Software Development Engineer, Trainium Systems

Amazon is hiring a Software Development Engineer, Trainium Systems in San Diego, United States. It pays $165k-$224k 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 Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
The listed pay starts close to the typical software engineer posting on Level.
Tools and skills the posting cites include AWS, distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
Level lists 21,000+ other open roles at Amazon.
The role was posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

Develop the software management plane that provisions, operates, and monitors custom AI training and inference silicon like Trainium.

aws

distributed-systemscloud-infrastructurehardware

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build the software systems that turn a rack of AI accelerators from inert silicon into a system a customer can run workloads on? Do you want deep ownership of a service that every one of those systems depends on to boot, run, and stay healthy?

Who are we?
Annapurna Labs is the part of Amazon that designs the custom silicon behind the cloud, including Trainium for AI training, Graviton CPUs, and the AWS Nitro system. Nearly every server in AWS runs hardware we designed. We build the chips, the systems, and the software that power some of the largest AI training and inference workloads in the world.

What do we do?
We build the software that provisions, operates, updates, and monitors the servers behind AWS's largest AI training workloads, built on Trainium, Graviton, and the AWS Nitro system. We give the people who run this hardware a complete way to stand it up, watch its health, deliver new software to it, and diagnose it, all through open, standard interfaces. We own that software from design through the running system.

Why it's high-impact?
The hardware is just silicon until our software makes it provisionable, observable, and serviceable. Every system runs through what we build. The service you own is on the path for all of them, and the people who run this hardware depend on it every day.

What's the challenge?
There are many ambiguous and difficult challenges in our fast-moving space. Our services require deep system and software expertise. You need to have the ability to work within a fast moving and startup-like environment in a large company. You will identify solutions, trying ideas, given space to fail and iterate to produce products that your customers love.

What you will do?
You own a service in the management plane, in provisioning, monitoring, telemetry, software delivery, or diagnostics, depending on where the team needs you. You take it from design to production, you work backward from what the operator needs, and you build on the interfaces the hardware teams expose.

Who would succeed in this role?
An engineer who likes building and operating a service in production and takes it the whole way. You read logs and reason across process and system boundaries, you ship in small verifiable steps, and you turn requirements into a service other people rely on.

Key job responsibilities
- Own the design and implementation of a large component or service in the management plane, in provisioning, monitoring, telemetry, software delivery, or diagnostics.
- Make the application-level trade-offs on your component, and seek direction on the calls that reach beyond it.
- Automate and simplify the team's development, test, and operations work, and mentor peers as you grow.
- work backward from customer requirements and deliver solutions that are simple.

A day in the life
You design and build the provisioning and management surface over standard interfaces like Redfish, and the boot flow operator tools drive. You build the offline software-update service and prove the signed bundle applies and recovers cleanly. You design each system against the interfaces the platform exposes and turn architecture decisions into APIs and tools a customer runs without you in the loop.

About the team
Our team builds the software suite for provisioning, monitoring, software delivery, and the diagnostics of Trainium systems, and we build all of it on open, standard interfaces. We serve the engineers and operators who run large-scale AI training and need to provision, monitor, update, and troubleshoot it on their own terms. We own it end to end.

We're a small team with a large charter. You own real systems on day one. There are no layers between you and the problem. You build it, you ship it, you operate it, you improve it.

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
- 3+ years of software development engineer or related occupational experience
- 3+ 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
- 2+ years of contributing to new and current systems architecture and design (architecture, design patterns, reliability and scaling) 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

- 4+ 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 building complex software systems that have been successfully delivered to customers
- Experience in debugging, profiling, and implementing software engineering best practices in large-scale systems
- Knowledge of computer architecture, operating systems, and parallel computing
- Knowledge of professional software engineering & best practices for full software development life cycle, including coding standards, software architectures, code reviews, source control management, continuous deployments, testing, and operational excellence

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 - 165,200.00 - 223,600.00 USD annually
USA, CA, San Diego - 143,700.00 - 194,400.00 USD annually
USA, TX, Austin - 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, Trainium Systems at Amazon rates 85 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● 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, Trainium Systems is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $165k-$224k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, San Diego.
The job was posted on October 28, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
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

Distributed SystemsCloud InfrastructureHardwareAWS

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python LLM Machine learning AI agents Kubernetes Generative AI

Pay

This job starts at: $165k
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 distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where cloud infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where hardware was part of your work. What did you do?
What's a project where you used AWS hands-on?
How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Distributed Systems, Cloud Infrastructure, Hardware, and AWS. 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.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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