diff --git a/app/celery/tasks.py b/app/celery/tasks.py
index 27a3b1e01..df1d7bffd 100644
--- a/app/celery/tasks.py
+++ b/app/celery/tasks.py
@@ -533,7 +533,7 @@ def process_incomplete_job(job_id):
     job_complete(job, job.service, template, resumed=True)
 
 
-@notify_celery.task(bind=True, name="process-ses-result", max_retries=12, default_retry_delay=300000)
+@notify_celery.task(bind=True, name="process-ses-result", max_retries=5, default_retry_delay=300)
 @statsd(namespace="tasks")
 def process_ses_results(self, response):
     errors = process_ses_response(response)
diff --git a/app/notifications/notifications_ses_callback.py b/app/notifications/notifications_ses_callback.py
index 4780b4bd7..2ed34037b 100644
--- a/app/notifications/notifications_ses_callback.py
+++ b/app/notifications/notifications_ses_callback.py
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@ def sns_callback_handler():
         current_app.logger.error(errors)
         raise InvalidRequest(errors, 400)
 
-    return 200
+    return jsonify(
+        result="success", message="SES callback succeeded"
+    ), 200
 
 
 def process_ses_response(ses_request):