Senior Software Development Engineer, AI Studios Engineering

Amazon is hiring a Senior Software Development Engineer, AI Studios Engineering in Culver City, United States. It pays $168k-$227k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: aI is not part of the work.
Pay on this posting starts in line with the typical software engineer posting on Level.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Join us as a Software Development Engineer on the AI Studios Engineering org within Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, where you'll build intelligent systems at the intersection of AI and cinematic storytelling. This role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to Nara, our AI-native content creation platform that empowers creators to produce professional animation and live action content featuring world-class intellectual properties at unprecedented speed and scale.   In this role, you'll develop production-quality code for AI-powered creative tools while learning from experienced engineers and scientists. You'll work alongside creative professionals (animators, filmmakers, and storytellers) implementing features that directly transform how animation and live action/VFX content is made for Prime Video's most ambitious productions. This is an ideal opportunity for engineers who are passionate about AI/ML applications in entertainment and want to grow their skills while contributing to industry-defining products featuring iconic IPs.

Key job responsibilities
Design, develop, and maintain software components for our AI-native content creation platform, supporting professional animation and live action/VFX workflows   Implement features across the stack—from backend services, media processing pipelines, and APIs to ML model integrations and creator-facing tooling—with guidance from senior engineers   Write clean, well-tested, and maintainable code while participating in code reviews to both give and receive constructive feedback   Collaborate with cross-functional teams including ML scientists, applied scientists, product managers, and creative professionals to understand requirements and deliver solutions   Contribute to integrations with industry-standard Digital Content Creation (DCC) tools such as Adobe Animate, After Effects, Maya, and Storyboard Pro   Troubleshoot and debug issues in production systems, contributing to operational excellence and system reliability   Participate in on-call rotations and contribute to improving system monitoring, alerting, and documentation   Continuously learn new technologies, tools, and methodologies relevant to AI/ML systems, media processing, and distributed computing

A day in the life
As an SDE on the AI Studios team, you'll spend most of your time writing and reviewing code, with regular opportunities to collaborate with teammates on design discussions. A typical day might include building API endpoints for our creator tooling platform, implementing new features for our live action VFX pipeline, or debugging an integration with our proprietary AI models. What makes this role unique is the opportunity to work on-site alongside VFX artists and creative professionals, sitting with them as they use your tools, watching where workflows break down, and iterating rapidly to meet the demands of production timelines. You'll participate in team standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives while building your understanding of our systems. You'll have opportunities to learn from experienced engineers and gradually take on more complex challenges as you grow, all while working on technology that powers content featuring world-class IPs.

About the team
We're part of the Engineering org within newly established Prime Video's AI Studios Division, pioneering AI-native cinematic content creation. Our mission is to establish Amazon MGM Studios as the definitive leader in AI-enabled content creation—giving creators unprecedented control over AI outputs while materially reducing production costs and timelines for animation and live action productions featuring world-class intellectual properties.   Our engineering team spans distributed systems engineers building scalable infrastructure, ML engineers optimizing model training and inference, and full-stack engineers crafting intuitive interfaces for creative collaboration. We're building Nara, our AI-native platform, along with proprietary AI models (Genies) for animation, Live Action/VFX copilots, and integrations with industry-standard creative tools. We work in a fast-paced, innovative environment where you'll contribute to technology transforming how iconic entertainment content is made.

Prime Video is a first-stop entertainment destination offering customers a vast collection of premium programming in one app available across thousands of devices. Prime members can customize their viewing experience and find their favorite movies, series, documentaries, and live sports – including Amazon MGM Studios-produced series and movies; licensed fan favorites; and programming from Prime Video add-on subscriptions such as Apple TV+, Max, Crunchyroll and MGM+. All customers, regardless of whether they have a Prime membership or not, can rent or buy titles via the Prime Video Store, and can enjoy even more content for free with ads.

Are you interested in shaping the future of entertainment? Prime Video's technology teams are creating best-in-class digital video experience.

As a Prime Video technologist, you’ll have end-to-end ownership of the product, user experience, design, and technology required to deliver state-of-the-art experiences for our customers. You’ll get to work on projects that are fast-paced, challenging, and varied. You’ll also be able to experiment with new possibilities, take risks, and collaborate with remarkable people.

We’ll look for you to bring your diverse perspectives, ideas, and skill-sets to make Prime Video even better for our customers. With global opportunities for talented technologists, you can decide where a career Prime Video Tech takes you!

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

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

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, Culver City - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York - 184,900.00 - 250,200.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior Software Development Engineer, AI Studios Engineering at Amazon rates 24 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 Software Development Engineer, AI Studios Engineering is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $168k-$227k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Culver City.
The job was posted on July 20, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon