Level

AmazonPosted 1w ago

Senior Principal Engineer, Compute Abstractions, Compute Abstractions

Senior Principal Engineer, Compute Abstractions, Compute Abstractions at Amazon scores 30 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 1 of 4 (Little AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.

US, WA, Seattleexecutivefull-time$240k-$325k

AI in this role

Leads technical strategy for AWS container compute abstractions, moving AI-driven capabilities into production.

kubernetescontainerdaws-ecsaws-eksaws-fargate
This is a Senior Principal Engineer role for Containers in AWS Compute Abstractions — a technical owner across AWS ECS, AWS EKS, AWS Fargate, AWS Batch, and AWS ECR. The role raises the level of abstraction until the operator describes a workload and the platform runs it well underneath, on a platform that cannot stop running while it changes.

Key job responsibilities
• Own technical direction for Containers — architecture, standards, and what gets built and, just as often, what gets stopped.
• Go deep in the work — design reviews, code, operational readiness — on orchestration, scheduling, isolation, and registry systems.
• Own the integrated Containers strategy — how the products fit together as one offering — and the technical direction of the container products across ECS, EKS, Fargate, Batch, and ECR.
• Drive the integration work that makes the container products stronger together than apart, and make that the fastest path for the teams building it.
• Move AI-driven capabilities in Containers from prototype into production owned and operated by the organization.
• Build, prototype, and ship — settle disputed direction by making the thing.
• Raise the bar across the Containers engineering teams through design reviews, mentorship, and technical judgment.
• Engage directly with customers running their most critical container workloads, and turn what you learn into architecture.
• Contribute to and shape the open-source projects Containers depends on — containerd, Kubernetes — and represent the organization in those communities.


A day in the life
A morning goes to a scheduling and bin-packing review, where a placement change would lift host utilization but risks a regression in task-rebalancing behavior customers rely on; the call sits with this role to make and defend. Midday it prototypes the change and lands the direction in code. It closes in the container open-source community, steering an RFC on a project the portfolio depends on toward the architecture Containers is moving to.

Basic qualifications

• 10+ years of design and development engineering experience.
• Experience collaborating across multiple organizations and influencing key outcomes.
• Experience as a technical leader of multiple concurrent projects, driving strategic technical decisions.
• A track record of technical decisions that held up — at scale, under pressure, over time.
• The ability to influence without authority and earn trust through technical credibility.


Preferred qualifications

• Deep expertise in container orchestration, Kubernetes internals, scheduling and bin-packing, runtime and isolation, or registry and supply-chain systems.
• Experience turning a mature, high-revenue platform toward a new abstraction layer while it stayed in production.
• Hands-on experience building and iterating on AI-driven systems, from prototype through production.
• Public technical presence — standards, open source, or published work the industry builds on.


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

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, WA, Seattle - 240,100.00 - 324,800.00 USD annually

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

KubernetesContainerdAws EcsAws EksAws Fargate

Questions you could be asked

  1. What's a project where you used Kubernetes hands-on?
  2. Walk me through how you've used Containerd in your day-to-day work.
  3. What are the limits of Aws Ecs that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
  4. What's a project where you used Aws Eks hands-on?
  5. Walk me through how you've used Aws Fargate in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: Kubernetes, Containerd, Aws Ecs, Aws Eks, and Aws Fargate. 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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