Senior Applied Scientist, Amazon Robotics - Vulcan

Amazon; Seattle, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 167,000 - 226,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

RSUs

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon Robotics in Seattle seeks a Senior Applied Scientist to advance learned controllers and manipulation behaviors for production robots in fulfillment centers. You will push the boundaries of planning, control, and ML, choosing when learned approaches supersede engineered solutions while leveraging real-world data.

The role emphasizes RL and behavior cloning, collaboration across disciplines, and mentoring junior scientists.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s degree with 6+ years of applied research in robotics or ML
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• 4+ years of robotics work cells and control systems experience
• 3+ years of building and deploying ML models for robotics applications
• Track record of training reinforcement learning or imitation learning policies in simulation and transferring to physical robots

Responsibilities

• Drive the development of learned controllers and manipulation behaviors, from research prototyping through deployment on production robots
• Research, design, and implement motion planning, control, and decision-making algorithms that improve system performance
• Design and deploy learning pipelines that take policies from simulation training to real-time execution on physical robots
• Develop models that predict manipulation outcomes and inform behaviour selection under uncertainty
• Own the development of scalable, real-time implementations and establish engineering standards
• Use operational data to identify failure modes and drive policy improvements
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers to raise applied science rigor
• Represent Amazon in academia through publications and presentations

Skills

Java

C++

Python

Reinforcement learning

Robotics control

Education

PhD or Master’s degree in a relevant field

Tools

ROS

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

Senior Applied Scientist, Amazon Robotics - Vulcan

ID lavoro: 10436914 | Amazon.com Services LLC

Our team in Amazon Robotics builds robotic systems that perform contact-rich manipulation tasks safely and reliably in complex, unstructured environments — at Amazon scale. Our scientists and engineers push the boundaries of robotic manipulation to handle enormous object diversity, bringing deep expertise across planning, control, perception, and machine learning. We learn from real-world data at a scale that few teams in robotics can access.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Applied Scientist to join our Motion Behaviors team. You will drive the development of learned controllers and manipulation behaviors, applying techniques like reinforcement learning and behavior cloning to robots operating in Amazon fulfillment centers. These problems remain unsolved at scale: our robots must improve continuously in environments where simulation alone is insufficient. You will make principled decisions about when learned approaches should replace engineered solutions, and how to select behaviors based on estimated risk. You will collaborate across disciplines and leverage rich operational data to continuously improve system performance.

Key job responsibilities

• Drive the development of learned controllers and manipulation behaviors, from research prototyping through deployment on production robots.
• Research, design, and implement motion planning, control, and decision-making algorithms that improve the performance of deployed systems.
• Design and deploy learning pipelines that take policies from simulation training to reliable, real-time execution on physical robots.
• Develop models that predict manipulation outcomes and inform behaviour selection under uncertainty.
• Own the development of scalable, real-time implementations — writing production-quality code and setting engineering standards for the team.
• Leverage operational data from deployed systems to systematically identify failure modes and drive policy improvements.
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers, raising the bar for applied science rigor and engineering quality.
• Represent Amazon in academia through publications and scientific presentations.

A day in the life

Amazon offers a full range of benefits for you and eligible family members, including domestic partners. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:

1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options
3. Paid Time Off (PTO)
4. 401(k) Plan

If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets.

Qualifications and Experience

• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• 4+ years of robotics work cells and control systems experience
• 3+ years of building and deploying machine learning models for robotics applications
• Track record of training reinforcement learning or imitation learning policies in simulation and successfully transferring them to physical robotic systems

• Experience with sim-to-real transfer at scale (domain randomization, system identification, etc.)
• Experience deploying learned policies in production environments with uptime and reliability requirements
• Experience designing reward functions and training curricula for reinforcement learning on robotic systems
• Publications in top robotics or machine learning venues (RSS, CoRL, ICRA, NeurIPS, ICML, etc.)

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. 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 .

Qualifiche Preferenziali

• Experience with sim-to-real transfer at scale (domain randomization, system identification, etc.)
• Experience deploying learned policies in production environments with uptime and reliability requirements
• Experience designing reward functions and training curricula for reinforcement learning on robotic systems
• Publications in top robotics or machine learning venues (RSS, CoRL, ICRA, NeurIPS, ICML, etc.)

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, Seattle - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually