Applied Scientist, Core Search

Amazon.com Services LLC•2h ago

United StatesOnsite$142.8K–$193.2KFull-timeMid Level4+ yrs exp

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Applied Scientist

The Amazon Search team's vision is to deliver high quality search results regardless of how customers phrase their search queries. Keyword-based search breaks down when confronted with natural language expressions. Queries like "I have ants in my house," "headphones comparable to Bose," "breakfast foods for someone avoiding sugar," and "scratch resistant flooring for dogs that looks like real wood" require world knowledge, common-sense reasoning
sophisticated language understanding that customers increasingly expect. Core Search team is reimagining search architecture using Large Language Models (LLMs): a new LLM stack that already powers Amazon Search, Alexa+, Alexa for Shopping, Help Me Decide, Interests AI, confidential initiatives
a growing portfolio of Amazon experiences across Stores and Devices. We build this stack as a primitive to supercharge a new generation of natural-language experiences across Amazon. We are hiring an Applied Scientist to push the science behind this stack: the reasoning LLMs, embedding models, cross-encoder rankers
multi-objective optimization systems that turn billions of products into the right answer for hundreds of millions of customers. The role spans the full model lifecycle, from mid-training reasoning models on shopping data to aligning the models with customers on the dimensions that matter for shopping: helpfulness, trust
faithfulness. You will build with us a natural language AI interface to billions of products, for all Amazon customers. Key job responsibilities As an Applied Scientist on the team, you will lead science innovation across multiple problems and surfaces. You will: - Develop personalized multi-modal thinking-LLM techniques that reason about customers, queries
products. - Mid-train and post-train large language models on shopping data: domain-adaptive continued pre-training, ireinforcement learning shopping reasoning traces
instruction tuning for natural-language shopping queries. - Align models with customer interests on the dimensions such as helpfulness, harmlessness
faithfulness. Apply Reinforcement Learning (RLVR, RLHF), Direct Preference Optimization (DPO)
customer-behavior-derived reward models. - Create semantic representations of products, customers
context (bi-encoder embeddings, contrastive learning, hard-negative mining, cross-lingual training). - Develop cross-attentive LLM rankers that score candidate products against rich query intent and complex constraints. - Train multi-objective ranking and optimization systems that balance relevance, purchasability
personalization. - Drive improvements on offline benchmarks as well as online experiments. About the team Core Search builds the next-generation LLM-powered retrieval and ranking stack for Amazon. We own the stack end-to-end including LLM models, personalization, multi-turn natural-language refinements, routing, the experimentation service
the partner-facing primitive that other Amazon teams build on top of. The team is highly motivated, collaborative, technically deep
runs with strong executive sponsorship and strategic visibility. In this role, you will define program strategy, prioritize investments
shape how AI-driven natural-language search experiences ship across all devices, globally.
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
Experience using Unix/Linux - Experience in professional software development Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability
other legally protected status. 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. The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications
location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including 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. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits . USA, WA, Seattle - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually

Required skills

PythonJavaC++algorithmsdata structuresparsingnumerical optimizationdata miningparallel computingdistributed computinghigh-performance computingUnixLinux