AmazonSenior ML Software Engineer, Data Plane
Amazon is hiring a Senior ML Software Engineer, Data Plane in Cupertino, United States. It pays $193k-$262k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Pay on this posting starts 16% higher than the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- The posting mentions vLLM, PyTorch and JAX among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a senior role.
- Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
Senior ML Software Engineer to design and optimize the inference data plane for large machine learning models on custom hardware.
Our work covers the full inference path: integrating serving engines with custom hardware, developing high-performance compute kernels, enabling efficient data movement, and driving models from early validation through production. We operate at frontier scale with large distributed models.
This is a ground-up effort with rapidly evolving hardware and software. We need a senior IC who can write and optimize low-level code for custom hardware, validate model architectures end-to-end, build test and profiling infrastructure, and drive performance across the stack.
Key job responsibilities
- Develop and optimize compute kernels for a custom ML accelerator architecture, targeting production-level performance for large language model inference.
- Implement and validate LLM architectures end-to-end - from PyTorch model definition through distributed execution on custom hardware.
- Integrate custom accelerator backends into open-source ML serving frameworks (vLLM, PyTorch), including scheduler extensions, memory management, and model parallelism.
- Build and maintain test infrastructure for model correctness validation across CPU, GPU, simulator, and hardware targets.
- Profile and optimize inference workloads - identify bottlenecks, instrument critical paths, and drive latency and throughput improvements from simulation through hardware bringup.
- Own features end-to-end: from design through implementation, testing, and integration into the broader software stack.
- Contribute to CI/CD pipelines that gate model and kernel changes on correctness and performance regressions.
- Mentor engineers, drive design reviews, and raise the engineering bar across the team.
Basic qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- 7+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Strong proficiency in C/C++
- Strong Linux systems knowledge
- Experience developing compute kernels for GPUs, DSPs, or custom accelerators
- Proven track record of owning and delivering complex software features end-to-end
Preferred qualifications
- Knowledge of Machine Learning and LLM fundamentals, including transformer architecture, training/inference lifecycles, and optimization techniques
- Knowledge of ML frameworks including JAX, PyTorch, vLLM, SGLang, Dynamo, TorchXLA, and TensorRT
- Familiarity with speculative decoding, KV cache optimization, or other LLM serving optimizations
- Experience with distributed systems - collective communication, RDMA, or high-speed interconnect programming
- Experience with hardware simulation environments and model validation workflows
- Demonstrated early adopter of AI-assisted development tools - uses LLMs or code-generation agents as part of daily workflow
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 - 193,300.00 - 261,500.00 USD annually
How we rate this
Senior ML Software Engineer, Data Plane at Amazon rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● 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.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $193k
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting starts 16% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where inference was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where gpu programming was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used vLLM in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Machine learning, Inference, Distributed Systems, GPU Programming, and vLLM. 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.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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