Principal Applied Scientist, Amazon

Amazon is hiring a Principal Applied Scientist (PAS) for the Upper Funnel Search, focused on enhancing customer experiences where search intent is not well-defined.

This role is part of the Search Experience Science team and serves as the tech lead responsible for the architectural design and technological innovations of the Search Upper Funnel feature set, such as Tiles.

Key job responsibilities

As a Principal Applied Scientist in Search, you will possess deep expertise in machine learning and data science, with specializations in information retrieval, recommendations, ranking, large language models, and generative AI across various modalities.

The role involves solution alignment across multiple partners, such as front-end, relevance, ranking, and personalization teams.

You will collaborate with teams of scientists and engineers to translate business and functional requirements into concrete deliverables, leading strategic efforts to enhance upper funnel search customer experiences.

You will design integrated solutions efficiently delivered across all contributing stakeholder teams, driving alignment among these tech teams in the short term and influencing their future roadmaps in the long term to support our experimentation roadmap.

Responsible for overall solution quality, this role will focus on improving experimentation velocity and, in the future, facilitating partner development on upper funnel customer experiences.

This role ensures we are building scalable solutions with smart checks on data quality centrally, navigating the ambiguity inherent in this new area.

You will make critical judgements to select the best technical solutions for both short and long-term experimentation objectives, bringing clarity from ambiguity, structuring tradeoff decisions, and effectively communicating on technically contentious topics.

Finally, you will engage with academic partners to augment our in-house talent with access to the latest research and expert mentoring.

About the team

You will become part of a dynamic team comprising over 100 scientists and engineers focused on shaping the future of AI-driven shopping experiences at Amazon.

This team works on every aspect of the shopping experience, from understanding user queries and planning retrievals to generating answers and delivering outstanding customer service.

Additionally, the team works on enhancing Amazon Search by improving query comprehension, mission-aware search strategies, navigation, and more.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

1. Graduate degree in Computer Science, Math, or a related field.

2. Experience in developing AI, ML, and NLP systems, with a proven ability to deliver projects successfully.

3. Skilled in managing large, cross-functional projects with evolving requirements from start to finish.

4. Strong foundations in data structures, algorithm design, and complexity analysis.

5. Ability to strategize for ML platforms focusing on recommender systems, ranking, and customer interaction features.

6. Exceptional ability to understand customer needs, propose alternative technical and business solutions, and deliver on tight deadlines.

7. Record of peer-reviewed scientific publications in applied science.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

1. Over 10 years of post-PhD research experience in machine learning.

2. Strong mathematical and statistical skills.

3. Demonstrated success in algorithm design and product development.

4. Publications in top-tier conferences or journals.

5. Experienced in mentoring and managing senior technical staff.

6. Proven business acumen, balancing multiple aspects of projects including technology and product strategies.

7. Effective communicator with diverse audiences.

8. Experience with large data sets and building scalable models.