Senior ML Software Engineer, Data Plane

The MLIL DataPlane team is looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer to own the design and implementation of our inference data plane. We build the software that makes large models run efficiently on custom hardware - spanning model execution, memory management, data movement, and serving integration.
Our work covers the full inference path: integrating serving engines with custom hardware, developing high-performance compute kernels, enabling efficient data movement, and driving models from early validation through production. We operate at frontier scale with large distributed models.
This is a ground-up effort with rapidly evolving hardware and software. We need a senior IC who can write and optimize low-level code for custom hardware, validate model architectures end-to-end, build test and profiling infrastructure, and drive performance across the stack.

Key job responsibilities
- Develop and optimize compute kernels for a custom ML accelerator architecture, targeting production-level performance for large language model inference.
- Implement and validate LLM architectures end-to-end - from PyTorch model definition through distributed execution on custom hardware.
- Integrate custom accelerator backends into open-source ML serving frameworks (vLLM, PyTorch), including scheduler extensions, memory management, and model parallelism.
- Build and maintain test infrastructure for model correctness validation across CPU, GPU, simulator, and hardware targets.
- Profile and optimize inference workloads - identify bottlenecks, instrument critical paths, and drive latency and throughput improvements from simulation through hardware bringup.
- Own features end-to-end: from design through implementation, testing, and integration into the broader software stack.
- Contribute to CI/CD pipelines that gate model and kernel changes on correctness and performance regressions.
- Mentor engineers, drive design reviews, and raise the engineering bar across the team.

Basic Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- 7+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Strong proficiency in C/C++
- Strong Linux systems knowledge
- Experience developing compute kernels for GPUs, DSPs, or custom accelerators
- Proven track record of owning and delivering complex software features end-to-end

Preferred Qualifications

- Knowledge of Machine Learning and LLM fundamentals, including transformer architecture, training/inference lifecycles, and optimization techniques
- Knowledge of ML frameworks including JAX, PyTorch, vLLM, SGLang, Dynamo, TorchXLA, and TensorRT
- Familiarity with speculative decoding, KV cache optimization, or other LLM serving optimizations
- Experience with distributed systems - collective communication, RDMA, or high-speed interconnect programming
- Experience with hardware simulation environments and model validation workflows
- Demonstrated early adopter of AI-assisted development tools - uses LLMs or code-generation agents as part of daily workflow

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