Director, HW Engineering, AWS EC2

Amazon is hiring a Director, HW Engineering, AWS EC2 in Cupertino, United States. It pays $288k-$350k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions Hardware Design, Servers and hardware engineering among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as an executive role.
Amazon has 21,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Lead server hardware engineering teams to design, build, and sustain large-scale AWS compute and storage infrastructure.

hardware-designservers

hardware-engineeringproduct-managementmanufacturingleadership

Amazon EC2 Hardware Engineering designs and builds the servers that power Amazon Web Services. We take the silicon our partners create and design the boards, servers, and racks around it, then own the full lifecycle: new product introduction (NPI), design validation, launch, manufacturing ramp, and in-fleet sustaining engineering across compute, storage, networking, edge, and accelerator products.
We are looking for a world-class engineering leader (Director, Hardware Development) to own a server product line end to end. This is a hands-on hardware-engineering leadership role: your organization owns the hardware design, system integration, and system engineering for a product family, and is accountable for delivering it from design through volume manufacturing and into a large-scale global fleet that must run reliably for years.
This is a leadership role with exceptional surface area. The space is broad, and the depth is multilayered: you will lead multiple teams through their managers, set multi-year technical and product strategy for your product line, operate deep in the engineering when it matters, and work externally with ODMs and vendors at a detailed technical level to drive roadmaps and secure supply. You will partner with the component and firmware teams your products depend on, and with Principal and Distinguished Engineers and senior leaders across AWS. The problems are hard, the scale is among the largest in the world, and the work is visible to the most senior leaders at AWS.

Key job responsibilities
As the Director, Hardware Development, you will:
• Own a server product family end to end: hardware design, system integration, and system engineering, from NPI (New Product Introduction)and design validation through launch, manufacturing ramp, and in-fleet sustaining.
• Own hardware quality and velocity for your product line, and be accountable for manufacturing yield and throughput targets and for resolving manufacturing-engineering defects.
• Lead multiple engineering teams through their managers; hire, grow, and develop managers and engineers, and scale the organization to meet an aggressive roadmap.
• Set the multi-year technical and product strategy for your product line and make long-term engineering decisions that balance innovation with reliability at scale.
• Manage strategic relationships with ODM design and manufacturing partners (domestic and overseas)
• Own fleet-reliability outcomes for your products (annualized failure rate, unsellable reduction, proactive defect remediation).
• Partner across hardware, firmware, software, operations, and supply chain, and drive external roadmaps with partner teams.

A day in the life
You will work on problems that do not have textbook answers and where the questions themselves may not even be known. How do you take a new accelerator, compute, or storage server from a concept through qualification and ramp at an ODM, and into a global fleet that fails less than a fraction of a percent of the time over a ten-year life? How do you re-architect a design to hit manufacturing throughput targets for hundreds of thousands of units with minimal waste? How do you qualify a second source for a critical component to de-risk supply without slipping a launch? You will take hardware from a whiteboard sketch through design, manufacturing, and deployment at a scale almost nowhere else can offer.

About the team
EC2 Hardware Engineering is organized along a vertical (product) and horizontal (component and firmware) axis. Vertical teams own whole server products end to end; the horizontal teams own the cross-cutting components and firmware every product depends on. This role leads one of the vertical product organizations. We invest in bringing new members up to speed, and we think about each engineer's growth when we assign work.

Basic qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or commensurate experience
• 10+ years of hardware development experience
• 8+ years of engineering management experience
• Experience delivering complex integrated hardware systems (servers, racks, or comparable electro-mechanical/compute systems) from design through volume manufacturing
• Experience owning the full product lifecycle: NPI, design validation, launch, manufacturing ramp, and in-field sustaining
• Experience partnering with product/program management and operating hardware at scale

Preferred qualifications

• Experience designing and delivering datacenter server and/or rack systems at hyperscale
• Deep experience in one or more of: board/system design, PCIe and high-speed signal integrity, power delivery and thermal, accelerator (GPU) systems, x86/ARM compute, or storage (HDD/SSD) systems
• Design-for-manufacturing expertise; experience managing ODM partners (domestic and overseas) and component multi-sourcing/qualification
• Experience operating a hardware fleet at scale: telemetry, real-time health, annualized-failure-rate reduction, and sustaining engineering
• Experience with taking new greenfield technology initiatives or cutting-edge development to large scale production of integrated systems
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in a relevant engineering discipline

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, CA, Cupertino - 287,500.00 - 350,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 250,000.00 - 338,200.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Director, HW Engineering, AWS EC2 at Amazon rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Director, HW Engineering, AWS EC2 is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $288k-$350k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Cupertino.
The job was posted on October 8, 2026.
Seniority: executive.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Hardware EngineeringProduct ManagementManufacturingLeadershipHardware DesignServers

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where hardware engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where product management was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where manufacturing was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where leadership was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Hardware Design in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Hardware Engineering, Product Management, Manufacturing, Leadership, and Hardware Design. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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