Principal, Senior, Distinguished Engineer, AWS Applied AI Solutions

Amazon Web Services (AWS); Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 200,100 - 270,600; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon.com Services LLC in Herndon, VA is seeking Principal, Senior, and Distinguished Engineers to own and ship finished AI solutions at enterprise scale. You will architect end-to-end systems where thousands of autonomous agents operate in real time, making consequential production decisions and collaborating with humans.

Responsibilities include steering architectural strategy across AWS Applied AI Solutions, mentoring engineers, recruiting top technical talent, and driving engineering

Qualifications

• 10+ years of design and development engineering experience.
• Experience influencing outcomes across organizations.
• Experience as a technical leader of multiple concurrent projects, driving strategic technical decisions.

Responsibilities

• Deliver strategic technical projects and design new software systems at scale.
• Lead architecture and engineering strategy for enterprise AI solutions across multiple domains.
• Mentor and guide engineers while solving complex technical challenges hands-on.
• Work cross-functional with Principal Engineers and teams across AWS Applied AI Solutions.
• Scout and recruit top technical talent, actively growing the engineering community.
• Drive a strong engineering excellence and operational culture across all products and teams.
• Shape technical direction for systems critical to shipping finished AI solutions to enterprise customers.
• Balance technical expertise with strong analytical skills to make informed architectural decisions.

Skills

AI/ML systems design

Architectural leadership

Cross-organizational collaboration

Mentoring engineers

Recruiting engineering talent

Tools

Big data

Containerized microservices

Serverless

Event-driven architecture

Job description

Description

We are hiring Principal, Senior, and Distinguished Engineers to join AWS Applied AI Solutions. AWS Applied AI Solutions (AAIS) is revolutionizing the future of work and enterprise technology with AI solutions that improve human capabilities and business outcomes. Our vision is to empower every business to innovate with Amazon AI teammates that make intelligent operations effortless. We blend curiosity with Amazon's real‑world experience to build opinionated, turnkey solutions that work right out of the box. This spans customer engagement (Connect Customer AI), healthcare (Connect Health), supply chain and demand planning (Connect Decisions), high‑volume hiring (Connect Talent), scientific discovery (Bio Discovery), physical retail (Just Walk Out), end‑user computing (Amazon WorkSpaces), cloud workforce development (AWS Training and Certification), and AI‑powered cloud operations (AWS Support). If you want to build AI that runs in production serving hundreds of millions of interactions, where correctness, latency, and failure‑mode ownership are first‑class concerns, this is the team.

What You’ll Do

This is a rare chance to own and ship finished AI solutions — not building blocks, not platform layers — at enterprise scale. You'll architect end‑to‑end systems where thousands of autonomous agents orchestrate in real time, make consequential decisions in production, and collaborate with humans in ways no one has built before. The problems here are unlike anything else in the industry. How do you guarantee correctness in non‑deterministic systems? How do you orchestrate thousands of concurrent agents with heterogeneous latency profiles and zero established consensus model? How do you design an AI teammate that onboards to a business the way a new hire would — building trust, learning context, knowing when to elevate? These are research‑grade challenges being solved in production, at scale. The patterns don’t exist yet. You’re inventing them. The systems you build here won’t sit in a backlog — they ship to real customers: healthcare systems managing millions of patient interactions, pharma companies compressing drug discovery from years to weeks, enterprises orchestrating global supply chains in real time. You’ll have direct influence over technical choices, minimal layers between you and decisions, and the opportunity to define what AI‑native engineering looks like in practice.

Key job responsibilities

• Deliver strategic technical projects and design new software systems at scale
• Lead architecture and engineering strategy for enterprise AI solutions across multiple domains
• Mentor and guide engineers while solving complex technical challenges hands‑on
• Work cross‑functionally with Principal Engineers and teams across AWS Applied AI Solutions
• Scout and recruit top technical talent, actively growing the engineering community
• Drive a strong engineering excellence and operational culture across all products and teams
• Shape technical direction for systems critical to shipping finished AI solutions to enterprise customers
• Balance technical expertise with strong analytical skills to make informed architectural decisions

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of design, development engineering experience
• Experience collaborating across multiple organizations and influencing key outcomes
• Experience as a technical leader of multiple concurrent projects, driving strategic technical decisions

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with big data systems, analytics, containerized microservices, serverless functions, and event‑driven architecture
• Experience shipping business‑grade AI solutions and agentic systems
• Hands‑on experience building and iterating on AI/ML‑driven products, including prototypes through production systems

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.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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, Palo Alto - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually

USA, CA, SAN FRANCISCO - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually

USA, CA, San Francisco - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually

USA, CA, Sunnyvale - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually

USA, NY, New York City - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually

USA, NY, New york city - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually

USA, VA, Herndon - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

USA, WA, BELLEVUE - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

USA, WA, Bellevue - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

USA, WA, SEATTLE - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

USA, WA, Seattle - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

Company - Amazon.com Services LLC - A57

Job ID: A10452091