Senior SoC Systems Software Engineer, Annapurna Labs Machine Learning Accelerators, AWS

Amazon is hiring a Senior SoC Systems Software Engineer, Annapurna Labs Machine Learning Accelerators, AWS 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 Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The listed pay starts 16% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
Level classifies it as a senior role.
Level lists 20,000+ other open roles at Amazon.

AI in this role

AWS designs custom SoCs (System on Chips) that power the world's largest machine learning training and inference clusters. Our organization builds both the SoCs and the low-level software stack that brings these chips to life — drivers that expose the hardware to the OS, runtime libraries that orchestrate computation, and collective communication software that coordinates thousands of chips working together across a network.

We're looking for a Systems Software Engineer who wants to work at the boundary between hardware and software in both pre-silicon and post-silicon, where the problems are hard, the debugging is deep, and the impact is enormous.

Our team develops SoC models and infrastructure to enable SoC validation, accelerate system software development, and enable architectural exploration. As part of the ML accelerator systems modeling software team, you will:

- Develop and own components of our SoC models, both single-chip and at the datacenter-scale level
- Debug complex hardware/software interactions across the full software stack — from register-level bring-up on functional models and emulators, to performance analysis on live silicon
- Collaborate with chip architects, RTL designers, modelers, compiler engineers, and ML framework teams to co-design and validate the hardware/software interface
- Contribute to the design of hardware features by providing a software perspective early in the chip development cycle
- Build tooling, test infrastructure, and automation that accelerates development for yourself and your teammates

Annapurna Labs, our organization within AWS, designs and deploys some of the largest custom silicon in the world. You'll work on software that runs on chips no one outside the team has seen yet, solving problems that don't have Stack Overflow answers. You'll see your code running in production on infrastructure that serves millions of ML workloads.

You will thrive in this role if you:

- Are comfortable reading hardware specs and translating them into working software
- Have debugged problems where the root cause could be in hardware, software, or the interface between them
- Have built firmware, drivers, runtime software, or communication libraries for SoCs, ASICs, GPUs, CPUs, or FPGAs
- Care about performance and have experience profiling and optimizing latency-sensitive or throughput-critical code paths
- Are comfortable in C++ close to the hardware and use Python for tooling and automation
- Enjoy working on a small, high-impact team where you own significant pieces of the stack end-to-end

Although we are building machine learning chips, no machine learning background is needed for this role. Any ML knowledge required can be learned on the job — what matters is your ability to write great low-level software and reason about hardware.

This role can be based in either Cupertino, CA or Austin, TX.

Basic qualifications

- 6+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
- 7+ years of professional experience developing firmware, drivers, runtime software, or low-level systems software for custom hardware (SoCs, ASICs, GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs)
- Experience programming in C++, Python, and/or Rust (preference for at least 2)
- Knowledge of SoC, CPU, GPU, and/or ASIC architecture and micro-architecture

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with collective communication libraries or distributed systems primitives (MPI, NCCL, RCCL, or similar)
- Experience debugging using functional models, QEMU, FPGA, or emulators
- Experience with Linux kernel development, device drivers, or bare-metal firmware
- Experience building functional or performance models of SoCs
- Experience co-designing hardware/software interfaces with architecture or RTL teams
- Familiarity with PCIe, DMA engines, on-chip interconnects, or network-on-chip architectures
- Experience with performance profiling and optimization of latency-sensitive software
- Experience with multi-threaded, multi-process, or asynchronous programming models

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
USA, CA, San Diego - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually
USA, TX, Austin - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior SoC Systems Software Engineer, Annapurna Labs Machine Learning Accelerators, AWS at Amazon rates 26 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

Senior SoC Systems Software Engineer, Annapurna Labs Machine Learning Accelerators, AWS is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $193k-$262k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Cupertino.
The job was posted on March 24, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon