Senior Applied Scientist, Amazon Stores Economics & Science (SEAS)

Amazon • Seattle, WA

19h

About The Position

Stores Economics and Science (SEAS) is an interdisciplinary science and engineering team in Amazon's Stores organization with a peak-jumping mission: we apply expertise in science and engineering to move from local to global optima in methods, models, and software. We pursue this mission by leveraging frontier science; collaborating with partner teams; and learning from the tools, experience, and perspective of others. We scale by solving problems, first in the small to prove concepts, and then in the large by building scalable solutions. We also help other teams within Amazon scale by hiring and developing the best and embedding them in other business units. We are team of passionate Applied Scientists, Research Scientists, and Economists collaborating to uncover, formulate, and solve big bet issues for broader Stores organization, including marketplace efficiency, seller incentive design, and inventory optimization. We are seeking to add another member to our team who thrives in inter-disciplinary, ambiguous, and high visibility environments. Key job responsibilities The successful candidate will lead large-scale science initiatives from research to production and translate complex business problems into mathematical frameworks. They will design and implement large-scale optimization algorithms for complex supply chain and marketplace problems, and design incentive-compatible mechanisms for marketplace challenges including auction design, matching algorithms, and pricing strategies. The ideal candidate will have a strong publication record in top-tier conferences/journals (INFORMS, EC, WINE, ICML, NeurIPS, etc.) and experience coordinating cross-functional projects. They should have hands-on experience building science solutions that apply optimization techniques to mechanism design problems (e.g., optimal auction design, welfare maximization under constraints), with expertise in statistical learning and algorithm development. Leadership responsibilities include driving technical strategy and roadmap for complex initiatives, influencing senior stakeholders and shaping technical direction, mentoring 2-4 junior scientists and fostering team growth, and collaborating effectively across functions to deliver measurable business impact.

Requirements

• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience with modeling tools such as R, scikit-learn, Spark MLLib, MxNet, Tensorflow, numpy, scipy etc.
• Experience with large scale distributed systems such as Hadoop, Spark etc.

Nice To Haves

• Strong publication record in top-tier conferences/journals (INFORMS, EC, WINE, ICML, NeurIPS, etc.)
• Experience coordinating cross-functional projects
• Hands-on experience building science solutions that apply optimization techniques to mechanism design problems (e.g., optimal auction design, welfare maximization under constraints), with expertise in statistical learning and algorithm development

Responsibilities

• Lead large-scale science initiatives from research to production
• Translate complex business problems into mathematical frameworks
• Design and implement large-scale optimization algorithms for complex supply chain and marketplace problems
• Design incentive-compatible mechanisms for marketplace challenges including auction design, matching algorithms, and pricing strategies
• Drive technical strategy and roadmap for complex initiatives
• Influencing senior stakeholders and shaping technical direction
• Mentoring 2-4 junior scientists and fostering team growth
• Collaborating effectively across functions to deliver measurable business impact

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: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree