Human-Robot Interaction, Senior Applied Scientist , Fauna

We are seeking a Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Applied Scientist to develop cutting-edge interactions that make robots feel alive personal and this role you will focus on verbal and non-verbal conversational systems social dynamics memory and long-term relationship formation between robots their environments and the people they interact with. Your contributions will be essential in advancing robotics by enabling expressive socially intelligent and trustworthy interactions between robots and humans.

Key job responsibilities
- Develop interactive systems that leverage large language models multimodal inputs and outputs reinforcement learning from human feedback or other advanced techniques to achieve fluid engaging and socially appropriate robot behavior

- Design and implement intelligent conversational systems that handle turn-taking grounding interruption and incorporates context drawn from a robots physical environment and shared history with a user

- Integrate perceptual sensor streams including gaze facial expression gesture posture and more to understand social context and produce coherent lifelike interactions.

- Develop memory and personalization systems that allow robots to form lasting relationships with individual users learn their environments and adapt their behavior over weeks and months

- Stay updated on advancements in HRI NLP multimodal AI and cognitive and social science to apply cutting-edge techniques to robot interaction challenges

- Lead technical projects from conception through production deployment

- Mentor junior scientists and engineers

- Bridge research initiatives with practical engineering implementation

- 3 years of building machine learning models for business application experience
- PhD or Masters degree and 6 years of applied research experience
- Experience programming in Java C Python or related language
- Experience with neural deep learning methods and machine learning
- Strong publication record at major HRI/ML/AI/HCI conferences
- Experience designing running and analyzing user studies with real human participants
- Experience programming in Python or related language
- Demonstrated track record of leading technical projects
- Experience mentoring junior scientists/engineers
- Strong understanding of one or more of: dialogue systems multimodal interaction social signal processing affective computing or cognitive modeling
- Experience applying machine learning (LLMs multimodal models reinforcement learning imitation learning or related techniques) to interactive or socially situated systems

- 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 with LLM-based agents tool use planning or grounding language in perception and action
- History of impactful first-author publications at major conferences
- Experience deploying interaction systems on physical robots or other embodied platforms
- Experience with long-term memory personalization or user modeling for conversational agents
- History of technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration
- Experience bridging research with practical engineering implementation in robotics or consumer AI products
- Extensive programming skills in Python and PyTorch/JAX
- Experience integrating perception systems (e.g. vision audio and touch sensors) into interaction pipelines
- Familiarity with safety privacy and ethical considerations for socially interactive AI systems

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status disability or 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 for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt 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 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 NY New York - 183800.00 - 248700.00 USD annually