AmazonSenior Robotics SDE III, Amazon Robotics - Vulcan
Amazon is hiring a Senior Robotics SDE III, Amazon Robotics - Vulcan in Seattle, United States. It pays $168k-$227k 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 Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Pay on this posting starts in line with the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- The posting mentions Python, C and Ros 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
Build software infrastructure and deployment pipelines for learned robotic manipulation behaviors at global scale.
We are seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer to join the Vulcan program as part of our Motion Behaviors team. You will work alongside experienced roboticists to develop and deploy contact-rich manipulation at speeds and scale not seen anywhere else in the world. You will drive the creation of new tools and pipelines to develop, deploy, and understand the performance of complex item manipulation policies in the messy real world of Amazon global operations. This role sits at the intersection of robotics, ML systems, and production engineering — ideal for someone who wants to build infrastructure that makes robots better every day.
Key job responsibilities
- Design and build software infrastructure for motion behavior execution, including controller interfaces, behavior configuration, and runtime introspection.
- Improve the maintainability and extensibility of the behavior stack to allow for faster development and testing.
- Build observability and debugging tools for production robot behaviors, including structured traces, failure signatures, and behavior-level metrics.
- Develop replay, regression, and evaluation infrastructure for comparing behavior versions and validating changes before production rollout.
- Define and own the safe deployment strategy for behavior changes, including versioning, feature flags, A/B testing, and automated experiment reporting.
- Build the runtime integration layer for learned behavior components, including policy wrappers, inference monitoring, safety envelopes, and fallback rationale.
- Build supportive ML training and deployment pipelines that scale as the team expands its learned behavior development.
- Set software engineering standards for the team — establishing best practices and mentoring team on testing, code quality, system reliability, and production readiness.
- Collaborate closely with applied scientists and engineers to turn algorithms and prototypes into reliable, production-ready robotic behavior capabilities.
A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:
1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options
3. Paid Time Off (PTO)
4. 401(k) Plan
If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!
Basic qualifications
- 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
- 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
- Strong proficiency in C++ and Python
- Experience building production-quality systems for robotics, autonomy, controls, or other complex real-time/near-real-time domains
- Experience with production deployment, observability, and operational excellence for systems that run continuously
Preferred qualifications
- 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- Experience with ML training pipelines, model deployment, or inference infrastructure
- Experience with data replay, simulation, and A/B testing
- Familiarity with real-time control systems, robotic middleware, and/or motion planning algorithms
- Experience with state machines, behavior trees, or autonomous system runtimes
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 - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually
How we rate this
Senior Robotics SDE III, Amazon Robotics - Vulcan at Amazon rates 70 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● 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
- $168k
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting starts close to the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where robotics was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where motion planning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used Python in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Robotics, Machine learning, Software Engineering, Motion Planning, and Python. 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.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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