Principal Applied Scientist, AGI Foundations, AGI Foundations

Amazon•Sunnyvale, CA

About The Position

As a Principal Scientist within the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) organization, you are a trusted part of the technical leadership. You bring business and industry context to science and technology decisions. You set the standard for scientific excellence and make decisions that affect the way we build and integrate algorithms. You solicit differing views across the organization and are willing to change your mind as you learn more. Your artifacts are exemplary and often used as reference across organization. You are a hands-on scientific leader. Your solutions are exemplary in terms of algorithm design, clarity, model structure, efficiency, and extensibility. You tackle intrinsically hard problems, acquiring expertise as needed. You decompose complex problems into straightforward solutions. You amplify your impact by leading scientific reviews within your organization or at your location. You scrutinize and review experimental design, modeling, verification and other research procedures. You probe assumptions, illuminate pitfalls, and foster shared understanding. You align teams toward coherent strategies. You educate, keeping the scientific community up to date on advanced techniques, state of the art approaches, the latest technologies, and trends. You help managers guide the career growth of other scientists by mentoring and play a significant role in hiring and developing scientists and leads. You will play a critical role in driving the development of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies that can handle Amazon-scale use cases and have a significant impact on our customers' experiences. Key job responsibilities You will be responsible for defining key research directions, inventing new machine learning techniques, conducting rigorous experiments, and ensuring that research is translated into practice. You will develop long-term strategies, persuade teams to adopt those strategies, propose goals and deliver on them. You will also participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship and leadership development. You will be technically exceptional 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). A day in the life Define next‑generation scaling roadmaps and methodologies. Invent metrics and training recipes.  Research early‑signal predictors, automated curricula, and science of scaling. Lead cross‑org initiatives.  Mentor senior scientists and engineers. Own delivery under strict timelines.  Ship production code that cuts iteration latency and quality for Amazon’s flagship multimodal models. About the team Amazon’s AGI team is focused on building foundational AI to solve real-world problems at scale, delivers value to all existing businesses in Amazon, and enables entirely new services and products for people and enterprises around the world. Graduate degree in Computer science/Math or related field. Experience in building complex, real-time systems involving AI, ML, and NLP with successful delivery to customers. Demonstrated track record of project delivery for large, cross-functional projects with evolving requirements. Excellent written and spoken communication skills. PhD with specialization in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning, or computational cognitive science with 10+ years of combined academic and research experience. First‑author research on scaling laws, evaluation metrics, data mixture optimization, data efficiency, neural network architectures in top-tier journals and conferences. Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions. Can successfully sell ideas to an executive level decision maker. Mentors and trains the research scientist community on complex technical issues. Excellent written and spoken communication skills with successful delivery to customers Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. 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. Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $179,000/year in our lowest geographic market up to $309,400/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. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits . This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.

Requirements

Graduate degree in Computer science/Math or related field
Experience in building complex, real-time systems involving AI, ML, and NLP with successful delivery to customers
Demonstrated track record of project delivery for large, cross-functional projects with evolving requirements
Excellent written and spoken communication skills
PhD with specialization in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning, or computational cognitive science with 10+ years of combined academic and research experience
First‑author research on scaling laws, evaluation metrics, data mixture optimization, data efficiency, neural network architectures in top-tier journals and conferences
Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions
Can successfully sell ideas to an executive level decision maker
Mentors and trains the research scientist community on complex technical issues
Excellent written and spoken communication skills with successful delivery to customers

Responsibilities

defining key research directions
inventing new machine learning techniques
conducting rigorous experiments
ensuring that research is translated into practice
developing long-term strategies
persuading teams to adopt those strategies
proposing goals and deliver on them
participating in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship and leadership development
defining next‑generation scaling roadmaps and methodologies
inventing metrics and training recipes
researching early‑signal predictors, automated curricula, and science of scaling
leading cross‑org initiatives
mentoring senior scientists and engineers
owning delivery under strict timelines
shipping production code that cuts iteration latency and quality for Amazon’s flagship multimodal models