Principal Applied Scientist, Alexa International Tech

Amazon; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 198,900 - 269,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon in Bellevue, WA is seeking a Principal Applied Scientist to lead ML research for Alexa International, shaping algorithm design and cross‑team strategy.

You will mentor scientists, drive end-to-end ML solutions at scale, and collaborate with engineering, economics and business teams to deliver impact across languages and devices.

Qualifications

• PhD with specialization in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning, or computational cognitive science.
• Strong publication record in top-tier journals and conferences.
• Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions.
• Experience developing software in C++ and Java.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Define research directions and invent new ML techniques, run rigorous experiments, publish results.
• Develop long-term strategies and secure buy-in from teams.
• Participate in planning, mentoring, and leadership development.
• Build scalable science and engineering solutions with end-to-end production readiness.
• Serve as a key scientific resource in full-cycle development from concept to maintenance.

Skills

C++

Java

Education

PhD in AI/ML or NLP or computational cognitive science

Job description

Description

As a Principal Applied Scientist, you are a trusted part of the technical leadership. You bring business and industry context to science and technology decisions. You set the standard for scientific excellence and make decisions that affect the way we build and integrate algorithms. You solicit differing views across the organization and are willing to change your mind as you learn more. Your artifacts are exemplary and often used as reference across organization.

You are a hands‑on scientific leader. Your solutions are exemplary in terms of algorithm design, clarity, model structure, efficiency, and extensibility. You tackle intrinsically hard problems, acquiring expertise as needed. You decompose complex problems into straightforward solutions.

You amplify your impact by leading scientific reviews within your organization or at your location. You scrutinize and review experimental design, modelling, verification and other research procedures. You probe assumptions, illuminate pitfalls, and foster shared understanding. You align teams toward coherent strategies. You educate, keeping the scientific community up to date on advanced techniques, state of the art approaches, the latest technologies, and trends.

You help managers guide the career growth of other scientists by mentoring and play a significant role in hiring and developing scientists and leads.

Key job responsibilities

• Responsible for defining key research directions, adopting or inventing new machine learning techniques, conducting rigorous experiments, publishing results, and ensuring 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.
• Technically ambitious with a passion for building scalable science and engineering solutions.
• You will serve as a key scientific resource in full‑cycle development (conception, design, implementation, testing to documentation, delivery, and maintenance).

About the team

Want to be part of the team whose mission is to expand Alexa to new countries, languages, devices and cultures? The Alexa International team makes it happen. Our customers are very diverse in where they live, the languages they speak to Alexa, the devices they use and the content that matters most. In turn our problems are diverse and need innovative solutions.

Alexa International is at the nexus of all other Alexa teams and features, such as Smart Home, Music, News, ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), NLU (Natural Language Understanding), Fire TV, Skills etc. We collaborate with hardware and software developers within and outside Amazon to build delightful experience for our customers.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD with specialization in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning, or computational cognitive science 10+ years of combined academic and research experience.
• Strong publication record in top‑tier journals and conferences.
• Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions.
• Can successfully sell ideas to an executive level decision maker.
• Mentors and trains the research scientist community on complex technical issues.
• Experience developing software in traditional programming languages (C++, Java, etc.).
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building and deploying innovative machine learning solutions at scale for minimum 10 years.
• Expert level skills across many Machine Learning methodologies.
• Published research work in academic conferences or industry circles.
• Experience delivering complex end‑to‑end global ML solutions that run at very large scale.
• Experience working with real‑world data sets and building scalable models from big data.
• Thinks strategically, but stays on top of tactical execution.
• Exhibits excellent business judgment; balances business, product, and technology very well.
• This technical leader for machine learning will be an independent thinker who can make convincing, information‑based arguments.
• With a strong bias for action, this individual will work equally well with science, engineering, economics and business teams.
• This person will have very sound judgment and be able to recruit and develop high calibre talent.

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

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 - 198,900.00 - 269,000.00 USD annually