One thing I'd mention is - regardless of your inclinations (sounds like you're more of a backend developer) - put together something that is easy to showcase. Something "live" running on aws/heroku/digital ocean/github pages even - no matter how trivial (well maybe a static "hello world" might be too trivial :) ) - would go a long way towards convincing your potential employer that you have the tech chops.
Also, just being realistic, it's WAY easier to get your foot in the door doing frontend stuff. Doesn't mean you have to drop everything and become a UI person, but if you have some kind of an API sitting on aws, having a UI to drive it vs. driving it purely with curl/postman/etc shouldn't take much effort but will be a good bang for the buck no doubt.
Also, just being realistic, it's WAY easier to get your foot in the door doing frontend stuff. Doesn't mean you have to drop everything and become a UI person, but if you have some kind of an API sitting on aws, having a UI to drive it vs. driving it purely with curl/postman/etc shouldn't take much effort but will be a good bang for the buck no doubt.