Applied Scientist Off-Search Relevance Sponsored Products

Amazon; Toronto; On-site; CAD 149,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Toronto is seeking an Applied Scientist to innovate advertising through Generative AI. The role involves designing solutions for ad retrieval and auctions, collaborating cross-functionally, and mentoring junior team members. Ideal candidates will have advanced degrees in a relevant field and strong experience in machine learning models. This position offers a competitive salary range of CAD 149,300 to CAD 249,300 annually, alongside comprehensive benefits.

Benefits

Health insurance

Retirement savings plan

Paid time off

Qualifications

• PhD or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience.
• Strong foundation in GenAI, large language models, and machine learning.
• 3+ years of building models for business applications.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to designing and developing GenAI solutions for ad retrieval.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers for scalable solutions.
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers.

Skills

Generative AI

Deep learning

Machine learning

Java

Python

Education

PhD or Master's degree in CS, CE, ML or related field

Job description

Description

The Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through state-of-the-art generative AI technologies, revolutionizing how millions of customers discover products and engage with brands across Amazon.com and beyond. We are at the forefront of re-inventing advertising experiences, bridging human creativity with artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the advertising lifecycle from ad creation and optimization to performance analysis and customer insights. We are a passionate group of innovators dedicated to developing responsible and intelligent AI technologies that balance the needs of advertisers, enhance the shopping experience, and strengthen the marketplace. If you're energized by solving complex challenges and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI, join us in shaping the future of advertising.

The Off-Search team within Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) is focused on building delightful ad experiences across various surfaces beyond Search on Amazon—such as product detail pages, the homepage, and store-in-store pages—to drive monetization. Our vision is to deliver highly personalized, context-aware advertising that adapts to individual shopper preferences, scales across diverse page types, remains relevant to seasonal and event-driven moments, and integrates seamlessly with organic recommendations such as new arrivals, basket-building content, and fast-delivery options. To execute this vision, we work in close partnership with Amazon Stores stakeholders to lead the expansion and growth of advertising across Amazon-owned and -operated pages beyond Search. We operate full stack—from backend ads-retail edge services, ads retrieval, and ad auctions to shopper-facing experiences—all designed to deliver meaningful value.

Curious about our advertising solutions? Discover more about Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to see how we’re helping businesses grow on Amazon.com and beyond!

Key job responsibilities

This role will be pivotal in redesigning how ads contribute to a personalized, relevant, and inspirational shopping experience, with the customer value proposition at the forefront. Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Contribute to the design and development of GenAI, deep learning, multi-objective optimization and/or reinforcement learning empowered solutions to transform ad retrieval, auctions, whole-page relevance, and/or bespoke shopping experiences.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with other scientists, engineers, and product managers to bring scalable, production-ready science solutions to life.
• Stay abreast of industry trends in GenAI, LLMs, and related disciplines, bringing fresh and innovative concepts, ideas, and prototypes to the organization.
• Contribute to the enhancement of team’s scientific and technical rigor by identifying and implementing best-in-class algorithms, methodologies, and infrastructure that enable rapid experimentation and scaling.
• Mentor and grow junior scientists and engineers, cultivating a high-performing, collaborative, and intellectually curious team.

A day in the life

As an Applied Scientist on the Sponsored Products and Brands Off-Search team, you will contribute to the development in Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) to revolutionize our advertising flow, backend optimization, and frontend shopping experiences. This is a rare opportunity to redefine how ads are retrieved, allocated, and/or experienced—elevating them into personalized, contextually aware, and inspiring components of the customer journey. You will have the opportunity to fundamentally transform areas such as ad retrieval, ad allocation, whole-page relevance, and differentiated recommendations through the lens of GenAI. By building novel generative models grounded in both Amazon’s rich data and the world’s collective knowledge, your work will shape how customers engage with ads, discover products, and make purchasing decisions. If you are passionate about applying frontier AI to real-world problems with massive scale and impact, this is your opportunity to define the next chapter of advertising science.

About the team

The Off-Search team within Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) is focused on building delightful ad experiences across various surfaces beyond Search on Amazon—such as product detail pages, the homepage, and store-in-store pages—to drive monetization. Our vision is to deliver highly personalized, context-aware advertising that adapts to individual shopper preferences, scales across diverse page types, remains relevant to seasonal and event-driven moments, and integrates seamlessly with organic recommendations such as new arrivals, basket-building content, and fast-delivery options. To execute this vision, we work in close partnership with Amazon Stores stakeholders to lead the expansion and growth of advertising across Amazon-owned and -operated pages beyond Search. We operate full stack—from backend ads-retail edge services, ads retrieval, and ad auctions to shopper-facing experiences—all designed to deliver meaningful value.

Curious about our advertising solutions? Discover more about Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to see how we’re helping businesses grow on Amazon.com and beyond!

Basic Qualifications

• PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience
• 3+ years of building models for business application experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Strong foundation in GenAI, large language models, machine learning, deep learning, probabilistic modeling, and/or optimization.
• Experience developing and deploying models in real-world production environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven expertise in Generative AI, foundation models, LLMs, and/or fine-tuning and customization for downstream tasks.
• Hands-on experience in ads ranking, retrieval, recommendation systems, search, or personalization at web scale.
• Deep understanding of multi-modal modeling, few-shot learning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), or reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF).
• Experience with online experimentation, A/B testing frameworks, and metrics design for advertising or e-commerce.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience in computational advertising, including familiarity with auction theory, ad economics, and advertiser performance metrics.

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. As a total compensation company, Amazon's package may include other elements such as sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, basic life & AD&D insurance), Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (DPSP), paid time off, and other resources to improve health and well-being. We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those interviewed will be advised as to hiring status.

CAN, ON, Toronto - 149,300.00 - 249,300.00 CAD annually