Senior Applied Scientist, LLM Code Agents, Kiro Science

Amazon Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 192,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon is advancing the Kiro project, building verified RL environments from real codebases and post-training. The role focuses on creating reward functions that resist Goodhart’s law and scaling pipelines to keep environments fresh and uncontaminated.

You’ll contribute to a team within AWS Developer Agents and Experiences, driving research in ML methods and scalable software practices, with opportunities to publish at leading conferences. Hybrid work near U.S. offices is available.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of building machine learning models for business application experience.
• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience.
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language.
• Experience with neural deep learning methods and machine learning.
• First author publications at Tier-1 ML conferences.

Responsibilities

• Designing verified RL environments built from real codebases and post training with these environments.
• Reward functions that survive Goodhart's law on F2P / P2P / mutation tests.
• Scaling environment generation pipelines that stay fresh against contamination.
• Publishing at NeurIPS / ICML / ICLR / ICSE / OOPSLA / ACL.

Skills

ML models

Java

C++

Python

Programming languages

Education

PhD or MS with 6+ years applied research

Tools

Gymnasium

Job description

One of the key bottlenecks in training capable code agents today is the environment the model is trained on. You can't RL your way to a better coding agent if your training rollouts are running against environments that don't actually reflect how software gets built, have flaky rewards, are prone to reward hacking, or rely on unreliable verification methodology.

We're building and improving Kiro — Amazon's next-gen AI coding agent — and we're building verified (execution-based or neuromorphic) RL environments at scale.

We're looking for someone excited about the problem. The strongest candidates have depth in at least one of:

• Programming Languages / S.E — type systems, compilers, build systems, dependency analysis, program analysis
• Applied LLMs and Training — post-training, RLHF / RLVR / RLAIF, distillation, evaluation harnesses, agent scaffolds
• RL Gym Development — Gymnasium, custom verifiers, reward design, sandboxing
• Software Engineering Engineering at scale — containerization, deterministic execution, CI/CD systems, hermetic builds

Key job responsibilities

• Designing verified RL environments built from real codebases and post training with these environments
• Reward functions that survive Goodhart's law on F2P / P2P / mutation tests
• Scaling environment generation pipelines that stay fresh against contamination
• Publishing at NeurIPS / ICML / ICLR / ICSE / OOPSLA / ACL

About the team

The AWS Developer Agents and Experiences (DAE) team is reimagining the builder experience through generative AI and foundation models. We're leveraging the latest advances in AI to transform how engineers work from IDE environments to web-based tools and services, empowering developers to tackle projects of any scale with unprecedented efficiency.

Broadly, AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations — from foundational services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (Iot), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS. Within AWS UC, Amazon Dedicated Cloud (ADC) roles engage with AWS customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.

Why AWS?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Inclusive Team Culture

Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Mentorship & Career Growth

We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Work/Life Balance

We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

Hybrid Work

We value innovation and recognize this sometimes requires uninterrupted time to focus on a build. We also value in-person collaboration and time spent face-to-face. Our team affords employees options to work in the office every day or in a flexible, hybrid work model near one of our U.S. Amazon offices.

• 3+ years of building machine learning models for business application experience
• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience with neural deep learning methods and machine learning

First author publications at Tier-1 ML conferences.

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

Los County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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 .

Qualifications Appréciées

First author publications at Tier-1 ML conferences.

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

Los County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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 .

USA, CA, Santa Clara - 192,200.00 - 260,000.00 USD annually