Principal Tech Program Manager, Alexa AI - AI Runtime

The Alexa AI Runtime (AIR) organization is the runtime backbone and horizontal intelligence team that powers Alexa+ AI capabilities. We own the harness that connects to state of the art LLMs across spoken language, visual, and text modalities, and we build the runtime systems that turn customer experiences into reality through those models. We partner closely with the science teams applying the latest techniques to build, evaluate, and continuously improve AI-based experiences. We are seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager to drive the delivery of our most complex, cross-organizational programs spanning the full runtime orchestration stack, from input to agent reasoning to task execution to response.

In this role you will operate with a high degree of independence across VP organizations, defining program strategy, driving clarity where none exists, and making trade-offs between business opportunity, resource allocation, and long-term sustainability. Your work will be strategic in nature, shaping how we scale a horizontal AI runtime that serves tens of millions of customers globally across three orchestration layers (Platform, Task, and Agents), with builders distributed across five countries. This position has a high level of visibility. You will represent complex decisions, trade-offs, and solutions to SVP/VP-level leadership on a recurring cadence, and you will need to communicate clearly and compellingly at all levels of the company.

- Define and own very large programs spanning multiple engineering and science teams, product organizations, and VP orgs, driving cross-functional alignment on AIR's most critical runtime and platform initiatives
- Operate in deep ambiguity where the business and architectural strategy may not yet be defined, driving clarity and creating the path forward
- Identify risks and opportunities in technical strategies, runtime architectures, and engineering organization structures, influencing decision-makers at the VP level
- Make strategic trade-offs between business opportunity, resource allocation, and system sustainability while remediating critical and endemic problems in a horizontal, mission-critical system
- Effectively force-multiply across the AIR organization by accelerating delivery, managing escalations, and aligning teams toward simple, coherent approaches


Key job responsibilities
As a Principal TPM in AI Runtime, you will be the strategic connective tissue across the orchestration stack that powers every Alexa+ interaction, coordinating delivery across the Platform, Task, and Agents layers and across the Central Evaluation and Testing (CET) platform used for offline model and CX evaluation. You will define missions, set objectives, analyze data, and influence resource allocation at the highest levels.
- Own end-to-end program strategy for AIR's most complex cross-organizational initiatives, spanning runtime orchestration, agent reasoning and task execution, and locale expansion.
- Drive technical architecture discussions with Principal Engineers, SDMs, and Principal Scientists, identifying dependencies, scaling factors, boundary conditions, and risks across horizontal distributed systems serving AI inference at global scale
- Represent and advocate for customers during executive-level prioritization and planning, and own roadmap strategy and definition, balancing long-term versus short-term technical decisions through design, build, and launch
- Create strong mechanisms and cross-org structures that streamline program management, facilitate coordination, and align teams toward coherent delivery approaches, eliminating unnecessary process while providing SVP/VP-level updates on a recurring cadence
- Identify and resolve roadblocks and conflicts that arise during execution, partnering with product, science, and engineering teams to unblock and drive to resolution in a matrix organization with tight timelines
- Actively develop the TPM community through mentorship, promotion assessments, and defining program management best practices that raise the execution bar across the organization

Basic Qualifications

- 10+ years of engineering experience
- 7+ years of technical product or program management experience
- 5+ years of software development experience
- Experience managing programs across cross functional teams, building processes and coordinating release schedules
- Experience owning/driving roadmap strategy and definition
- Experience leading complex programs with significant change impact across organizational boundaries

Preferred Qualifications

- 8+ years of hands-on work managing complex technology projects experience
- Experience managing projects across cross functional teams, building sustainable processes and coordinating release schedules
- Experience in machine learning, data mining, information retrieval, statistics or natural language processing, or experience in developing and deploying LLMs in production on GPUs, Neuron, TPU or other AI acceleration hardware

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, Bellevue - 177,000.00 - 239,400.00 USD annually