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About This Role
DESCRIPTION
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The Sponsored Products and Brands team at Amazon Ads is re\-imagining the advertising landscape through cutting\-edge generative AI technologies, revolutionizing how millions of customers discover products and engage with brands across Amazon.com and beyond. We are at the forefront of re\-inventing advertising experiences, bridging human creativity with artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the advertising lifecycle from ad creation and optimization to performance analysis and customer insights. We are a passionate group of innovators dedicated to developing responsible and intelligent AI technologies that balance the needs of advertisers, enhance the shopping experience, and strengthen the marketplace. If you're energized by solving complex challenges and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI, join us in shaping the future of advertising.
The Sponsored Products Search Sourcing Science (SPSSS) team's mission is to retrieve all relevant sponsored products in response to shopper queries, serving billions of daily ad impressions and tens of millions of clicks, helping shoppers discover useful and contextually relevant products while enabling advertisers to reach the right shoppers in the right context. To achieve this, we build state\-of\-the\-art capabilities spanning query, shopper, product, and advertiser understanding, as well as advanced retrieval, targeting, and ranking systems, all powered by efficient large\-scale data pipelines, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), generative AI, and multi\-agent workflows. It's a high\-impact, technically exciting space where science directly translates into measurable outcomes for hundreds of millions of customers and millions of advertisers.
Key job responsibilities
As a Senior Applied Scientist on this team, you will:
- Serve as the technical leader in Machine Learning and Generative AI, driving efforts within this team and across other teams.
- Lead end\-to\-end ML projects with high ambiguity, scale, and complexity—from problem definition to production.
- Build, optimize, and deploy ML models into production, partnering with software engineers to productionize solutions.
- Establish scalable, automated processes for data analysis, model development, validation, and serving.
- Apply strong knowledge of LLMs (prompt engineering, fine\-tuning, RAG, evaluation) to build production\-grade GenAI applications.
- Analyze large\-scale data sets to develop insights that increase traffic monetization and merchandise sales without compromising the shopper experience.
- Design and run A/B experiments, and perform statistical analysis to measure impact and guide decisions.
- Research and prototype innovative ML and GenAI approaches, bringing state\-of\-the\-art techniques into production.
- Recruit, mentor, and grow Applied Scientists on the team.
About the team
Amazon is investing heavily in building a world\-class advertising business. This team defines and delivers a collection of advertising products that drive discovery and sales. Our solutions generate billions in revenue and drive long\-term growth for Amazon’s Retail and Marketplace businesses. We deliver billions of ad impressions, millions of clicks daily, and break fresh ground to create world\-class products. We are a highly motivated, collaborative, and fun\-loving team with an entrepreneurial spirit \- with a broad mandate to experiment and innovate.
The Sponsored Products Search Sourcing Science (SPSSS) team's mission is to retrieve all relevant sponsored products in response to shopper queries, serving billions of daily ad impressions and tens of millions of clicks, helping shoppers discover useful and contextually relevant products while enabling advertisers to reach the right shoppers in the right context. To achieve this, we build state\-of\-the\-art capabilities spanning query, shopper, product, and advertiser understanding, as well as advanced retrieval, targeting, and ranking systems, all powered by efficient large\-scale data pipelines, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), generative AI, and multi\-agent workflows. It's a high\-impact, technically exciting space where science directly translates into measurable outcomes for hundreds of millions of customers and millions of advertisers.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
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- 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
- Experience in building speech recognition, machine translation and natural language processing systems (e.g., commercial speech products or government speech projects)
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
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- Experience with large scale machine learning systems such as profiling and debugging and understanding of system performance and scalability
- Master's degree or above in engineering, statistics, computer science, mathematics, or a related quantitative field
- Experience in patents or publications at top\-tier peer\-reviewed conferences or journals
- 3\+ years of building large\-scale machine\-learning infrastructure for online recommendation, ads ranking, personalization or search experience
- Experience in machine learning, data mining, information retrieval, statistics or natural language processing, or experience leading engineering teams as a mentor or tech lead
- Experience creating and delivering written and oral communications for technical and non\-technical audiences
- Experience in data science, business analytics, business intelligence, or similar experience in big data environments
- Thinks strategically, but stays on top of tactical execution.
- Exhibits excellent business judgment; balances business, product, and technology very well.
- Experience in computational advertising.
- Experience in Large Language Models (LLMs).
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, WA, SEATTLE \- 167,100\.00 \- 226,100\.00 USD annually
Salary Context
This $167K-$226K range is above the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 83 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.
The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 3% of the market. At Amazon.com, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
Skills Required
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.
Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 197 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. This role's midpoint ($196K) sits 12% below the category median. Disclosed range: $167K to $226K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Amazon.com AI Hiring
Amazon.com has 97 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist, AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Product Manager. Positions span Sunnyvale, CA, US, Culver City, CA, US, San Francisco, CA, US. Compensation range: $97K - $327K.
Location Context
AI roles in Seattle pay a median of $236,900 across 267 tracked positions. That's 9% above the national median.
Career Path
Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.
The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.
What to Expect in Interviews
Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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