AmazonSr. Software Development Engineer, Inference Team - AWS Neuron
Amazon is hiring a Sr. Software Development Engineer, Inference Team - AWS Neuron in Seattle, United States. It pays $168k-$227k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this software engineer role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Pay on this posting starts in line with the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- The posting mentions vLLM, PyTorch and JAX 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
Senior Software Engineer to lead development and optimization of large-scale LLM inference serving frameworks on AWS Neuron.
The engineer will lead the development of core serving technologies within open-source frameworks (such as vLLM and SGLang) to enable customers to serve large-scale inference efficiently on AWS Neuron. The engineer will also drive excellence in inference framework optimization and engineering best practices.
The engineer will work closely with model development engineers, performance engineers, compiler engineers, and runtime engineers to ensure end-to-end model performance and deliver production-ready accuracy, scalability, and efficiency across a broad range of models and customer use cases.
Key job responsibilities
The engineer will lead the customization and optimization of open-source inference frameworks (vLLM, SGLang) on AWS Neuron—including core framework logic such as scheduling and model execution—applying state-of-the-art techniques in kernel development, parallel computation, distributed KV cache, speculative decoding, and systems engineering to deliver best-in-class LLM serving performance.
The engineer will also influence the team's technical roadmap by evaluating emerging inference research and translating it into production-ready features, and raise the bar through design leadership and mentorship. This role requires close collaboration across model development, compiler, runtime, and performance engineering teams.
About the team
Our team is dedicated to supporting new members. We have a broad mix of experience levels and tenures, and we’re building an environment that celebrates knowledge-sharing and mentorship. Our senior members enjoy one-on-one mentoring and thorough, but kind, code reviews. We care about your career growth and strive to assign projects that help our team members develop your engineering expertise so you feel empowered to take on more complex tasks in the future.
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
- 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
- Fundamentals of Machine learning models, their architecture, training and inference lifecycles along with work experience on some optimizations for improving the model performance.
Preferred qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- Hands-on experience with PyTorch or JAX, preferably involving developing and deploying LLMs in production on GPUs, AWS Neuron, TPUs, or other AI accelerator hardware
- Experience extending or contributing to inference frameworks such as vLLM or SGLang
- Kernel development experience (e.g., CUDA, Triton)
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, WA, Seattle - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually
How we rate this
Sr. Software Development Engineer, Inference Team - AWS Neuron 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.
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.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $168k
- 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 machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where llm inference 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 performance optimization was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Machine learning, Software Engineering, LLM Inference, Distributed Systems, and Performance Optimization. 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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