Principal Applied Scientist, AGI Foundations, AGI Foundations

Amazon.com, Inc.; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Los Angeles seeks a Principal Applied Scientist to drive the development of Generative AI technologies and mentor junior scientists. The role involves defining research directions, managing complex AI projects, and influencing strategic decisions. The ideal candidate holds an advanced degree with significant research experience in AI and machine learning. Competitive salary and opportunities for professional growth available.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD in computer science, engineering, or mathematics.
• 10+ years of combined academic and research experience.
• Experience in building complex AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Define research directions and invent new machine learning techniques.
• Conduct rigorous experiments and ensure translation into practice.
• Lead and mentor other scientists.

Skills

Machine Learning

Natural Language Processing

AI Systems Development

Project Management

Mentorship

Education

Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics

Job description

Principal Applied Scientist, AGI Foundations, AGI Foundations

Job ID: 3127969 | Amazon.com Services LLC

As a Principal Scientist within the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) organization, you are a trusted part of the technical leadership. You bring business and industry context to science and technology decisions, set the standard for scientific excellence, and make decisions that affect the way we build and integrate algorithms. A Principal Applied Scientist will solicit differing views across the organization, be willing to change your mind as you learn more, and produce artifacts that are exemplary and often used as references across the organization. You are a hands‑on scientific leader who develops solutions that are exemplary in terms of algorithm design, clarity, model structure, efficiency, and extensibility; tackling intrinsically hard problems and acquiring expertise as needed.

Principal Applied Scientists decompose complex problems into straightforward solutions, amplify their impact by leading scientific reviews within the organization or at the location, and scrutinize experimental design, modeling, verification, and other research procedures. They probe assumptions, illuminate pitfalls, foster shared understanding, align teams toward coherent strategies, and educate the scientific community on advanced techniques, state‑of‑the‑art approaches, the latest technologies, and trends.

In this role you will help managers guide the career growth of other scientists through mentoring and play a significant role in hiring and developing scientists and leads. You will drive the development of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies that can handle Amazon‑scale use cases and significantly impact customers’ experiences.

Key job responsibilities
• Define key research directions, invent new machine learning techniques, conduct rigorous experiments, and ensure that research is translated into practice.
• Develop long‑term strategies, persuade teams to adopt those strategies, propose goals, and deliver on them.
• Participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship, and leadership development.
• Build scalable science and engineering solutions, and serve as a key scientific resource in full‑cycle development (conception, design, implementation, testing, documentation, delivery, and maintenance).

A day in the life

The day-to-day may involve research, collaborating across teams, reviewing scientific proposals, mentoring junior scientists, and presenting findings to stakeholders.

About the team
Amazon’s AGI team focuses on building foundational AI to solve real‑world problems at scale, delivering value to all existing businesses and enabling entirely new services and products for people and enterprises worldwide.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics or equivalent, or PhD.
• Experience in building complex, real‑time systems involving AI, ML, and NLP with successful delivery to customers.
• Experience with project delivery for large, cross‑functional projects with evolving requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD with specialization in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, or Computational Cognitive Science.
• 10+ years of combined academic and research experience.
• First author research on scaling laws, evaluation metrics, data mixture optimization, data efficiency, or neural network architectures in top‑tier journals and conferences.
• Functional thought leader and sought after for key tech decisions.
• Experience influencing decisions at an executive level.
• Experience mentoring and training the research scientist community on complex technical issues.
• Experience distilling informal customer requirements into problem definitions, dealing with ambiguity and competing objectives.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills with successful delivery to customers.

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. This position will remain posted until filled.