Sr. Perception Systems Engineer, Prime Air

About the role

Amazon Prime Air (PA) is seeking a Sr. Systems Development Engineer to oversee the development of hardware and software integration within our revolutionary perception systems that enable drones to see, understand, and navigate the world around them. This role ensures high standards for certifying safety-critical software and hardware in airborne systems, working closely with design engineering staff to drive continuous improvement in drone software design.

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

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.

Responsibilities

• Translate complex operational requirements into detailed system and subsystem specifications for 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.
• Oversee software development, verification, configuration management, and quality assurance to ensure compliance with Design Assurance Levels and software development standards.
• Communicate effectively across all organizational levels, presenting strategies and results to senior leadership and operational partners.

Requirements

Basic Qualifications

• Experience in translating business needs into detailed feature requirements.
• Experience with 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.
• Experience evaluating machine-learning systems, particularly for computer vision systems or autonomy.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in creating process improvements with automation and analysis.
• Knowledge of software test techniques and strategy.
• Experience in Systems engineering, site reliability engineering, building and operating systems at scale.
• Experience with autonomous perception systems, computer vision, or sensor fusion in safety-critical applications.

Pay

USA, WA, Seattle - $151,200.00 - $204,600.00 USD annually.

Benefits

• Health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance, and optional Supplemental life plans).
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Mental Health Support.
• Medical Advice Line and Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage.
• 401(k) matching.
• Paid time off and parental leave.
• Sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs).

Learn more about our benefits at amazon.jobs/en/benefits.