Applied Scientist , Amazon Customer Service

Amazon • Santa Clara, CA

1d

About The Position

We are seeking an Applied Scientist II to join Amazon Customer Service's Science
team, where you will build AI-based automated customer service solutions using
state-of-the-art techniques in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic AI,
and post-training of large language models. You will work at the intersection of
research and production, developing intelligent systems that directly impact
millions of customers while collaborating with scientists, engineers, and
product managers in a fast-paced, innovative environment.

Requirements

• 3+ years of building models for business application experience
• PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience in any of the following areas: algorithms and data structures, parsing, numerical optimization, data mining, parallel and distributed computing, high-performance computing

Nice To Haves

• Experience using Unix/Linux
• Experience in professional software development

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy information retrieval systems and RAG pipelines using embedding models, reranking algorithms, and generative models to improve customer service automation
• Conduct post-training of large language models using techniques such as Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), and Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) to optimize model performance for customer service tasks
• Build and curate high-quality datasets for model training and evaluation, ensuring data quality and relevance for customer service applications
• Design and implement comprehensive evaluation frameworks, including data curation, metrics development, and methods such as LLM-as-a-judge to assess model performance
• Develop AI agents for automated customer service, understanding their advantages and common pitfalls, and implementing solutions that balance automation with customer satisfaction
• Independently perform research and development with minimal guidance, staying current with the latest advances in machine learning and AI
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including engineering, product management, and operations to translate research into production systems
• Publish findings and contribute to the broader scientific community through papers, patents, and open-source contributions
• Monitor and improve deployed models based on real-world performance metrics and customer feedback

Benefits

• 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
• parental leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level