OPT Genai Software Engineer Jobs
GenAI Software Engineer jobs are among the most actively sponsored roles for F-1 OPT students right now, with both STEM OPT extensions (up to 36 months total) and H-1B visa cap-subject sponsorship common at AI-focused companies. Roles typically require proficiency in LLMs, prompt engineering, and Python-based ML frameworks.
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Overview:
WHAT YOU DO AT AMD CHANGES EVERYTHING
At AMD, our mission is to build great products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences—from AI and data centers, to PCs, gaming and embedded systems. Grounded in a culture of innovation and collaboration, we believe real progress comes from bold ideas, human ingenuity and a shared passion to create something extraordinary. When you join AMD, you’ll discover the real differentiator is our culture. We push the limits of innovation to solve the world’s most important challenges—striving for execution excellence, while being direct, humble, collaborative, and inclusive of diverse perspectives. Join us as we shape the future of AI and beyond. Together, we advance your career.
THE ROLE:
We are building an AI-native hardware and firmware validation platform from the ground up — one where LLMs, RAG pipelines, autonomous agents, and knowledge graphs are the core of how the system works, not an add-on. As the Software Development Architect, you will own the end-to-end technical design of this platform: multi-agent orchestration, retrieval-augmented knowledge systems, MCP server infrastructure, and the engineering standards that make all of it reliable at scale. This role sits within the Global Cluster Engineering organization, where you will develop software that powers distributed infrastructure at global scale. You will work closely with validation engineers, hardware teams, and leadership to translate domain requirements into a production-grade AI-native system. This is a hands-on role — you will write code, drive technology decisions, and directly mentor engineers.
THE PERSON:
- Experience: software development experience, with at least 4 years in architecture, staff, or principal engineer role
- AI-Native Systems: Deep, hands-on experience designing and shipping production AI-native systems — not just LLM API integration, but the full stack: RAG pipelines, agent orchestration, tool use, multi-agent coordination, and LLM evaluation
- LLM Fundamentals: Strong understanding of how LLMs work in practice — context windows, grounding, hallucination failure modes, prompt engineering, model selection, and how behavior changes across providers and versions
- Retrieval Systems: Proven experience with vector search, embedding models, hybrid retrieval, reranking pipelines, and knowledge graph-augmented RAG
- Core Skills: Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Python, TypeScript/Node.js, Go, Java, C#, or Rust, with demonstrated ability to build and operate production-scale services. Python experience is preferred due to the AI/ML ecosystem
- Engineering excellence: Async programming, API design, distributed systems, clean code practices. Experience designing for reliability in automated/unattended environments — crash recovery, audit trails, state management, observability. Strong written communication — architecture docs, design specs, and engineering standards that outlast your tenure. Track record of setting engineering standards that teams follow
- Hardware Affinity: Experience working closely with hardware teams — servers, networking equipment, or compute infrastructure — with an understanding of how software interacts with physical systems
- Cloud Infrastructure: Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP — infrastructure provisioning, managed services, networking, and deploying production workloads at scale
- AI Tooling: Demonstrated use of AI coding assistants and LLM-powered developer tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.) to accelerate design, development, and documentation
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Platform Architecture: Design and own the architecture of an AI-native validation platform where autonomous LLM agents plan, execute, and analyze hardware and firmware test campaigns end-to-end — without a human in the loop
- RAG System Design: Architect the full retrieval-augmented generation stack — document ingestion pipelines, chunking strategies, embedding models, vector stores, knowledge graph backends, hybrid search, cross-encoder and LLM-based reranking — ensuring agents have accurate, grounded knowledge at query time
- Agent Orchestration: Define multi-agent dispatch patterns, context window management strategies, anti-hallucination contracts, tool-use boundaries, inter-agent communication protocols, and crash recovery mechanisms for long-running unattended runs
- MCP Integration: Own the integration architecture between the agent layer (Claude Code / Model Context Protocol), the knowledge backend (Qdrant, Neo4j / LightRAG), and external systems (Slack, Jira, Confluence, GitHub) or equivalent
- Engineering Standards: Establish and enforce AI-native development standards — prompt design, skill authoring, agent contract specifications, artifact schemas, and evaluation methodology for LLM outputs
- LLM Reliability: Lead the team's approach to building trustworthy agentic systems — fabrication detection, context compaction recovery, output validation, and post-run audit infrastructure
- Technology Evaluation: Continuously evaluate new LLM capabilities, model releases, embedding models, and agentic frameworks; make pragmatic adoption decisions
- AI Services: Design and implement scalable, low-latency AI services powering metadata generation, feature extraction, and knowledge retrieval across the validation platform
- Agentic AI Deployment: Develop and deploy agentic AI solutions — autonomous agents, multi-agent orchestration frameworks, and LLM-powered workflows — that transform hardware validation, firmware QA, and lab operations
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Partner with engineering peers, validation engineers, and business stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into flexible, future-proof design solutions
- Security & Compliance: Ensure AI/ML systems comply with security standards and best practices, addressing data privacy and protection concerns across all LLM integrations and knowledge pipelines
- End-to-End Ownership: Own the platform end-to-end — from project estimation and architecture review through coding, deployment, and post-launch measurement
- Operational Excellence: Build resilient systems with strong observability; establish automated testing, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines using infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform); lead root-cause analysis and drive continuous reliability improvements
- Team Leadership: Mentor software developers, conduct design reviews, and set the technical bar for the team
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE:
- Background in the semiconductor or datacenter industry — hardware validation, firmware development, or silicon bring-up
- Experience with network hardware (NICs, switches, GPUs) or associated diagnostics (PCIe, RDMA, etc)
- Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or agentic platforms (LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen)
- Published work, open source contributions, or talks in the AI/LLM space
- Data Engineering & Analytics: Experience with data pipeline design, ETL workflows, data warehousing, or analytics platforms is a plus
ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS:
BS or MS Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
LOCATION:
Santa Clara
Austin or Seattle or Secaucus
LI-KW1
Qualifications
Benefits offered are described: AMD benefits at a glance. AMD does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services. AMD and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity, inclusive employers and will consider all applicants without regard to age, ancestry, color, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, race, religion, political and/or third-party affiliation, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective laws throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process. AMD may use Artificial Intelligence to help screen, assess or select applicants for this position. AMD’s “Responsible AI Policy” is available here. This posting is for an existing vacancy.
See all OPT Genai Software Engineer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as a Genai Software Engineer
Target companies with active AI research teams
Companies building proprietary LLM infrastructure, RAG pipelines, or AI agents are hiring GenAI engineers at a higher rate than generalist software roles. Filter by employers with dedicated AI or ML research divisions, not just teams using third-party APIs.
Lead with model-specific experience in your resume
Sponsors want to see hands-on work with specific models and frameworks: GPT-4, Llama, LangChain, or Hugging Face Transformers. Generic 'AI experience' won't differentiate you. Name the models, datasets, and deployment environments you've actually worked with.
Start your job search 90 days before OPT ends
GenAI hiring cycles at well-funded startups and large tech companies can take 6 to 10 weeks from first screen to offer. Starting early gives you time to negotiate a start date that aligns with your OPT authorization window without rushing the process.
Emphasize STEM OPT eligibility upfront
GenAI Software Engineer roles typically fall under CIP codes for computer science or AI, qualifying you for the 24-month STEM OPT extension. Mentioning this early in outreach removes a common employer hesitation about short work authorization windows.
Build a public portfolio of GenAI projects
Employers evaluating OPT candidates for GenAI roles weigh demonstrated output heavily. A GitHub portfolio with a working RAG system, fine-tuned model, or agentic workflow gives hiring managers evidence beyond your resume, which matters when sponsorship is on the line.
Focus outreach on companies already filing H-1B petitions
Prior H-1B visa sponsorship history is the strongest signal that a company will sponsor you after OPT. Search employers with a track record of sponsoring software engineers, not just general tech hiring, to avoid investing time in companies unlikely to commit.
Genai Software Engineer OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Do GenAI Software Engineer roles qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Yes. GenAI Software Engineer positions almost always qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension because they fall under computer science, artificial intelligence, or related CIP codes covered by the STEM designation. You'll need your employer to sign the Form I-983 training plan, confirming the role involves direct application of your STEM degree. Confirm your specific degree's CIP code with your DSO before applying.
How do I find GenAI Software Engineer jobs that sponsor OPT students?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for F-1 OPT students and filters GenAI Software Engineer roles by sponsorship willingness, so you're not wasting applications on employers who won't hire international students. Broader job boards mix sponsored and non-sponsored roles with no way to filter, which burns time you may not have if your OPT window is closing.
Can I work as a GenAI Software Engineer as a contractor on OPT?
Yes, but with important caveats. OPT allows self-employment and contract work as long as the work is directly related to your degree field and you work at least 20 hours per week. For STEM OPT, contract arrangements require a formal employer-employee relationship with a qualifying employer who can sign your I-983. Pure independent contracting without a supervising employer does not satisfy STEM OPT requirements.
What happens to my OPT status if my GenAI role is eliminated in a layoff?
You have a 60-day grace period from your last day of employment to find a new position, change status, or leave the United States. During those 60 days you're not authorized to work. If you're on STEM OPT, the 60-day period still applies but your total unemployment across the entire OPT period cannot exceed 150 days. Report any employment change to your DSO immediately.
Do startups or large tech companies sponsor more GenAI OPT roles?
Both do, but the dynamics differ. Large companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have established immigration infrastructure and sponsor at scale, making the process more predictable. Well-funded AI startups often move faster and can offer more senior GenAI responsibilities earlier, but their sponsorship processes are less standardized. Checking a company's historical H-1B filing record is the most reliable indicator of actual sponsorship intent at any company size.