Software Development Engineer, Ads AI Core Infra

Amazon is hiring a Software Development Engineer, Ads AI Core Infra in Seattle, United States. It pays $144k-$194k 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.
The posting mentions software engineering, developer productivity and workflow automation among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a mid-level role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Build AI-native developer products and workflows to improve engineering velocity and systems for the Ads AI Core Infra team.

software-engineeringdeveloper-productivityworkflow-automation

Amazon is investing heavily in building a world class advertising business and we are responsible for defining and delivering a collection of self-service performance advertising products that drive discovery and sales. Our products are strategically important to our Retail and Marketplace businesses driving long term growth. We deliver billions of ad impressions and millions of clicks daily and are breaking fresh ground to create world-class products. We are highly motivated, collaborative and fun-loving with an entrepreneurial spirit and bias for action. With a broad mandate to experiment and innovate, we are growing at an unprecedented rate with a seemingly endless range of new opportunities.

Ads AI Core Infra (ACI) organization owns services supporting many functions across the advertising lifecycle like Accounts, Permissions, Campaign Management, Builder Productivity, Analytics and Availability and Quality Assurance etc. Our top focus areas are to innovate on behalf of our customers, support partner business launches and improve our engineering systems for feature velocity, availability, performance and scale. This role will see you collaborate with a large number of teams across WW Advertising to drive key initiatives that improve builder productivity and development velocity.

You'll become part of a highly motivated team of talented builders who can collaborate with product managers, technical specialists, and principals across the company. You should be comfortable with a degree of ambiguity that’s higher than most projects and relish the idea of solving problems that, haven’t been solved at scale before - anywhere. You will encounter challenging, novel situations every day and given the size of this initiative, you’ll have the opportunity to work with multiple technical teams at Amazon in different locations. We’re looking for self-motivated engineers who are passionate about innovating on behalf of customers, can demonstrate a high degree of teamwork, and want to have fun while they make history and collaborate on beautiful products.

The Builder Productivity team owns the Ads-wide charter to improve development velocity and lower the cost to operate. As an SDE, you will help build AI-native developer products and workflows that make it easier for Ads engineers to plan, build, test, deploy, and operate software. You will work on systems that reduce delivery friction, support safe cross-team changes, and help move Ads from AI-assisted development toward AI-native development, with engineers retaining control of critical decisions.

A successful candidate will have strong technical skills and a history of delivering high quality code to solve complex business problems. You are comfortable building AI-native systems that improve the experience and outcomes of engineers. Written and verbal communication in this role are critical: you will author technical documents and communicate clearly with engineering partners.

Key job responsibilities
- Engage with Product & Program Managers to understand customer requirements and brainstorm on solutions.
- Design, code and deploy scalable services and platform components that support developer tooling across Ads.
- Ensure testability, maintainability and low operational footprint for your code.
- Participate in operational responsibilities with your team.
- Work directly with Ads builders to understand friction in their development workflows and turn their feedback into improvements to developer tools and services.
- Build AI-native capabilities that help builders discover relevant context, plan and execute changes, and navigate software delivery workflows more efficiently.

About the team
Builder Productivity is a team within Ads AI Core Infra that builds developer experiences and shared services for engineers across Amazon Ads. Our customers are the engineers who create, evolve, and operate Ads products. We focus on removing friction from everyday software delivery, making information easier to find, workflows easier to navigate, and engineering work easier to complete with confidence. We work at the intersection of developer tooling, distributed systems, and applied AI. We collaborate closely with engineering teams across Ads, value clear writing and practical technical judgment, and give engineers meaningful ownership of products with broad internal reach.

Basic qualifications

- 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 2+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- 1+ years of software development engineer or related occupational experience
- 1+ years of designing and developing large-scale, multi-tiered, multi-threaded, embedded or distributed software applications, tools, systems, and services using: C#, C++, Java, or Perl experience
- 1+ years of Object Oriented Design experience
- Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
- Experience programming with at least one software programming language

Preferred qualifications

- 3+ 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.

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 - 143,700.00 - 194,400.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Software Development Engineer, Ads AI Core Infra at Amazon rates 65 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.

Classification

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.

Key facts

Software Development Engineer, Ads AI Core Infra is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The listed salary is $144k-$194k a year.
The role is based in US, WA, Seattle.
The job was posted on September 23, 2026.
Seniority: mid.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Software EngineeringDeveloper ProductivityWorkflow Automation

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python AWS LLM Kubernetes AI agents TypeScript

Pay

This job starts at: $144k
Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting starts 14% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where developer productivity was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where workflow automation was part of your work. What did you do?
Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, Developer Productivity, and Workflow Automation. 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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