spark, Presto, HBase and more, with the ability to effortlessly scale up and down as needed. We run millions of customer clusters, enabling processing on vast datasets.
We are developing innovative new features including the next-generation cluster management system, real-time processing for big data and intuitive ways of interacting with data, and we’re looking for top engineers to build them from the ground up.
This is a hands-on position where you will be doing everything from designing and building extremely stable components and features for the savviest customers in the business to help them get the best results.
You will have a chance to work with the open source community and contribute significant portions of its software to open source projects possibly including Hadoop, Spark, Pig and HBase. You need to not only be a top software developer with excellent programming skills, an understanding of big data and parallelization, and a stellar record of delivery but also excel at leadership and customer obsession and have a real passion for massive-scale computing. If you want to truly test your mettle against the hardest challenges in distributed systems to build solutions for large scale problems in a wide variety of domains, come join our group.
Utility Computing (UC)
AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations — from foundational services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (IoT), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS, including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.
Key job responsibilities
- Translation of complex functional and technical requirements into detailed architecture and design
- Deliver systems and features with top-notch quality, on time
- Develop new technologies for monitoring production clusters
- Own the software development process end-to-end, including: working with engineers and product managers to develop requirements; designing, architecting, planning, implementing, and testing new systems and features; deploying, and operating the production EMR systems.
About the team
About AWS
AWS values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.
Why AWS? Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Inclusive Team Culture Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Mentorship & Career Growth We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.
Work/Life Balance We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 2+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience programming with at least one software programming language
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 3+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.
Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
LOCATION
USA, CA, East Palo Alto - 165,200.00 - 223,600.00 USD annually
See all 16,497+ STEM OPT Software Engineer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Software Engineer
Verify your CIP code before applying
Check that your degree's Classification of Instructional Programs code appears on the STEM Designated Degree Program List published by ICE. Mismatches between your transcript and the approved CIP list are the most common reason DSOs can't authorize a STEM OPT extension.
Confirm E-Verify enrollment before accepting offers
Ask recruiters for the company's E-Verify Company ID during the offer stage, not after. Employers can look legitimate but still be unenrolled, and you can't start STEM OPT without E-Verify active on your first day.
Target companies with active H-1B filing history
Use Migrate Mate to filter Software Engineer roles by employers who have filed H-1B visa petitions, so you're targeting companies already familiar with sponsoring international engineers rather than educating a recruiter from scratch.
Negotiate your I-983 training plan before day one
Get your supervisor to review the I-983 learning objectives before you sign the offer, not after onboarding. Software engineering plans should name specific technical skills, project milestones, and mentorship structures tied directly to your degree field.
Check prevailing wage alignment for your job title
Run your Software Engineer title and work location through the OFLC Wage Search to see the DOL wage level your role falls under. If your offer is below Level I for your metro area, raise it before signing since underpayment can complicate later H-1B LCA filings.
File your extension at least 90 days before OPT expires
Submit your STEM OPT extension application to USCIS no later than 90 days before your current EAD end date. A timely pending application gives you a 180-day automatic extension while USCIS adjudicates, keeping you continuously authorized to work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a computer science or software engineering degree qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Yes, if your degree's CIP code appears on the STEM Designated Degree Program List. Computer science (CIP 11.07xx), computer engineering (CIP 14.09xx), and software engineering (CIP 14.42xx) are all listed. Degrees in information technology or MIS may qualify depending on the specific CIP code your institution assigned, so confirm with your DSO before applying.
What does the I-983 training plan require for a Software Engineer role?
The I-983 must describe how your day-to-day work directly relates to your STEM degree. For Software Engineer roles, this means naming specific technical competencies you'll develop, the projects or systems you'll work on, your supervisor's qualifications, and a mentorship or evaluation structure. Your employer signs it and your DSO must approve it before USCIS processes your extension.
Does my Software Engineer employer need to be enrolled in E-Verify?
Yes. E-Verify enrollment is a hard requirement for STEM OPT. Your employer must be enrolled before your extension is authorized, and the enrollment must cover the specific site where you'll work. You can ask recruiters for the company's E-Verify Company ID to verify enrollment during the offer stage, before you accept.
How does cap-gap work if my H-1B is selected while I'm on STEM OPT?
If your H-1B petition is filed before your STEM OPT EAD expires and you're selected in the lottery, cap-gap automatically extends your work authorization through September 30. Your STEM OPT status and employment conditions remain in effect during that bridge period. You don't need a new EAD to keep working, but your employer must remain E-Verify enrolled throughout.
Where can I find Software Engineer jobs with employers who sponsor STEM OPT students?
Migrate Mate filters Software Engineer listings by employers enrolled in E-Verify and with documented H-1B filing history, so you're not cold-applying to companies that have never sponsored an international hire. You can search by role, location, and visa history to prioritize companies already set up to support your STEM OPT authorization and a future H-1B transition.