Sr. Applied & Research Scientist Safe Autonomy Frontiers (SAF) Lab, Safe Autonomy Frontiers (SAF) Lab

We are seeking Applied and Research Scientists to join the Safe Autonomy Frontiers (SAF) this role you will develop and deploy the science of safe autonomy on highly dynamic robots advancing the frontier through both foundational research and realization on hardware. You will contribute to achieving safe autonomy across three key areas: control barrier function (CBF) theory for robust and performant safety on hardware; safe reinforcement learning for agile whole-body control; and layered safety filters that interface with learning perception and semantic reasoning systems. You will validate your work experimentally on state-of-the-art robotic platforms removing bottlenecks to deployment and enabling robots to safely operate around humans. You will work with the inventor of CBFs as well as top scientists and engineers at Amazon developing the next generation of safe autonomy.

Key job responsibilities
-Advance the science of safe autonomy from formal foundations to the integration with learning and perception to validation on hardware with particular emphasis on methods that bridge these domains.
-Test and validate hardware with a focus on next generation robotic systems. Including locomotion manipulation and loco-manipulation.
-Leverage the deployments on hardware to validate the underlying science identifying gaps between theory and practice that drive the next cycle of research. hardware to validate the underlying science identifying gaps between theory and practice that drive the next cycle of research.
-Publish research at top-tier robotics control and ML venues and contribute to Amazons scientific reputation in advanced robotics.
-Collaborate with SAF Lab and Amazon production teams to move research into robots deployed at Amazon scale.

A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location the number of regularly scheduled hours you work length of employment and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular full-time employees include:
-Medical Dental and Vision Coverage
-Maternity and Parental Leave Options
-Paid Time Off (PTO)
-401(k) Plan
If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly wed still love to hear from you! At Amazon we value people with unique backgrounds experiences and skillsets. If youre passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale please apply!

About the team
The Safe Autonomy Frontiers (SAF) Lab is the first industry research lab dedicated to safe autonomy founded by the inventor of control barrier functions. We are developing a universal safety layer for the next generation of robotic systems: mobile robots manipulators quadrupeds and humanoids. Here you will advance performant safety for highly dynamic robots CBF theory integrated with perception and learning evaluated on next-generation platforms and your work will underpin robots operating alongside people at Amazons unprecedented scale.

- PhD or Masters degree and 3 years of industry or academic research experience
- Masters degree and 3 years of applied science research or robotics engineering experience OR a PhD in computer science robotics control mechanical engineering electrical engineering or a related field.
- Hands-on experience developing and deploying control algorithms and/or learning policies on physical robotic hardware in a research or production setting (not simulation-only).
- Working knowledge of safety-critical control including control barrier functions and safety filters.
- Proficiency in C and Python with a track record of implementing control algorithms and/or learning policies in real systems.
- Experience with physics simulators for robotics (e.g. Isaac Gym/Sim MuJoCo PyBullet).
- Demonstrated technical impact through shipped systems patents or publications at top-tier venues (e.g. CDC ACC L-CSS ICRA IROS RSS RA-L Automatica TAC TRO).

- Experience in professional software development including production code quality testing and deployment practices.
- Experience taking robotics or autonomy research from prototype to deployed product including collaboration with hardware product and operations teams.
- Understanding of autonomous systems reduced-order models layered control architectures nonlinear control reachability methods legged locomotion and whole-body control.
- Knowledge of learning-based approaches to robotics (e.g. reinforcement learning diffusion VLAs VLMs world models).
- Exposure learning-based approaches for CBF synthesis (e.g. neural CBFs data-driven barrier functions) and the integration of CBFs into learning (e.g. CBF-RL).
- Understanding of control systems engineering with a focus on layered architecture in robotic systems (high-level planning mid-level trajectory generation low-level feedback control).
- Experience with perception on robotic systems (e.g. depth-camera and LiDAR-based sensing sensor fusion semantic tagging) together with mapping and navigation.
- Familiarity with Hamilton-Jacobi reachability analysis and its relationship to CBF-based approaches.
- Knowledge of safety-constrained RL (e.g. constrained MDPs Lagrangian methods shielding CBF-based policy filtering).
- Experience with model-based control (MPC whole-body QP controllers operational space control) and/or simulation-based predictive control (MPPI).
- Experience with hierarchical RL skill composition distillation and multi-task policy architectures for locomotion.
- Familiarity with real-time deployment constraints (latency budgets onboard compute limitations control-loop frequencies).
- Experience building or contributing to large-scale RL training infrastructure (distributed training GPU clusters).
- Strong communication skills and ability to work across disciplinary boundaries (ML controls mechanical engineering).

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.

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 CA PASADENA - 167100.00 - 226100.00 USD annually