Sr. Applied Scientist, Fauna Robotics

Amazon; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 192,200 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon's Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, seeks an Applied Scientist to advance SLAM, localization, mapping, and geometric reconstruction for home environments. You will develop robust state estimation, pose tracking, and world reconstruction while evaluating with simulations and on-robot tests to enable autonomous decision making and navigation.

You will lead projects, mentor junior scientists, and collaborate with navigation and manipulation teams to integrate localization, tracking, and

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s degree with 6+ years of applied research experience.
• Experience leading technical initiatives and delivering key results.
• 6+ years of Localization and Mapping experience.
• Strong publication record at major Robotics/ML/AI conferences (e.g., RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).
• Experience programming in Python, C++, or related language.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement robust robot state estimation, pose estimation, mapping, and reconstruction algorithms.
• Build simulation-based and on-robot evaluation frameworks with benchmarks and metrics for systematic evaluation of our spatial intelligence stack.
• Lead scientific and technical projects across the spatial intelligence team.
• Collaborate with navigation, manipulation, and other teams to ensure seamless integration of localization, tracking, and mapping capabilities.
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers to solve real-world robotics problems.

Skills

Robot localization

SLAM

State estimation

Python

C++

Publications

Education

PhD or Master's degree

Tools

Python

C++

Job description

Job ID: 10478767 | Amazon.com Services LLC

We are seeking an Applied Scientist to focus on Robotics Localization, Mapping, and Geometric Reconstruction. In this role, you’ll research and build advanced SLAM and World Reconstruction algorithms that enable robots to know their pose in the world and fulfill various tasks in complex and dynamic home environments. You’ll work across a broad spectrum of visual inertial odometry, 3D pose estimation, mapping, and geometric reconstruction problems to build robust solutions that support autonomous decision making, task planning, navigation, and manipulation.

Key job responsibilities:

• Develop and implement robust robot state estimation, pose estimation, mapping, and reconstruction algorithms.
• Build simulation‑based and on‑robot evaluation frameworks with comprehensive benchmarks and metrics for systematic evaluation of our spatial intelligence stack.
• Lead scientific and technical projects across the spatial intelligence team.
• Collaborate with navigation, manipulation, and other teams to ensure seamless integration of localization, tracking, and mapping capabilities.
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers to solve real‑world robotics problems.

About the team

Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, is building capable, safe, and genuinely delightful robots for everyday life. Our goal is simple: make robots people actually want to live and interact with in everyday human spaces. We believe that the future won’t arrive until building for robotics becomes far more accessible. Today, too much effort is spent reinventing the fundamentals. We’re changing that by developing tightly integrated hardware and software systems that make it faster, safer, and more intuitive to create real‑world robotic products. Our work spans the full stack: mechanical design, control systems, dynamic modeling, and intelligent software. The focus is not just functionality, but experience. We’re building robots that feel responsive, expressive, and genuinely useful. At Fauna, you’ll work at the frontier of this space, helping define how robots move, manipulate, and interact with people in natural environments. It’s an opportunity to solve hard problems across hardware and software with a team focused on making robotics accessible and joyful to build. If you care about making robotics real for everyone and building systems that are as delightful as they are capable, we’re interested in hearing from you.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD, or Master’s degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• Experience leading technical initiatives and key deliverables
• 6+ years of building Localization and Mapping algorithms experience.
• Strong publication record at major Robotics/ML/AI conferences (e.g., RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR)
• Experience programming in Python, C++, or related language

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands‑on experience with modern solutions in the field of Localization, Mapping, and reconstruction such as Gaussian Splatting, Foundation Models (e.g., VGGT), etc.
• History of impactful first‑author publications at major journals or conferences
• Experience bridging research with practical engineering implementation in robotics systems

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.

USA, CA, Sunnyvale - 192,200.00 - 260,000.00 USD annually