Verified SES entity (out of sandbox), unable to send production e-mails on deployed website (amplify). Works fully in local dev env. AWS-SDK NodeJS

Hello,

I've searched on re:Post but could not find a similar case. I am using AWS-SDK together with NodeJS to send automated mails upon form submit on my website. The e-mail address and domain are verified and out of sandbox. The mailing works when I execute in development mode locally, but not online on production. I have ensured that the env variables are included on Amplify. The code prior to sending the SendMail:

  let AWS = require("aws-sdk");

  AWS.config.update({
    accessKeyId: process.env.KEY_ID,
    secretAccessKey: process.env.KEY_SECRET,
    region: process.env.REGION_ID,
  });

I have applied the ses:Sendmail allow policy in IAM to the user linked to above key/secret. Am I missing something? The shared credentials file is not needed for deployed production if I have the above .config.update right? The policy:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ses:SendRawEmail",
                "ses:SendEmail"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Thank you so much.