Senior Software Development Engineer - AI/ML, AWS Neuron

$193K - $261K Seattle, WA, US Senior AI Product Manager

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Skills & Technologies

AwsJaxLlamaPythonPytorchRagRust

About This Role

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DESCRIPTION

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The Annapurna Labs team at Amazon Web Services (AWS) builds AWS Neuron, the software development kit used to accelerate deep learning and GenAI workloads on Amazon’s custom machine learning accelerators, Inferentia and Trainium.

The AWS Neuron SDK, developed by the Annapurna Labs team at AWS, is the backbone for accelerating deep learning and GenAI workloads on Amazon's Inferentia and Trainium ML accelerators. This comprehensive toolkit includes an ML compiler, runtime, and application framework that seamlessly integrates with popular ML frameworks like PyTorch and JAX enabling unparalleled ML inference and training performance.

The Inference Enablement and Acceleration team is at the forefront of running a wide range of models and supporting novel architecture alongside maximizing their performance for AWS's custom ML accelerators. Working across the stack from PyTorch till the hardware\-software boundary, our engineers build systematic infrastructure, innovate new methods and create high\-performance kernels for ML functions, ensuring every compute unit is fine tuned for optimal performance for our customers' demanding workloads. We combine deep hardware knowledge with ML expertise to push the boundaries of what's possible in AI acceleration.

As part of the broader Neuron organization, our team works across multiple technology layers \- from frameworks and kernels and collaborate with compiler to runtime and collectives. We not only optimize current performance but also contribute to future architecture designs, working closely with customers to enable their models and ensure optimal performance. This role offers a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of machine learning, high\-performance computing, and distributed architectures, where you'll help shape the future of AI acceleration technology

You will architect and implement business critical features, and mentor a brilliant team of experienced engineers. We operate in spaces that are very large, yet our teams remain small and agile. There is no blueprint. We're inventing. We're experimenting. It is a very unique learning culture. The team works closely with customers on their model enablement, providing direct support and optimization expertise to ensure their machine learning workloads achieve optimal performance on AWS ML accelerators. The team collaborates with open source ecosystems to provide seamless integration and bring peak performance at scale for customers and developers.

This role is responsible for development, enablement and performance tuning of a wide variety of LLM model families, including massive scale large language models like the Llama family, DeepSeek and beyond. The Inference Enablement and Acceleration team works side by side with compiler engineers and runtime engineers to create, build and tune distributed inference solutions with Trainium and Inferentia. Experience optimizing inference performance for both latency and throughput on such large models across the stack from system level optimizations through to Pytorch or JAX is a must have.

You can learn more about Neuron

https://awsdocs\-neuron.readthedocs\-hosted.com/en/latest/neuron\-guide/neuron\-cc/index.html

https://aws.amazon.com/machine\-learning/neuron/

https://github.com/aws/aws\-neuron\-sdk

https://www.amazon.science/how\-silicon\-innovation\-became\-the\-secret\-sauce\-behind\-awss\-success

Key job responsibilities

This role will help lead the efforts in building distributed inference support for Pytorch in the Neuron SDK. This role will tune these models to ensure highest performance and maximize the efficiency of them running on the customer AWS Trainium and Inferentia silicon and servers. Strong software development using Python, System level programming and ML knowledge are both critical to this role. Our engineers collaborate across compiler, runtime, framework, and hardware teams to optimize machine learning workloads for our global customer base. Working at the intersection of software, hardware, and machine learning systems, you'll bring expertise in low\-level optimization, system architecture, and ML model acceleration. In this role, you will:

  • Design, develop, and optimize machine learning models and frameworks for deployment on custom ML hardware accelerators.
  • Participate in all stages of the ML system development lifecycle including distributed computing based architecture design, implementation, performance profiling, hardware\-specific optimizations, testing and production deployment.
  • Build infrastructure to systematically analyze and onboard multiple models with diverse architecture.
  • Design and implement high\-performance kernels and features for ML operations, leveraging the Neuron architecture and programming models
  • Analyze and optimize system\-level performance across multiple generations of Neuron hardware
  • Conduct detailed performance analysis using profiling tools to identify and resolve bottlenecks
  • Implement optimizations such as fusion, sharding, tiling, and scheduling
  • Conduct comprehensive testing, including unit and end\-to\-end model testing with continuous deployment and releases through pipelines.
  • Work directly with customers to enable and optimize their ML models on AWS accelerators
  • Collaborate across teams to develop innovative optimization techniques

A day in the life

You will collaborate with a cross\-functional team of applied scientists, system engineers, and product managers to deliver state\-of\-the\-art inference capabilities for Generative AI applications. Your work will involve debugging performance issues, optimizing memory usage, and shaping the future of Neuron's inference stack across Amazon and the Open Source Community. As you design and code solutions to help our team drive efficiencies in software architecture, you’ll create metrics, implement automation and other improvements, and resolve the root cause of software defects.

You will also build high\-impact solutions to deliver to our large customer base and participate in design discussions, code review, and communicate with internal and external stakeholders. You will work cross\-functionally to help drive business decisions with your technical input. You will work in a startup\-like development environment, where you’re always working on the most important initiative.

About the team

The Inference Enablement and Acceleration team fosters a builder’s culture where experimentation is encouraged, and impact is measurable. We emphasize collaboration, technical ownership, and continuous learning. 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. Join us to solve some of the most interesting and impactful infrastructure challenges in AI/ML today.BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

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  • 5\+ years of non\-internship professional software development experience
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science
  • 5\+ years of non\-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
  • Fundamentals of Machine learning and LLMs, their architecture, training and inference lifecycles along with work experience on optimizations for improving the model execution.
  • Software development experience in C\+\+, Python (experience in at least one language is required).
  • Strong understanding of system performance, memory management, and parallel computing principles.
  • Proficiency in debugging, profiling, and implementing best software engineering practices in large\-scale systems.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

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  • Familiarity with PyTorch, JIT compilation, and AOT tracing.
  • Familiarity with CUDA kernels or equivalent ML or low\-level kernels.
  • Candidates with performant kernel development such as CUTLASS, FlashInfer etc., would be well suited.
  • Familiar with syntax and tile\-level semantics similar to Triton.
  • Experience with online/offline inference serving with vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT or similar platforms in production environments.
  • Deep understanding of computer architecture, operation systems level software and working knowledge of parallel computing.

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 \- 193,300\.00 \- 261,500\.00 USD annually

USA, WA, Seattle \- 168,100\.00 \- 227,400\.00 USD annually

Salary Context

This $193K-$261K range is above the 75th percentile for AI Product Manager roles in our dataset (median: $174K across 475 roles with salary data).

View full AI Product Manager salary data →

Role Details

Company Amazon.com
Title Senior Software Development Engineer - AI/ML, AWS Neuron
Location Seattle, WA, US
Experience Senior
Salary $193K - $261K
Remote No

About This Role

AI Product Managers define what AI features get built and why. They translate business problems into ML-solvable tasks, work with engineering to scope model requirements, and own the metrics that determine if an AI feature is working. The role requires a rare combination of technical fluency and product instinct.

Unlike traditional product management, AI PM work involves managing uncertainty at a fundamental level. Your model might work 90% of the time. What happens the other 10%? What's the user experience when the AI is wrong? How do you measure 'good enough' for a probabilistic system? These questions don't have easy answers, and the AI PM is the person responsible for finding them.

Across the 26,159 AI roles we're tracking, AI Product Manager positions make up 2% of the market. At Amazon.com, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week includes: reviewing model evaluation results with the ML team, defining success metrics for a new AI feature, conducting user research on how customers respond to AI-generated outputs, writing product requirements that include accuracy thresholds and fallback behaviors, and presenting the AI roadmap to leadership. You're the translator between technical capability and business value.

AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.

Skills Required

Aws (34% of roles) Jax (1% of roles) Llama (2% of roles) Python (15% of roles) Pytorch (4% of roles) Rag (64% of roles) Rust (29% of roles)

Technical fluency with ML concepts is essential, though you won't be writing models. Expect to understand training data, evaluation metrics, model limitations, and responsible AI practices. SQL and basic Python are increasingly expected. Experience with A/B testing, data analysis, and product analytics is baseline. Understanding LLM capabilities and limitations is now a core requirement.

The differentiator is AI-specific product thinking: knowing when to use ML vs. heuristics, understanding the cost of training data collection, designing graceful degradation for model failures, and building products that improve with usage data. Experience with AI safety, bias mitigation, and responsible AI deployment is increasingly important.

Strong postings describe specific AI products the PM will own, mention the ML team structure, and talk about measurement methodology. Look for companies that have already shipped AI features. Roles at companies that are 'exploring AI' often mean you'll spend a year defining the strategy before any building happens.

Compensation Benchmarks

AI Product Manager roles pay a median of $204,600 based on 532 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($227K) sits 11% above the category median. Disclosed range: $193K to $261K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Architect ($292,900). By seniority level: Entry: $76,880; Mid: $131,300; Senior: $227,400; Director: $244,288; VP: $234,620.

Amazon.com AI Hiring

Amazon.com has 488 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Product Manager, Data Scientist, Research Scientist. Positions span New York, NY, US, Seattle, WA, US, Arlington, VA, US. Compensation range: $52K - $342K.

Location Context

AI roles in Seattle pay a median of $223,600 across 678 tracked positions. That's 22% above the national median.

Career Path

Common paths into AI Product Manager roles include Product Manager, Data Analyst, Technical Program Manager.

From here, career progression typically leads toward Director of AI Product, VP Product, Head of AI.

The most effective path is PM experience plus self-directed AI education. Take Andrew Ng's courses, build a small ML project, and learn enough Python to read model evaluation code. The goal isn't to become an ML engineer. It's to have credibility in technical conversations and to understand what's possible, what's hard, and what's a bad idea.

What to Expect in Interviews

AI interviews typically combine coding challenges (Python-focused), system design questions tailored to the role, and discussions about your experience with relevant tools and frameworks. Strong candidates demonstrate both technical depth and the ability to make pragmatic engineering tradeoffs. Prepare portfolio projects that demonstrate end-to-end capability rather than isolated skills.

When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe specific AI products the PM will own, mention the ML team structure, and talk about measurement methodology. Look for companies that have already shipped AI features. Roles at companies that are 'exploring AI' often mean you'll spend a year defining the strategy before any building happens.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 26,159 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 2,416 entry-level, 16,247 mid-level, 5,153 senior, and 2,343 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 7% of the market (1,863 positions). The remaining 24,200 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 28 roles); AI Architect ($292,900 median, 108 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 19 roles).

AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 26,159 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (23,752), AI Software Engineer (598), AI Product Manager (594). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (2,416) are outnumbered by mid-level (16,247) and senior (5,153) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 2,343 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 7% of all AI roles (1,863 positions), with 24,200 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $184,000. Top-quartile roles start at $244,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $309,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $122,200. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Rag (16,749 postings), Aws (8,932 postings), Rust (7,660 postings), Python (3,815 postings), Azure (2,678 postings), Gcp (2,247 postings), Prompt Engineering (1,469 postings), Openai (1,269 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 532 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI Product Manager positions is $204,600. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Technical fluency with ML concepts is essential, though you won't be writing models. Expect to understand training data, evaluation metrics, model limitations, and responsible AI practices. SQL and basic Python are increasingly expected. Experience with A/B testing, data analysis, and product analytics is baseline. Understanding LLM capabilities and limitations is now a core requirement.
About 7% of the 26,159 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Amazon.com is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI Product Manager positions include Director of AI Product, VP Product, Head of AI. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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