Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Amgen Inc. (IR); Thousand Oaks (CA); Hybrid; USD 187,000 - 254,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock-based long-term incentives

Flexible work models

Retirement and Savings Plan

Medical/Dental/Vision coverage

Job summary

Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, CA seeks a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to own enterprise AI/ML architecture, standards, APIs, and guardrails across cloud and on‑prem environments.

You will define technical standards and partner with DevOps, Security, Compliance and Product teams to deliver scalable, enterprise‑grade AI solutions. You will build production ML/GenAI applications, establish observability and SLOs, and lead evaluation, retraining and model governance while mentoring squads and

Qualifications

• Doctorate/PhD or equivalent with ML engineering experience
• Minimum 3-5 years in AI/ML and enterprise software
• Strong command of ML algorithms and modern LLM/RAG techniques
• Experience selecting and integrating AI SaaS/PaaS offerings and building ML services at scale

Responsibilities

• Own enterprise AI/ML architecture, standards, APIs, and guardrails across cloud/on‑prem
• Build production ML/GenAI solutions and lightweight apps delivering sub‑second insights
• Build end-to-end ML pipelines (data ingestion, feature engineering, training, evaluation, deployment) using MLOps stacks
• Establish observability, SLOs, and safe deploys with incident runbooks
• Lead rigorous offline/online evaluation, drift detection, and retraining
• Architect LLM/RAG with prompt management and safety guardrails
• Contribute reusable ML/GenAI components and best practices
• Mentor teams and translate domain needs into roadmaps across R&D/Manufacturing/Commercial

Skills

Machine learning algorithms

GenAI tooling

Python

Docker/Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

DevOps/MLOps

Stakeholder management

LLMs and RAG

Experiment tracking

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science/IT

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/IT

GenAI/ML platform certifications

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

SageMaker Pipelines

Bedrock

GitHub Actions

Job description

Career Category Information Systems Job Description

Join Amgen's Mission of Serving Patients At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission - to serve patients living with serious illnesses - drives all that we do. Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas - Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease- we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives. Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

What you will do Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will Own enterprise AI/ML architecture, standards, APIs, and guardrails across cloud/on-prem. We are seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer-Amgen’s most senior individual-contributor authority on building and scaling end-to-end machine-learning and generative-AI solutions. Sitting at the intersection of engineering excellence and data-science enablement, you will develop, deploy and monitor models - classical ML, deep learning and LLMs - securely and cost-effectively. Acting as a "player-coach," you will establish AI solution strategy, define technical standards, and partner with DevOps, Security, Compliance and Product teams to deliver a frictionless, enterprise-grade AI solutions.

• Own enterprise AI/ML architecture, standards, APIs, and guardrails across cloud/on-prem.
• Build production ML/GenAI solutions and lightweight apps delivering sub-second insights.
• Build end-to-end ML pipelines - data ingestion, feature engineering, training, hyper-parameter optimisation, evaluation, registration and automated promotion - using Kubeflow, SageMaker Pipelines, Open AI SDK or equivalent MLOps stacks.
• Build and maintain full-stack AI applications by integrating model services with lightweight UI components, workflow engines or business-logic layers so insights reach users with sub-second latency.
• Establish observability, SLOs, and safe deploys (blue-green/canary, shadow, rollbacks) with incident runbooks.
• Lead rigorous evaluation (offline/online, A/B), drift detection, and automated retraining.
• Architect LLM/RAG with prompt management, safety guardrails, and optimized inference.
• Enforce data quality, lineage, and model/data cards; apply privacy-preserving techniques where needed.
• Contribute reusable ML/GenAI components - feature stores, model registries, experiment-tracking libraries and evangelize best practices that raise engineering velocity across squads.
• Perform exploratory data analysis and feature ideation on complex, high-dimensional datasets to inform algorithm selection and ensure model robustness.
• Prototype and benchmark new algorithms, offering guidance on scalability trade-offs and production-readiness while co-owning model-performance KPIs.
• Translate domain needs (R&D, Manufacturing, Commercial) into roadmaps; mentor teams and communicate trade-offs.

Basic Qualifications

• Doctorate degree and 2 years of Machine Learning Engineer experience
• Master’s degree and 6 years of Machine Learning Engineer experience
• Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of Machine Learning Engineer experience
• Associate’s degree and 10 years of Machine Learning Engineer experience
• High school diploma / GED and 12 years of Machine Learning Engineer experience
• Minimum of 2 years experience directly managing people and/or leadership experience leading teams, projects, programs, or directing the allocation or resources.
• 3-5 years in AI/ML and enterprise software.
• Strong command of machine-learning algorithms - regression, tree-based ensembles, clustering, dimensionality reduction, time-series models, deep-learning architectures (CNNs, RNNs, transformers) and modern LLM/RAG techniques - with the judgment to choose, tune and operationalize the right method for a given business problem.
• Proven track record selecting and integrating AI SaaS/PaaS offerings and building custom ML services at scale.
• Expert knowledge of GenAI tooling: vector databases, RAG pipelines, prompt-engineering DSLs and agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel).
• Proficiency in Python and Java; containerization (Docker/K8s); cloud (AWS, Azure or GCP) and modern DevOps/MLOps (GitHub Actions, Bedrock/SageMaker Pipelines).
• Strong business-case skills - able to model TCO vs. NPV and present trade-offs to executives.
• Exceptional stakeholder management; can translate complex technical concepts into concise, outcome-oriented narratives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Biotechnology or pharma industry is a big plus
• Published thought-leadership or conference talks on enterprise GenAI adoption.
• Master’s degree in Computer Science and or Data Science
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for project delivery.

Education and Professional Certifications

• Master’s degree with 10-12 + years of experience in Computer Science, IT or related field
• Bachelor’s degree with 12-14 + years of experience in Computer Science, IT or related field
• Certifications on GenAI/ML platforms (AWS AI, Azure AI Engineer, Google Cloud ML, etc.) are a plus.

Soft Skills

• Excellent analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work effectively with global, virtual teams
• High degree of initiative and self-motivation.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities successfully.
• Team-oriented, with a focus on achieving team goals.
• Ability to learn quickly, be organized and detail oriented.
• Strong presentation and public speaking skills.

What you can expect of us

As we work to develop treatments that take care of others, we also work to care for your professional and personal growth and well-being. From our competitive benefits to our collaborative culture, we’ll support your journey every step of the way.

The expected annual salary range for this role in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico) is posted. Actual salary will vary based on several factors including but not limited to, relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

In addition to the base salary, Amgen offers a Total Rewards Plan, based on eligibility, comprising of health and welfare plans for staff and eligible dependents, financial plans with opportunities to save towards retirement or other goals, work/life balance, and career development opportunities that may include:

• A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts
• A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan
• Stock-based long-term incentives
• Award-winning time-off plans
• Flexible work models where possible.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship for this role is not guaranteed.

Equal Opportunity

Amgen is an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by applicable law. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Salary Range

187,395.25USD -253,534.75 USD

About Amgen

Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology. Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its biologics manufacturing expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential. For more information, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on www.twitter.com/amgen