Amazon Prime Air (PA) is seeking a Sr. Systems Development Engineer to oversee the development hardware and software integration within our revolutionary perception systems that enable drones to see, understand, and navigate the world around them

This role will be responsible for ensuring high standards for certifying safety-critical software and hardware in airborne systems, working closely with design engineering staff powering a flywheel of continuous improvement in drone software design.

Partnering with the drone system development and various engineering disciplines, you will oversee development, verification, configuration management, and quality assurance to ensure compliance to Design Assurance Levels and software development standards. Strong cross-functional engineering fundamentals skills are essential, as well as strong technical communication and documentation skills. Your ability to translate complex perception system functions into digestible insights and summarize effectively with stakeholders at all levels will be critical to success in this role.

See your work literally take flight and make history in autonomous aviation

If you're passionate about building perception systems that enable machines to understand and navigate the world safely, we want to talk to you.

This position may require a deemed export control license for compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Placement is contingent on Amazon's ability to apply for and obtain an export control license on your behalf.

Key job responsibilities

What you'll do:

Translate complex operational requirements into detailed system and subsystem specifications for our vision-based perception systems

Bridge the gap between perception algorithms (computer vision, radar processing, ML) and their integration with the broader flight control and autonomy stack

Develop comprehensive requirements documentation that meets aviation certification standards while enabling rapid innovation

Collaborate with cross-functional teams (ML engineers, computer vision specialists, hardware engineers) to design and validate perception system architectures

Lead technical reviews to ensure perception systems meet performance, safety, and reliability requirements

Drive continuous improvement in how we develop and certify perception systems for autonomous flight

Key job responsibilities

- Oversee software development, verification, configuration management, and quality assurance to ensure compliance to Design Assurance Levels and software development standards

- Communicate effectively across all organizational levels, presenting strategies and results to senior leadership and operational partners

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

- Experience as a technical lead, systems engineer, or technical program manager with significant experience in complex systems

- Experience in translating business needs into detailed feature requirements

- Experience in creating process improvements with automation and analysis, or experience in identifying, leading, and executing opportunities to improve, automate, standardize or simplify finance or business tools and processes

- Experience in security or compliance consulting or advisory work in support of a highly technical environment

- Experience with concepts such as system architecture, optimization, system dynamics, system analysis, statistical analysis, reliability analysis, and decision making

- Experience planning, executing, and documenting verification activities that demonstrate correct and safe system behavior across nominal, off-nominal, and edge-case scenarios.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Knowledge of software test techniques and strategy

- Experience in Systems engineering, site reliability engineering, building and operating systems at scale

- Experience evaluating machine-learning systems, particularly for computer vision systems or autonomy.

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 - 151,200.00 - 204,600.00 USD annually