Principal Software Engineer, AWS Applied AI Solution – Core Services

Company: Amazon
Location: Seattle
Posted on: April 1, 2026

Job Description:

As part of the AWS Applied AI Solutions organization, we have a vision to provide business applications, leveraging Amazon’s unique experience and expertise, that are used by millions of companies worldwide to manage day-to-day operations. We will accomplish this by accelerating our customers’ businesses through delivery of intuitive and differentiated technology solutions that solve enduring business challenges. We blend vision with curiosity and Amazon’s real-world experience to build opinionated, turnkey solutions. Where customers prefer to buy over build, we become their trusted partner with solutions that are no-brainers to buy and easy to use. Lead our pioneering AI initiative at AWS and define the future of AI agents. Shape how businesses leverage artificial intelligence by creating foundational building blocks used across AWS business applications. The Core Services team within AWS Applied AI Solutions is creating the foundations that will power the next generation of AI agents from small business to enterprise scale. As a technical leader, you'll lead our new agentic AI building blocks initiative, pioneering the development of reusable AI components that accelerate and standardize AI product delivery across AWS business applications such as contact center, supply chain, healthcare and life sciences. You'll own one critical capability area such as agent identity and governance, agent collaboration & orchestration, agent evaluation, or knowledge management, and have the privilege to define what we build and how we build it. As a Principal Engineer, this role combines the excitement of a startup environment with the scale of AWS. You'll research state-of-the-art open source and internal tools, tackle highly ambiguous problems, and lead a team building a V1 product from the ground up. You won't just be implementing someone else's vision — you'll chart the course, define the roadmap, and create solutions that eliminate non-differentiating work while ensuring enterprise-grade quality and consistency. If you thrive on ownership, are passionate about AI, and want to fundamentally influence how AWS builds AI products, this role offers an extraordinary opportunity to make your mark. Through this process, you will grow and mentor other builders on their software engineering journey. Key job responsibilities - Own the technical architecture and strategy for a critical AI agent capability area, setting the foundation for enterprise-scale AI solutions across AWS - Lead projects requiring multiple engineers, balancing business goals with technical excellence while navigating ambiguous problem spaces - Research, evaluate, and integrate state-of-the-art AI technologies, making informed decisions about build vs. leverage approaches - Design and implement reusable AI components that meet enterprise-grade quality standards while simplifying complex technical challenges - Drive consensus across teams with different priorities and perspectives to create unified AI building blocks - Champion engineering best practices, establishing a culture of robust software development with exemplary code organization, clarity, and maintainability - Mentor and coach other engineers, fostering technical growth while creating an environment where your team thrives independently - Communicate complex technical designs to diverse audiences, from engineers to non-technical stakeholders and senior leadership A day in the life Your morning starts with an engineering team standup, followed by collaborative sessions with product managers in your team to provide requirement and internal customer inputs. You'll dedicate focused time to researching the latest AI agent techniques and designing reusable, scalable building blocks for your capability area. Throughout the day, you'll work with engineers and scientists within your team to implement solutions, leveraging coding agents to write and test code more efficiently. You might lead a technical design review with scientists, engineers, product managers, solution architects from across Applied AI Solutions, gathering diverse perspectives to strengthen your approach. Your day could include architecture, prompt, component, API design work, meeting with internal customers to understand their AI agent needs, or presenting your vision to leadership stakeholders. About the team Diverse Experiences Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying. Why AWS Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses. Work/Life Balance We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud. Inclusive Team Culture Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness. Mentorship and Career Growth We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional. - Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team, or experience leading engineering teams as a mentor or tech lead - Experience leading highly-available and fault-tolerant enterprise and web-scale software deployments in distributed systems - 10 years of cross functional project delivery experience - 10 years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience - 4 years of working with or evaluating AI systems experience - 4 years of a proven track record in leading teams for developing natural language processing or management systems (like commercial speech products or government speech projects) experience - 2 years of developing large-scale agentic experiences and building, operating and managing intelligent analytics and feedback loops. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. 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, WA, Seattle - 144,100.00 - 194,900.00 USD annually

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