Senior Principal Applied Scientist, Search and Science, AI

The Amazon Search team creates powerful, customer-focused search solutions and technologies. Whenever a customer visits an Amazon site worldwide and types in a query or browses through product categories, Amazon Search services go to work. We design, develop, and deploy high performance, fault-tolerant distributed search systems used by millions of Amazon customers every day.

We’re seeking a Principal Scientist with a deep expertise in Search Science. Your responsibilities will include everything from developing and prototyping innovative machine learning, and deep learning algorithms to implementing, testing, and supporting full solutions in a production environment. We are looking for innovators who can contribute to advancing search technology on what’s scientifically possible while remaining committed to creating world-class products.

Joining this team, you’ll experience the benefits of working in a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment, while leveraging the resources of Amazon.com (AMZN), Earth's most customer-centric company one of the world's leading internet companies. We provide a highly customer-centric, team-oriented environment in our offices located in Palo Alto, California.



Key job responsibilities
As a hands-on leader of this team, you’ll be responsible for defining key research questions, identifying relevant data, adopting or proposing innovative machine learning solutions conducting rigorous experiments, publishing results and working with the engineering team to deploy these solutions. As a strategic leader, you will identify investment opportunities, develop long term strategies, and propose, prioritize and deliver on goals. You’ll also participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship and leadership development. You will be technically fearless and with a passion for building scalable science and engineering solutions. You will serve as a key scientific resource in full-cycle development (conception, design, implementation, testing to documentation, delivery, and maintenance).

About the team
Starting in 2009, the Visual Search & Augmented Reality team has thus far launched many visual search solutions on the Amazon App that use computer vision and machine learning/deep learning to help customers complete their shopping missions more easily; multiple internal teams at Amazon (devices, Kindle, Seller services, etc.) also use our libraries and APIs to deliver solutions to their own customers. We are a full stack shop, and our team capabilities cover the whole solution spectrum, ranging across applied science, large scale engineering services, product management, UX design, and mobile app development for iOS and Android.

Basic Qualifications

· 15+ years of relevant, broad research experience after PhD degree or equivalent.
· Deep expertise in Search Science as well as knowledge of the latest trends in related areas in Machine Learning.
· Proficiency in programming for algorithm and code reviews.
· Strong core competency in mathematics and statistics.
· Track record of successful projects in algorithm design and product development.
· Publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals.
· Strong prior experience with mentorship and/or management of senior scientists and engineers.

Preferred Qualifications

PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, or related quantitative discipline.
15+ years of innovative machine learning research experience, with strong analytic and problem-solving skills.
10+ years of experience building and deploying groundbreaking machine learning solutions at scale.
Expert level skills across many Machine Learning methodologies.
Published research work in academic conferences or industry circles.
Experience delivering complex end-to-end global ML solutions that run at very big scale.
Experience with online advertising technologies and solutions.
Effective verbal and written communication skills with non-technical and technical audiences.
Experience working with real-world data sets and building scalable models from big data.
Thinks strategically, but stays on top of tactical execution.
Exhibits excellent business judgment; balances business, product, and technology very well.
This technical leader for machine learning will be an independent thinker who can make convincing, information-based arguments. With a strong bias for action, this individual will work equally well with science, engineering, economics and business teams. This person will have very sound judgment and be able to recruit and groom high caliber talent.



Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.


Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $262,500/year in our lowest geographic market up to $350,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.