Amazon

Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Conversational AI Modeling and Learning

Amazon$200K — $270K *
Consumer Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of professional software development experience
  • Strong knowledge of object-oriented design, data structures, and algorithms
  • Experience in large-scale systems within a distributed environment
  • Proficiency in reinforcement learning and multi-turn training systems
  • Ability to translate product/science requirements into actionable technical solutions

Responsibilities

  • Define and drive the engineering roadmap for the agentic AI platform
  • Architect large-scale, isolated agent evaluation infrastructure
  • Build and scale reinforcement learning systems for complex agent workloads
  • Design architecture for serving latency-sensitive agent traffic
  • Set the technical bar through design reviews and operational excellence
  • Translate ambiguous requirements into viable technical platforms
  • Mentor and grow senior and principal engineers across teams

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health insurance (medical, dental, vision)
  • 401(k) matching
  • Paid time off
  • Parental leave
  • Adoption and surrogacy reimbursement coverage
  • Mental health support and Employee Assistance Program
Full Job Description
We are looking for a Principal Engineer to lead the engineering of this agentic platform. You will own the architecture that turns research into production capability: large-scale agentic evaluation infrastructure (sandboxed, reproducible, statistically trustworthy at high concurrency), reinforcement learning training systems for long-horizon multi-turn trajectories, self-learning pipelines that convert production experience into permanent model and system improvements, and the serving architecture for latency-sensitive agentic inference. You will partner closely with scientists and work backwards from committed product launches, setting the technical bar for a platform that serves every Alexa agent rather than one product at a time.

The charter is the full lifecycle of a production agent: how it is measured, how it is trained, how it learns, and how it is served. You will build the harnesses and sandboxed worlds agents act in, the evaluation systems that make their quality provable rather than asserted, the RL infrastructure that trains models on the same tasks they are measured on, and the self-improvement loop that turns every production interaction into a permanently smarter system - agents that ship better than they launched, week over week. Few places let one engineer shape the entire loop from a customer's spoken request to a model that learned from it; this role owns that loop at Alexa scale.

Key job responsibilities

Define and drive the engineering roadmap and architecture for the agentic AI platform: evaluation, training, self-learning, and serving for LLM-based agents in production

Architect large-scale agentic evaluation infrastructure: isolated sandboxed execution, recreatable environments, verifiable scoring, and reproducibility at hundreds of concurrent trials, so model decisions rest on trustworthy numbers

Build and scale RL and post-training systems for agentic workloads: 256K+ token contexts, multi-turn trajectory training, train/inference engine consistency, and reward attribution across long sessions

Design the serving and inference architecture for agentic traffic (long sessions, output-generation-bound workloads, KV-cache-centric optimization), co-designing with inference-infrastructure partner teams

Set the technical bar across the organization: raise engineering standards through design reviews, operational excellence, and deep dives on the hardest cross-system problems

Translate ambiguous product and science requirements into platform interfaces partner teams can build on; influence senior leadership on build-vs-adopt and ownership decisions

Mentor and grow senior and principal-track engineers across multiple teams

A day in the life

You might spend the morning in a design review for the next generation of the evaluation platform's execution layer, midday debugging why a 100K-token training session diverges between the rollout engine and the learner, and the afternoon with the serving team deciding which KV-cache optimizations justify architectural investment before a product launch. You work daily with applied scientists and other engineers, and your systems are the reason their results are trustworthy and shippable.

About the team

Our organization owns the applied science and platform engineering for Alexa's agentic experiences. We operate at the intersection of large language models, reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards, agentic architectures, and large-scale distributed systems, serving customers across dozens of languages and device types. Our platform provides the shared evaluation, training, self-learning, and serving foundation for Alexa's flagship agent programs and the broader agent portfolio behind them.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

12+ years of non-internship professional software development experience

Knowledge of object-oriented design, data structures, and algorithms

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Experience designing and building large-scale systems in a multi-tiered, distributed environment (Service Oriented Architecture)

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

About Amazon

Audible is a provider of spoken audio information and entertainment , on the Internet. They provide premium spoken audio content, such as audio versions of books and newspapers and radio programs, that is delivered over the Internet and played back on personal computers and hand-held electronic devices. The Audible service allows consumers to purchase and download their content from their Website, store it in digital files and play it back on personal computers and electronic devices. More than 15,000 hours of audio content are available on their Web site, including audio versions of books, periodicals and radio programs. Several manufacturers have agreed to support and promote the playback of their content on their hand-held audio-enabled electronic devices.

Amazon Careers

Joining Amazon presents an unparalleled opportunity to become part of a vibrant team pushing the boundaries of innovation and growth in the global marketplace. As a leader in e-commerce, technology, and logistics, Amazon offers a variety of job opportunities that cater to a range of skills and professional interests. Work You’ll Do At Amazon, every day is an opportunity to collaborate with the brightest minds in technology and business to redefine what’s possible. Whether you’re interested in software development, marketing, human resources, or customer service, Amazon has a position waiting for you. Transform the way the world shops and innovates with our diverse and inclusive team. Amazon is not just a company; it’s a community where you can drive real change and contribute to projects impacting millions globally. Lead with Innovation and Leadership Amazon is the perfect place to enhance your leadership and innovation skills. Our culture encourages pushing the envelope and imagining the unimaginable. Here, you will lead projects that challenge the status quo and define new industry standards. Work with a team that values diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment. Our leadership is focused on harnessing the collective power of unique perspectives to foster growth and innovation. Explore Amazon’s Employment Benefits Amazon’s commitment to its employees extends beyond just career growth. We offer competitive benefits, including health care, parental leave, and diversity training, ensuring that our team not only excels professionally but also enjoys well-being and security. Internship and Networking Opportunities Start your career with an Amazon internship and gain hands-on experience that matters. Our internships provide a gateway to full-time employment and an opportunity to network with professionals across various sectors of the company. Future-Proof Your Career With Amazon, your career path is filled with numerous opportunities for advancement. Our learning and development programs are designed to nurture your professional growth and keep you at the forefront of industry trends. Stay Connected Join Our Team Discover the job opportunities at Amazon that match your skills and interests. We are constantly on the lookout for passionate, curious, and innovative team players ready to make a difference. Keep Up to Date Stay ahead with career tips, insider perspectives, and industry-leading insights you can put to use today—all from the people who work here. Job Alert Emails Customize your subscription to receive job alerts, the latest news, and insider tips tailored to your preferences. Explore the exciting and rewarding career opportunities that await at Amazon. Amazon is more than just a company—it’s a platform for building a promising future. Whether you’re starting or looking to advance your career, Amazon offers the resources, support, and network you need to succeed. Join us, and be a part of our continuing mission to be Earth's most customer-centric company.
Learn more about Amazon
Size
1,608 employees
Market Cap
$832.6 billion
Industry
Net Income
$21.3 billion
Founded
1994
5 Year Trend
+28.1%
Revenue
$386 billion
NASDAQ

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