Principal Applied Scientist, Amazon Photos (San Diego)

Principal Applied Scientist, Amazon Photos

Job ID: 3002644 | Amazon.com Services LLC

The Amazon Photos team is looking for a world-class Principal Applied Scientist to join us and use AI to help customers relive their cherished memories. Our team of scientists have developed algorithms and models that power Amazon Photos features for millions of photos and videos daily. We expect that you will set the standard for scientific excellence and make decisions that affect the way we build, and publish your findings in at peer reviewed conferences and workshops.
With the recent advancements in Vision-Language models, Amazon Photos has completely re-thought the product roadmap and is looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to make investments for the long-term while delivering on the short-term roadmap working closely with Product and Engineering. Our research themes include, but are not limited to: foundational models, contrastive learning, diffusion models, few-shot and zero-shot learning, transfer learning, unsupervised and semi-supervised methods, active learning and semi-automated data annotation, deep learning, and large scale image and video detection and recognition.
Key job responsibilities
- Your solutions are exemplary in terms of algorithm design, clarity, model structure, efficiency, and extensibility and often used as reference across organization
- You will be responsible for defining key research directions, adopting or inventing new machine learning techniques, conducting rigorous experiments, publishing results, and ensuring that research is translated into practice
- Amplify your impact by leading scientific reviews within your organization, scrutinize and review experimental design, modeling, verification and other research procedures
- Serve as a key scientific resource in full-cycle development and develop long-term strategies, persuade teams to adopt those strategies, propose goals and deliver on them
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams of engineers, product managers, and scientists and communicate results and insights to both technical and non-technical audiences, including through presentations and written reports
- Help managers guide the career growth of other scientists by mentoring and play a significant role in hiring and developing scientists and leads
About the team
Amazon Photos is the one of the main digital products offered to Prime subscribers along with Amazon Music and Amazon Video. Amazon Photos provides unlimited photo storage and 5 GB for videos to Prime members and is a top Prime benefit in multiple marketplaces. AI-driven experiences based on image and video understanding are core to customer delight for the business. These experiences are delivered in our mobile, web and desktop apps, in Fire TV, and integrated into Alexa devices such as Echo Show. We solve real-world problems using AI while being a positive force for good.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

- PhD degree in Computer Science, Applied Math, or a related field with strong publications in refereed academic journals/conferences
- 10+ years of combined academic and applied research experience
- 10+ years of hands-on experience developing software in traditional programming languages (C++, Java, Python etc.)
- 7+ years of hands-on experience with ML framework such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn etc.
- Excellent writing skills for presenting business cases and scientific models with rigorous analyses that support results to influence important decisions
- Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Excellent technical publications and material contributions to the CV/ML/AI field as related to image, video or natural language processing
- Proven track record of innovation in creating novel algorithms and advancing the state of the art
- 10+ years of building business application with deep learning toolkits and frameworks
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 you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $179,000/year in our lowest geographic market up to $309,400/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit . This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.