Sr. Applied Scientist, Foundation Model, Amazon Industrial Robotics , Industrial Robotics Group

Amazon Industrial Robotics is seeking exceptional talent to help develop the next generation of advanced robotics systems that will transform automation at Amazons scale. Were building revolutionary robotic systems that combine innovative AI sophisticated control systems and advanced mechanical design to create adaptable automation solutions capable of working safely alongside humans in dynamic environments. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of robotics and automation at unprecedented scale working with world-class teams pushing the boundaries of whats possible in robotic manipulation locomotion and human-robot interaction. This role presents an opportunity to shape the future of robotics through innovative applications of deep learning and large language models.

We leverage advanced robotics machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve complex operational challenges at unprecedented scale. Our fleet of robots operates across hundreds of facilities worldwide working in sophisticated coordination to fulfill our mission of customer excellence.

We are pioneering the development of robotics foundation models that:
Enable unprecedented generalization across diverse tasks
Integrate multi-modal learning capabilities (visual tactile linguistic)
Accelerate skill acquisition through demonstration learning
Enhance robotic perception and environmental understanding
Streamline development processes through reusable capabilities

The ideal candidate will contribute to research that bridges the gap between theoretical advancement and practical implementation in robotics. You will be part of a team thats revolutionizing how robots learn adapt and interact with their environment.

Join us in building the next generation of intelligent robotics systems that will transform the future of automation and human-robot collaboration.

As a Senior Applied Scientist you will lead the development of machine learning systems that help robots perceive reason and act in real-world environments. You will set technical direction for adapting and advancing state-of-the-art models (open source and internal research) into robust safe and high-performing robot brain capabilities for our target tasks environments and robot embodiments. You will drive rigorous capability profiling and experimentation lead targeted innovation where gaps exist and partner across research controls hardware and product teams to ensure outputs can be further customized and deployed on specific robots.


Key job responsibilities
As a Senior Applied Scientist in the Foundation Model team you will:
Lead technical initiatives for foundation-model capabilities (e.g. visuomotor / VLA / video-action worldmodel-action policies) from problem definition through validated model deliverables.
Own model readiness for our embodiment class: drive adaptation fine-tuning and optimization (latency/throughput/robustness) and define success criteria that downstream teams can build on.
Establish and evolve capability evaluation: define benchmark strategy metrics and profiling methodology to quantify performance generalization and failure modes; ensure evaluations drive clear roadmap decisions.
Drive the data training strategy needed to close key capability gaps including data requirements collection/curation standards dataset quality/provenance and repeatable training recipes (sim real).
Invent and validate new methods when leveraging SOTA is insufficientnew training schemes model components supervision signals or simreal techniquesbacked by strong empirical evidence.
Influence cross-team technical decisions by collaborating with controls/WBC hardware and product teams on interfaces constraints and integration plans; communicate results via design docs and technical reviews.
Mentor and raise the bar: guide junior scientists/engineers set best practices for experimentation and code quality and drive a culture of rigor and reproducibility.


- PhD or Masters degree and 6 years of applied research experience
- Hands-on deep learning expertise with demonstrated impact in one or more: multimodal modeling imitation learning/RL for robotics vision-language/video models sim2real/real2sim
- Experience leading technical projects end-to-end (problem framing execution measurable outcomes) with strong experimental rigor and reproducible baselines
- Software engineering skills (Python C/Java) ability to build reliable training/evaluation infrastructure and production-quality research code
- Demonstrated technical contributions (publications/patents/open-source or substantial internal impact) and ability to communicate technical direction clearly

- 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.
- Experience driving robotics foundation models (VLA/visuomotor/video-action/world-model-based policies) and multi-task robot learning
- Experience building evaluation/benchmarking systems that meaningfully guide roadmap and model iteration
- Experience with scaling (large-scale data distributed training inference efficiency/latency optimization)
- Experience with real-robot experimentation and simreal pipelines; comfort partnering across controls/hardware teams

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 Companys reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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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 and 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 and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at CA Sunnyvale - 192200.00 - 260000.00 USD annually