Principal Engineer, Program Analysis, Automated Reasoning

AI in this role

The way software is written is changing. Most code today is — or soon will be — AI-generated. The bottleneck has shifted: it is no longer about writing code, but about verifying it. The gap between “code exists” and “code is verified and shippable” is the constraint on autonomous software development — and closing that gap requires building new classes of tools.

The Automated Reasoning Group (ARG), part of the Agentic AI organization at Amazon, is building those tools. We develop state-of-the-art systems that use mathematical logic to authoritatively answer questions about the behavior of computer systems — what they might do, what they will do, or what they can never do. Our techniques provide accurate reasoning over intractably large or unbounded systems, including network behaviors, policy semantics, and program state-spaces.

For this Principal Engineer role, we are looking for a builder. Someone who has designed and shipped compilers, static analysis engines, verification toolchains, and IDE integrations — not just someone who has written code in these languages, but someone who has built the tools that other engineers rely on. You will lead the engineering buildout of the compiler and analysis infrastructure at the core of our automated code verification platform, including Java, Rust, Python, and TypeScript for example.

Our team works directly with Lean’s creator, whose proof assistant is becoming a central platform for practical formal verification. Just as AI has recently been used to formalize proofs of landmark mathematical problems in Lean, we are applying the same rigor to verifying real customer code at Amazon scale. This is a once-in-a-career opportunity to build the verification infrastructure that makes autonomous coding trustworthy.

Key job responsibilities
As a Principal Compiler Engineer focused on compiler and analysis toolchain, you will lead the engineering design and buildout of the verification infrastructure that enables our automated reasoning tools to analyze programs across the languages that matter most to Amazon and its customers. You will operate at the Principal Engineer level — defining technical vision, driving org-wide alignment, and staying hands-on with the hardest problems.

Lead the engineering buildout of the compiler and analysis toolchain as well as the team — designing, building, and scaling the infrastructure that powers automated code verification across Java, Python, and Typescript for example.

Design and build compilers, static analysis engines, and verification tools that operate across multiple languages and paradigms, with a focus on soundness, scalability, and developer usability.

Drive cross-language analysis and tooling architecture decisions, ensuring consistent verification semantics and efficient inter-language analysis pipelines.

Build IDE integrations and developer-facing tooling that surfaces verification results in workflows engineers actually use — making automated reasoning accessible while being theoretically correct.

Define the technical vision for the team's toolchain infrastructure; identify high-leverage investment areas; drive consensus across engineering and research stakeholders.

Set engineering standards, drive code quality, and mentor principal and senior engineers across the group.

About the team

The Automated Reasoning Group develops state-of-the-art tools that use mathematical logic to authoritatively answer questions about the behavior of computer systems — what they might do, what they will do, or what they can never do. Our tools provide accurate reasoning about intractably large or unbounded systems, including network behaviors, policy semantics, and program state-spaces.

The team sits within the Agentic AI organization at Amazon, working at the frontier of a deeply consequential problem: as AI-generated code becomes pervasive, the infrastructure for verifying that code must scale with it. We are the team building that infrastructure. We work directly with world-class researchers and practitioners, including the creator of the Lean proof assistant.

We build production systems used to reason about real customer workloads at Amazon scale, while also contributing to the open research ecosystem that underpins the field. If you want to work where compiler engineering and formal methods meet at a moment when it genuinely matters, this is the team.

Basic qualifications

• 10+ years of non-internship professional software development experience.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining language tooling that other engineers depend on, e.g. a parser, type checker, language front-end, intermediate representation, static analyzer, or language server.
• Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals: compiler design, program analysis, data structures, and algorithms.
• Demonstrated ability to operate at Principal Engineer scope — defining technical direction, driving cross-team alignment, and delivering outsized impact.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience designing and building large-scale analysis or verification systems that operate in production environments.
• Contributions to open-source compiler or analysis toolchains — javac/Corretto, Clang frontend, Infer, CodeQL, WALA/Soot, pyright
• Fluency in a language commonly used to build such tools: Rust, OCaml, Haskell, Lean, Java, C/C++, TypeScript, or Python. We care more about what you have built than which language you built it in.
• Background in automated reasoning, formal verification, static analysis, or model checking and working understanding of SAT and SMT solvers.
• Hands-on experience with Lean or other proof assistants (Coq, Isabelle, Agda, or similar).

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, Santa Clara - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually
USA, MA, Boston - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

How we score this

Principal Engineer, Program Analysis, Automated Reasoning at Amazon scores 44 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 2 of 4 (Uses AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.

Classification

AI Level 2. An ordinary role whose duties require using AI tools, such as coding, writing or sourcing with an assistant.

AI Level 480 to 100
AI Level 360 to 79
AI Level 240 to 59
AI Level 10 to 39

Bands come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

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