Sr Software Engineer (SDE-III), Core Search

Amazon; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 193,300 - 261,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

RSUs

Job summary

Amazon is seeking a senior software engineer for the Search Engine organization in Palo Alto, CA. You will help evolve a distributed search stack, leveraging LLMs and DL models to improve user queries.

The role requires 8+ years in software development, leadership in design, and strong background in distributed systems and ML infrastructure. Equal opportunity employer with comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience leading design or architecture of scalable systems.
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead, or leading an engineering team.

Responsibilities

• Understand and improve state-of-the-art in Vector Search.
• Optimize inference for semantic matching and ranking models.
• Improve search engine efficiency to reduce infrastructure cost.
• Contribute to open source Lucene and collaborate with leaders.
• Participate in on-call and raise the bar on operational excellence.

Skills

8+ years programming

Mentor / tech lead

Distributed systems

Machine learning infrastructure

CUDA / GPU programming

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Job description

Description

The Search Engine organization designs, builds, and operates highly performant, fault-tolerant and scalable distributed search engine used by millions of Amazon customers every day. It is built with Apache Lucene at its core.

We are evolving our search engine to better understand natural language queries. This involves leveraging LLMs and other Deep Learning models in different parts of the search stack to improve the search experience.

Ideal candidates are expected to have a background in distributed systems and machine learning infrastructure. Strong candidates will have knowledge of LLM fundamentals and some experience in GPU programming.

Key job responsibilities

• Understand and improve state-of-the-art in Vector Search
• Optimize inference for semantic matching and ranking models
• Improve search engine efficiency to reduce infrastructure cost
• Contribute to open source Lucene and collaborate with internal and external technology leaders
• Participate in oncall and raise the bar on operational excellence

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
• 8+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
• Master's degree in computer science or equivalent

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 judgement, 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, Palo Alto - 193,300.00 - 261,500.00 USD annually