Applied Scientist: On-Robot Learning & Real-World Manipulation

Amazon; Seattle, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 143,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Robotics in Seattle, WA seeks an Applied Scientist for On-Robot Learning. You will deploy and evaluate manipulation policies on real robots, driving robust, scalable implementations and turning real-world data into policy improvements.

You will collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams, publish research, and contribute to advancing perception, control, and learning in complex environments. PhD or MS with robotics ML experience preferred.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of building models for business application experience.
• PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of science, technology, engineering or related field experience.
• Experience in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals.
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language.
• Hands-on experience deploying and evaluating learning-based control or manipulation on physical robots.
• Strong background in reinforcement learning, learning-based manipulation, contact-rich control, or force/torque control.

Responsibilities

• Deploy and evaluate learned manipulation policies on physical robots, focused on the long tail of diverse, demanding conditions.
• Diagnose the gap between simulated and real behavior, and drive policy changes to close it.
• Develop tactile, actuation, and contact-aware methods for fast, robust non-prehensile manipulation.
• Write production-quality code and own scalable, real-time implementations on robots.
• Build data collection, logging, and evaluation loops to turn real-world experience into policy improvements.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers across control, perception, and hardware to move ideas to demonstrated capability on hardware.
• Represent Amazon Robotics in academia through publications and scientific presentations.

Skills

Java

C++

Python

Reinforcement learning

Learning-based manipulation

Robot control

Data logging

Education

PhD or Master's with 4+ years experience

Job description

Amazon Robotics in Seattle, WA seeks an Applied Scientist for On-Robot Learning. You will deploy and evaluate manipulation policies on real robots, driving robust, scalable implementations and turning real-world data into policy improvements.

You will collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams, publish research, and contribute to advancing perception, control, and learning in complex environments. PhD or MS with robotics ML experience preferred.