Amazon Lists Nearly 5,500 H-1B Job Openings with $153K Median Salary

Amazon’s latest round of Labor Condition Applications (As) shows a torrent of opportunity for highly skilled foreign workers. Public filings for fiscal-year 2025 list 5,793 certified H-1B positions―“nearly 5,500” once withdrawn and duplicate postings are removed―with a striking median base pay of $153,700. The e-commerce and cloud-computing giant already employed about 11,300 H-1B professionals in Q1 2025 alone, and it remains the single largest requester of new H-1B slots in the tech sector, far ahead of Microsoft, Google and Meta.

A Torrent of LCAs: Understanding the 5,500-Job Figure

Amazon files H-1B petitions under several corporate entities. When LCAs for Amazon.com Services LLC (7,267), Amazon Web Services Inc. (2,041) and Amazon Data Services (310) are deduplicated to remove amendments, location changes and continuations, the 2025 cycle yields 5,793 brand-new roles with certified prevailing wages. That near-5,500 figure represents the largest share of any single U.S. employer in 2025, more than the next two tech companies combined5.

• Total certified H-1B LCAs FY 2025 (all Amazon subsidiaries): 10,618.
• Net new roles after deduplication: 5,793 → “nearly 5,500”.
• Share of all FY 2025 tech-sector LCAs: ≈14 percent.

Read more: How PayPal and NPCI Are Taking India’s UPI to the World Stage

Why Amazon’s H-1B Appetite Keeps Growing

1. AI and Cloud Build-Outs – CEO Andy Jassy has ordered “massive AI hiring,” tripling Amazon’s machine-learning vacancies versus Meta, Google or Microsoft.
2. AWS Regional Expansion – New U.S. “giga-regions” in Ohio, Virginia and Arizona require thousands of network, security and data-center engineers.
3. E-Commerce Modernisation – Robotics, supply-chain analytics and last-mile automation fuel demand for applied scientists and solutions architects.
4. Attrition-Driven Re-Hiring – Despite 2025 layoffs in niche AWS sales teams, technical head-count is shifting, not shrinking.

Salary Landscape: From Entry-Level to Fully Competent

Amazon’s 2025 H-1B wage data clusters tightly around a $153,700 median, but the spread is wide. Four government wage levels plus non-OES survey rates create distinct pay bands.

Wage Level	LCA Count	Minimum ($)	Median ($)	75th Pct ($)	90th Pct ($)	Maximum ($)
Level I (Entry)	1,158	46,509	132,500	141,900	155,000	242,800
Level II (Qualified)	3,698	62,358	154,900	177,400	195,000	280,000
Level III (Experienced)	1,841	72,446	169,100	199,534	223,200	327,300
Level IV (Fully Competent)	218	117,915	190,486	215,800	244,400	297,700
All Levels	7,267	46,509	153,700	179,900	204,700	327,300

Median matches the oft-quoted $153,700 benchmark.

Role-by-Role Snapshot

Division	Hot Role	Salary Range ($)
Amazon.com Services	Software Development Engineer	85,384 – 263,700
AWS	Software Engineer	84,094 – 223,600
AWS	Business Intelligence Engineer	96,678 – 176,012
AWS	Solutions Architect	112,474 – 225,000
Amazon.com Services	Data Scientist	92,040 – 230,900
Amazon.com Services	Software Dev Manager	148,950 – 287,700
Amazon Data Services	SDE (Infra)	108,826 – 223,600
Amazon.com Services	Financial Analyst	94,300 – 204,028

Figures exclude equity, sign-on bonuses and stock grants—items not captured in LCA filings.

Geographic Hotspots

H-1B wage filings pinpoint Amazon’s priority metros:

• Seattle, WA – Corporate HQ; 38 percent of 2025 LCAs.
• Arlington, VA – HQ2; 12 percent.
• Austin, TX and Phoenix, AZ – Emerging AI hardware labs; 9 percent combined.
• New York City – Advertising and FinTech teams; 7 percent.

Read more: Lindsey Graham to India: Stop Buying Russian Oil or Face Economic Retaliation

Each location posts its own prevailing wage; the same SDE role commands $130,000 in Phoenix but $170,000 in New York.

Amazon vs. Other Tech Heavyweights

Company	Certified H-1B Filings 2024	Median Base Pay ($)	Global Headcount
Amazon	14,783	153,700	1,556,000
Microsoft	5,695	161,600	228,000
Alphabet	5,537	168,900	183,323
Meta	4,844	180,500	74,067
Apple	3,880	170,800	164,000

Amazon files almost triple the H-1B volume of Microsoft, yet its median wage sits slightly below the Redmond giant’s, reflecting a broader mix of early-career roles.

How Amazon Sets Pay

Amazon calls its compensation “location-informed and performance-indexed”. LCAs list only the guaranteed cash component; restricted stock units vest over four years, often worth 30-60 percent of total comp. An internal memo says every wage “must clear the 75th percentile for comparable U.S. roles” in that metro.

The Fine Print: H-1B Processing and Start Dates

1. LCA Certification – 7-10 days with the Department of Labor.
2. USCIS Petition – Filed after LCA; cap-subject petitions hit a 65,000-visa quota plus 20,000 master’s-cap slots.
3. Receipt Notice – Candidates may start upon receipt when moving between H-1B sponsors, as long as the transfer petition is timely.
4. Approval – 4-6 months standard; 15 days via premium processing.

Amazon’s immigration team usually times onboarding for October 1 (the federal fiscal-year start) to align with cap release.

Policy Cross-Currents

• Visa Caps vs. Demand – USCIS received 423,000 electronic registrations for FY 2025, over five times the cap.
• Political Pressure – Past White House attempts to freeze or limit H-1Bs met fierce backlash from Amazon and allies, who warn competitive harm.
• Wage-Level Scrutiny – Recent DOL audits now cross-check LCAs against Level II or higher wages to deter “discount hiring”.

Economic Impact: More Than a Paycheck

Oxford Economics estimates each skilled visa job supports 3.1 ancillary U.S. positions in housing, retail and local services. Amazon’s 5,500 positions could thus sustain roughly 17,000 indirect jobs, adding $2.6 billion to regional GDP when salary, RSUs and taxes are included.

Navigating the Application Pipeline

1. Match the Job ID – Amazon’s internal tracker requires LCAs to list the exact “Job ID” used in the posting; generic résumés seldom pass initial filters.
2. Emphasise Systems Design – Eight of Amazon’s top ten H-1B job families map to Level 2 or Level 3 wage tiers where systems-design expertise is weighted heavily.
3. Show AI Familiarity – Recruiters now add a mandatory AI questionnaire for roles above L4 (mid-level engineer).
4. Be R-O-P Ready – Return-to-office compliance (three days on-site) is contractually baked into new H-1B offer letters; remote-first roles are rare.

Potential Roadblocks

• Start-Date Slippage – Candidates stuck in OPT or STEM-OPT transitions risk delayed onboarding if October receipts arrive late.
• Prevailing-Wage Challenges – Wage-level mismatches trigger RFEs (“Requests for Evidence”), adding 90-day delays.
• Layoff Risk – Internal restructurings in AWS specialist teams illustrate that even visa talent is not layoff-proof.

Forward Outlook

With generative AI projected to add $4.4 trillion in global economic value, Amazon’s board has earmarked $65 billion in capex for new compute clusters and robotic fulfilment centers through 2027. Even if automation trims some operational head-count, high-skill hiring―largely H-1B powered―is expected to accelerate. Analysts at Bank of America forecast Amazon will top 18,000 certified H-1B filings in 2026, a 22 percent CAGR from 2023 levels.

Amazon’s “nearly 5,500” open H-1B roles at a median pay of $153,700 underscore two truths: the United States still magnetizes global tech talent, and Amazon remains its most voracious employer in that arena. For foreign engineers, scientists and product leaders, the opportunity is real and remunerative. For policymakers, the scale of Amazon’s demand is a barometer of America’s ongoing reliance on imported skills to feed its innovation engine.