diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/lib/role.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/lib/role.ts
index 88ee7151c1f6e..f2eef64775ccf 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/lib/role.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/lib/role.ts
@@ -155,7 +155,12 @@ export class Role extends Resource implements IRole {
   public static fromRoleArn(scope: Construct, id: string, roleArn: string, options: FromRoleArnOptions = {}): IRole {
     const scopeStack = Stack.of(scope);
     const parsedArn = scopeStack.parseArn(roleArn);
-    const roleName = parsedArn.resourceName!;
+    const resourceName = parsedArn.resourceName!;
+    // service roles have an ARN like 'arn:aws:iam::<account>:role/service-role/<roleName>'
+    // we want to support these as well, so strip out the 'service-role/' prefix if we see it
+    const roleName = resourceName.startsWith('service-role/')
+      ? resourceName.slice('service-role/'.length)
+      : resourceName;
 
     abstract class Import extends Resource implements IRole {
       public readonly grantPrincipal: IPrincipal = this;
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/test/role.from-role-arn.test.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/test/role.from-role-arn.test.ts
index 759d6bd98fe4a..ffd29715c14f6 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/test/role.from-role-arn.test.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-iam/test/role.from-role-arn.test.ts
@@ -476,6 +476,27 @@ describe('IAM Role.fromRoleArn', () => {
       });
     });
   });
+
+  describe('imported with the ARN of a service role', () => {
+    beforeEach(() => {
+      roleStack = new Stack();
+      importedRole = Role.fromRoleArn(roleStack, 'Role',
+        `arn:aws:iam::${roleAccount}:role/service-role/codebuild-role`);
+    });
+
+    it("correctly strips the 'service-role' prefix from the role name", () => {
+      new Policy(roleStack, 'Policy', {
+        statements: [somePolicyStatement()],
+        roles: [importedRole],
+      });
+
+      expect(roleStack).toHaveResourceLike('AWS::IAM::Policy', {
+        "Roles": [
+          "codebuild-role",
+        ],
+      });
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 function somePolicyStatement() {