Software Development Manager, Alexa for shopping (Rufus)

Amazon is hiring a Software Development Manager, Alexa for shopping (Rufus) in London, United Kingdom. Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
The posting mentions Python, LLMs and machine learning among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Lead software development and engineering teams building agentic AI systems and LLM-powered shopping experiences like Rufus.

PythonLLMs

machine-learningsoftware-developmentagentic-aiconversational-ai

We're building the future of AI-powered shopping. Our team is developing next-generation conversational and agentic experiences powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), enabling customers to discover products, ask complex shopping questions, compare options, receive personalized recommendations, and accomplish shopping tasks in entirely new ways.

Alexa for Shopping brings together Amazon's AI-powered shopping experiences, including Rufus, our expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon's product catalog and information from across the web. Rufus helps customers answer product questions, perform product comparisons, receive recommendations based on their shopping context, and facilitate product discovery - all within the Amazon shopping experience.

We're looking for the best and brightest across Amazon to help us realize and deliver this vision to our customers right away.

More specifically, this role is in a team that is building new software systems and customer experiences that will greatly expand Rufus's availability to new cohorts of customers. The team is building agentic AI systems powered by LLMs, working at the intersection of cutting-edge AI technology and one of the world's largest e-commerce platforms. This team is considered strategic and has visibility with leadership at the highest levels.

The role offers a chance to build and launch AI-powered customer experiences from the ground up, and work closely with an exceptional group of product, engineering, and science leaders to shape the future of shopping at Amazon.

Key job responsibilities
• Influence the strategic direction and vision of the organization through an understanding of the intersection of business/customer needs and how these intersect with technical capabilities and opportunities.
• Provide technical leadership, vision and career guidance to team members.
• Create a culture of pride in engineering and operational excellence and drive best practices within teams and across organization.
• Be strategic about defining and building a engineering culture that takes ownership and delivers high performance engineering solutions.
• Work closely with technical (engineering and science) teams, design, and product/program management in an agile environment to deliver the best technical designs and approaches.
• Anticipate bottlenecks, provide escalation management, anticipate and make trade-offs, and balance the business needs versus technical constraints.

A day in the life
This Software Development Manager will:
- Manage a highly talented team of SDEs on the Rufus Agentic team, building scalable software systems and customer experiences powered by AI and LLM technologies. The role involves interacting with product, program, engineering, science, and other Rufus and broader Amazon teams to clarify requirements and build execution plans for the team.
- Define tactical actions to unblock the team and lay out a strategic quarter- or year-long vision for the team to improve its efficiency and deliver better AI-powered solutions for Amazon's customers.

Basic qualifications

- Experience managing a team of high calibre Software Engineers developing complex, world class, scalable software systems that have been successfully delivered to customers
- Experience designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems
- Experience delivering products against plan in a fast-paced, multi-disciplined, distributed-responsibility and often ambiguous environment
- Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations
- Experience in leading the definition and development of multi tier web services
- Experience partnering with product and program management teams

Preferred qualifications

- Experience in communicating with users, other technical teams, and senior leadership to collect requirements, describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy
- Experience in recruiting, hiring, mentoring/coaching and managing teams of Software Engineers to improve their skills, and make them more effective, product software engineers
- Experience building products leveraging large language models, generative AI, or agentic AI systems

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.

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.

How we rate this

Software Development Manager, Alexa for shopping (Rufus) 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 Manager, Alexa for shopping (Rufus) is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The role is based in GB, London.
The job was posted on August 19, 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

Machine learningSoftware DevelopmentAgentic AIConversational AIPythonLLMs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where software development was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where agentic ai was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where conversational ai was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Python in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Machine learning, Software Development, Agentic AI, Conversational AI, and Python. 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.

Get your CV reviewed before you apply

Send your CV and the role you want next. Your review arrives by email within 3 days.

Get a free CV review Check your resume with the ATS resume checker