Principal Applied Scientist, PXT
Amazon, San Francisco, CA, United States
Job ID: 10402056 | Amazon.com Services LLC
About the Role
In this role, you will own the science strategy and technical vision for an intelligence layer that powers talent applications at Amazon scale. You will lead a team of applied scientists working across GenAI and predictive modeling, shaping how heterogeneous signals—text, behavioral, network, temporal—combine to support workforce forecasting, personalized development, and compensation strategy. You will identify opportunities where science investment can impact long‑term objectives, build consensus around needed resources, and serve as the strategic science advisor to PXT leaders from Director to SVP levels. As a hands‑on leader, you will personally own development and delivery of the most complex science problems at the intersection of multiple ML disciplines, stay current with emergent AI/ML science and engineering trends, and participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship, and leadership development.
Key Responsibilities
Lead technical initiatives in people science models, driving breakthrough approaches through hands‑on research and development in foundation models for predictive modeling, efficient multi‑modal LLMs, and zero‑shot learning.
Design and implement novel ML architectures that push the boundaries of how workforce signals are represented, fused, and predicted at scale.
Guide technical direction for research initiatives across the team, ensuring robust performance in production environments serving hundreds of thousands of employees.
Mentor and develop senior scientists while maintaining strong individual technical contributions on the most complex cross‑domain problems.
Collaborate with engineering teams to optimize and scale models for real‑world talent applications.
Influence technical decisions and implementation strategies across teams, shaping the long‑term platform architecture.
About the Team
The People eXperience and Technology (PXT) Core Science Team uses science, engineering, and customer‑obsessed problem solving to proactively identify mechanisms, process improvements, and products that simultaneously improve Amazon and Amazonians’ lives, wellbeing, and value of work. As an interdisciplinary team combining talents from machine learning, statistics, economics, behavioral science, engineering, and product development, the Core Science team develops and delivers measurable solutions through innovation and rapid prototyping to accelerate informed, accurate, and reliable decision‑making backed by science and data.
Basic Qualifications
PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience.
5+ years of industry or academic research experience.
Experience programming in Python or a related language.
5+ years of building machine learning models or developing algorithms for business application.
Experience in patents or publications at top‑tier conferences.
Extensive track record of leading technical projects.
Experience mentoring junior scientists and engineers.
Demonstrated expertise in deep learning and model development.
Preferred Qualifications
A track record of influencing software shipped at scale using your science expertise.
Experience working with real‑world complex data sets and building models at Amazon scale.
Base Salary
USA, CA, Santa Clara: 228,700.00 – 309,400.00 USD annually
USA, IL, Chicago: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York: 218,800.00 – 295,900.00 USD annually
USA, TX, Austin: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Arlington: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Bellevue: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
Benefits
Amazon offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and optional supplemental life plans), employee assistance program, mental health support, medical advice line, flexible spending accounts, adoption and surrogacy reimbursement coverage, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at
https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits .
Equal Opportunity Employer
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 preparing to work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhering to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicating effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and following 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. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Accommodations
If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring 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, contact your Recruiting Partner.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
About the Role
In this role, you will own the science strategy and technical vision for an intelligence layer that powers talent applications at Amazon scale. You will lead a team of applied scientists working across GenAI and predictive modeling, shaping how heterogeneous signals—text, behavioral, network, temporal—combine to support workforce forecasting, personalized development, and compensation strategy. You will identify opportunities where science investment can impact long‑term objectives, build consensus around needed resources, and serve as the strategic science advisor to PXT leaders from Director to SVP levels. As a hands‑on leader, you will personally own development and delivery of the most complex science problems at the intersection of multiple ML disciplines, stay current with emergent AI/ML science and engineering trends, and participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship, and leadership development.
Key Responsibilities
Lead technical initiatives in people science models, driving breakthrough approaches through hands‑on research and development in foundation models for predictive modeling, efficient multi‑modal LLMs, and zero‑shot learning.
Design and implement novel ML architectures that push the boundaries of how workforce signals are represented, fused, and predicted at scale.
Guide technical direction for research initiatives across the team, ensuring robust performance in production environments serving hundreds of thousands of employees.
Mentor and develop senior scientists while maintaining strong individual technical contributions on the most complex cross‑domain problems.
Collaborate with engineering teams to optimize and scale models for real‑world talent applications.
Influence technical decisions and implementation strategies across teams, shaping the long‑term platform architecture.
About the Team
The People eXperience and Technology (PXT) Core Science Team uses science, engineering, and customer‑obsessed problem solving to proactively identify mechanisms, process improvements, and products that simultaneously improve Amazon and Amazonians’ lives, wellbeing, and value of work. As an interdisciplinary team combining talents from machine learning, statistics, economics, behavioral science, engineering, and product development, the Core Science team develops and delivers measurable solutions through innovation and rapid prototyping to accelerate informed, accurate, and reliable decision‑making backed by science and data.
Basic Qualifications
PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience.
5+ years of industry or academic research experience.
Experience programming in Python or a related language.
5+ years of building machine learning models or developing algorithms for business application.
Experience in patents or publications at top‑tier conferences.
Extensive track record of leading technical projects.
Experience mentoring junior scientists and engineers.
Demonstrated expertise in deep learning and model development.
Preferred Qualifications
A track record of influencing software shipped at scale using your science expertise.
Experience working with real‑world complex data sets and building models at Amazon scale.
Base Salary
USA, CA, Santa Clara: 228,700.00 – 309,400.00 USD annually
USA, IL, Chicago: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York: 218,800.00 – 295,900.00 USD annually
USA, TX, Austin: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Arlington: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Bellevue: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle: 198,900.00 – 269,000.00 USD annually
Benefits
Amazon offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and optional supplemental life plans), employee assistance program, mental health support, medical advice line, flexible spending accounts, adoption and surrogacy reimbursement coverage, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at
https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits .
Equal Opportunity Employer
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 preparing to work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhering to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicating effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and following 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. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Accommodations
If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring 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, contact your Recruiting Partner.
#J-18808-Ljbffr