Principal Applied Scientist, AWS Data Center Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS); Denver (CO); On-site; USD 199,000 - 269,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Data Services, Inc. in Denver seeks a Principal Applied Scientist to advance AI for data center operations, from vision models to smart retrieval and latency-sensitive decision support.

You will own end-to-end research to production, collaborating with software teams to deploy robust solutions that improve reliability and efficiency of AWS infrastructure.

This role requires a PhD, deep ML/vision expertise, and a proven track record delivering real-world AI systems at scale.

Qualifications

• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Statistics or in a highly quantitative field.
• Strong Problem solving ability
• Good skills in Python (or similar language)
• Strong communication and data presentation skills
• Proven track record of delivery

Responsibilities

• Review traces and design experiments to improve model accuracy during incident triage.
• Test and verify benchmarks against historical incident data.
• Develop benchmarks from field scenarios and cross-discipline reasoning.
• Prototype end-to-end solutions from research to production deployment and publish results

Skills

Strong problem solving ability

Python

Strong communication

Data presentation

Proven delivery

Education

PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Statistics or quantitative field

Job description

Description

Application deadline: Oct 27, 2026

The AWS Data Center Services team is hiring a Principal Applied Scientist to innovate and advance the science behind solutions to problems in the rapidly growing AWS data center space.

These problems range from bespoke computer vision models to support our physical infrastructure functions such as repair activities, to increasing the certainty of decisions made by our generative AI service without sacrificing latency or performance. For example, when a data center technician is triaging a critical electrical event at 2am and alarms cascade in seconds, our AI service has to cross-reference topology, live readings, maintenance history, and design documents within minutes - work that today takes an order of magnitude more time and intervention from a senior engineer.

As a Principal Applied Scientist, you will work backwards from these problems and partner with software development teams to deliver solutions. You will work on problems ranging from selecting, training and evolving computer vision models for targeted activities on AWS infrastructure inside our data centers; to building smart retrieval algorithms, reduce model hallucination on safety-critical outcomes, continually improve latency and performance, and ensure our generative AI service's knowledgeable stays current and the service is constantly getting smarter beyond just knowledge retrieval.

A day in the life

You start the morning reviewing traces from last night's incident triage. The agent correctly walked the topology to the upstream breaker but missed a recent maintenance change that was the real cause — so you design an experiment: does feeding work-order history into the traversal improve accuracy? You test it against historical incident data. Mid-morning, you review verification traces and catch the agent missing a spec deep in a submittal. After lunch, a field engineer walks you through manually cross-referencing five systems during an incident and you turn their scenario into a new benchmark. In the afternoon, you prototype cross-discipline reasoning: when a cascade spans electrical and cooling, can the lead agent delegate scoped investigations and still hold one coherent hypothesis? You publish results and draft a paper. You own the full lifecycle — research through production deployment.

About The Team

Data Center Services is part of AWS Infrastructure Services that owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, We're the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain - and we're looking for talented people who want to help.

You'll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You'll collaborate across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you'll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Statistics or in a highly quantitative field.
• Strong Problem solving ability
• Good skills in Python (or similar language)
• Strong communication and data presentation skills
• Proven track record of delivery

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of industrial experience in predictive modeling and analysis, predictive software development
• Experience in Generative AI
• Publications or presentation in recognized Computer Vision, Machine Learning or Data Mining journals/conferences
• Experience in mentoring junior team members, and guiding them on machine learning and data modeling applications
• Experience working with retail or e-commerce data
• Experience working with distributed systems and device level software

  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.

  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, CO, Denver - 198,900.00 - 269,000.00 USD annually

  USA, WA, Seattle - 198,900.00 - 269,000.00 USD annually

  Company

  - Amazon Data Services, Inc.

  Job ID: A10587034