Amazon

• Lots of autonomy.
• Decent compensation.
• An attempt to keep Amazon from being driven from the top down, like lots of big companies. It's actually partially successful.
• If data is available, it rules the conversation, no matter what the rank of the people involved. I'll take data-driven over ego-driven decisions any day. Amazon is a very data-driven environment.
• Because Amazon has such a large variety of systems and technologies in use, it's an easy place to get lots of exposure to large-scale systems used for lots of cool stuff without job hopping.

Amazon has an odd culture, due to the fact that it's made up of lots and lots of relatively small teams. While this promotes lots of bottom-up innovation, it also leads to having to sometimes deal with a lot of people to get things done, and their priorities don't always line up with yours. It makes for an environment where informal relationships make all the difference.

If you're on a team responsible for systems with significant software issues or a team that hasn't made the investment in documentation to get the support team to take most pages, pager duty can be hell. It's a lot better today than in times past, and there are corporate-level initiatives in place to drive changes for the better. It seems to be working.

Like all workplaces, if you don't set some boundaries, Amazon will take all of your time and ask for more. During peak season, expect to work lots of extra hours if the heat is on your team. Otherwise, if you're burning out, you'll need to have enough spine to set some boundaries.

On the whole, you're doing pretty well in an environment where others founder. That's good; let's have more of that.

Pay more attention to the data warehouse and HAM systems, though.