Principal Applied Scientist, Foundation AI Assets (FAI)

Amazon Science; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 199,000 - 269,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Science in Boston, MA seeks a Principal Applied Scientist with deep learning and generative AI expertise to advance Nova foundational models.

You will lead research directions, publish results, mentor junior scientists, and help translate breakthroughs into production-scale systems. Strong collaboration with engineers and product partners is expected, with a track record of scientific leadership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on work in predictive modeling and analysis.
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related languages.
• Experience leading scientists and mentoring junior researchers.

Responsibilities

• Define key research directions, conduct rigorous experiments, and translate research into practice.

Skills

Predictive modeling

Java

C++

Python

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics

Job description

Description

The Frontier AI Assets (FAI) team is looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Principal Applied Scientist with a strong deep learning and generative AI background, to focus on the development of software development skills of Nova foundational models.

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, modeling, 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 playing a significant role in hiring and developing scientists and leads.

Key job responsibilities

You will be 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. You will develop frontier quality assets for training and evaluating GenAI models. You will also participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship, and leadership development. You will be technically strong and 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, and testing to documentation, delivery, and maintenance).

About The Team

The FAI team has the mission to push the envelope in GenAI with LLMs, in order to provide the best-possible experience for our customers.

Our team is focused on pushing the boundaries of applied science at Amazon, building solutions that operate at massive scale and directly shape customer experiences. We value scientific depth, collaborative problem-solving, and a commitment to turning research into measurable impact.

We are investing in the next wave of scientific capabilities and are looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to help define that trajectory. You will work alongside talented scientists, engineers, and product partners in an environment that encourages intellectual curiosity and rewards bold ideas.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands‑on work in predictive modeling and analysis experience
• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related technical field
• Experience working in predictive modeling and analysis
• Experience distilling informal customer requirements into problem definitions, dealing with ambiguity and competing objectives
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience with leading experienced scientists as well as having a record of developing junior members from academia or industry to a career track in a business environment

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant work in industry or academia experience
• Knowledge of problem solving, algorithm design and complexity analysis
• Experience creating novel algorithms and advancing the state of the art
• Have peer‑reviewed scientific contributions in premier journals and conferences

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.

Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, MA, Boston - 198,900.00 - 269,000.00 USD annually