Software Development Engineer II, Amazon Robotics - Manipulation

Amazon is hiring a Software Development Engineer II, Amazon Robotics - Manipulation 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

Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
The posting mentions SageMaker, PyTorch and MLflow 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 and operate ML infrastructure, deployment pipelines, and intelligence layers for Amazon Robotics manipulation systems.

SageMakerPyTorchMLflowDocker

ai-evaluationcomputer-visionmachine-learningdistributed-systemsroboticsmlopsdata-pipelines

The Fleet Performance Optimization (FPO) organization builds the intelligence layer for Amazon Robotics manipulation workcells. We own the systems that select what work a robot should attempt, monitor how it performs, and close the loop by improving models with every induct. Our platforms serve Sparrow, Cardinal, FlexCell, and Robin workcells that handle millions of packages across Amazon's fulfillment network.

We operate across the full ML and data lifecycle:

Work Selection Intelligence — Eligibility scoring and predictions (likelihood-to-empty, damage prediction, time-to-process, pick eligibility) that feed into work planners, identifying which totes and items reach each workcell.

Data & Observability — A common datalake collecting telemetry from every automated and manual workcell, fleet monitoring that detects performance degradation in real time and alerts Ops, and deep-dive tooling that enables engineers and scientists to investigate workcell behavior.

ML Lifecycle — Annotation orchestration, model training pipelines, production monitoring, and deployment infrastructure that keeps models current across the fleet.

Predictive Models — Science-developed foundational models applied to eligibility, fleet performance forecasting, and dynamic floor policies that adapt to changing conditions without manual intervention.

Our systems process tens of millions of events daily, serve real-time scoring at workcell-runtime latency, and directly impact fulfillment cost per unit.

Key job responsibilities
As an SDE on FPO, you will design, build, and operate distributed systems that sit at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and large-scale data processing. You will work closely with scientists, program facilators, and partner engineering teams to translate research into production systems that operate reliably at fleet scale.

Depending on the team, your work may include:

- Building high-throughput, event-based scoring services that process real-time inventory signals across 10+ warehouses and hundreds of workcells
- Designing config-based annotation orchestration systems that onboard new ML data pipelines without code changes
- Developing model deployment infrastructure spanning edge devices, cloud inference services, and planning systems
- Building fleet monitoring systems that use VLMs and statistical methods to detect performance anomalies and surface root causes
- Creating unified data exploration and visualization tools used daily by engineers, scientists, and operations
- Implementing ongoing learning systems that intelligently select which data to collect based on inference outcomes
- Extending our foundation models, which are the backbone for multiple prediction tasks
- Own your systems end-to-end — from design through production operations — and your work will have direct, measurable impact on workcell throughput, quality, and cost.

A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits for you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. 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!

About the team
Why FPO?
Impact at scale — Your code runs on hundreds of workcells processing millions of packages. Improvements compound across the fleet.

Science meets engineering — You work alongside ML scientists and translate their research into production systems. You don't just deploy models, you build the platforms that make the entire ML lifecycle faster.

Breadth of problems — From real-time scoring services to VLM-based monitoring to data platform design, the technical surface area is wide and deep.

Ownership — Small teams, high self-governance, direct line from your work to business outcomes.

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
- Experience programming with at least one software programming language
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- Experience designing and building distributed systems or data-intensive applications
- Experience with the full software development lifecycle: design, implementation, testing, deployment, and operations

Preferred qualifications

- 3+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Experience with ML infrastructure (training pipelines, model serving, feature stores, monitoring)
- Experience with event-driven architectures and stream processing at scale (Kinesis, Kafka, SQS)
- Experience with AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SageMaker, DynamoDB, S3, Athena)
- Experience building developer tools, data platforms, or observability systems
- Familiarity with ML concepts (model evaluation, data drift, active learning, annotation pipelines)
- Experience working in robotics, or computer vision
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code (CDK, CloudFormation)
- Strong written communication skills, ability to author design documents and influence technical decisions

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, MA, North Reading - 143,700.00 - 194,400.00 USD annually
USA, MA, Westboro - 143,700.00 - 194,400.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 143,700.00 - 194,400.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Software Development Engineer II, Amazon Robotics - Manipulation at Amazon rates 75 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 II, Amazon Robotics - Manipulation 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 July 17, 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

AI EvaluationComputer visionMachine learningDistributed SystemsRoboticsMLOpsData PipelinesSageMaker

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python LLM Java AI agents Kubernetes 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

How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where robotics was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Evaluation, Computer vision, Machine learning, Distributed Systems, and Robotics. 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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