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About This Role
DESCRIPTION
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Employer: Amazon Development Center U.S., Inc.
Position: Applied Scientist III \- AMZ27579\.1
Location: New York, NY
Multiple Positions Available:
Participate in the design, development, evaluation, deployment and updating of data\-driven models and analytical solutions for machine learning (ML) and/or natural language (NL) applications. Develop and/or apply statistical modeling techniques (e.g. Bayesian models and deep neural networks), optimization methods, and other ML techniques to different applications in business and engineering. Routinely build and deploy ML models on available data, and run and analyze experiments in a production environment. Identify new opportunities for research in order to meet business goals. Research and implement novel ML and statistical approaches to add value to the business. Mentor junior engineers and scientists. Telecommuting may be permitted.
(40 hours / week, 8:00am\-5:00pm, Salary Range $183800 \- $248700\)
Amazon.com is an Equal Opportunity – Affirmative Action Employer – Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
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Master’s degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field and two years of research or work experience in the job offered, or as a Research Scientist, Research Assistant, Software Engineer, or a related occupation. Employer will accept a Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field and five years of research or work experience in the job offered or a related occupation as equivalent to the Master’s degree and two years of research or work experience. Must have one year of research or work experience in the following skill(s): programming in Java, C\+\+, Python, or equivalent programming language; and conducting the analysis and development of various supervised and unsupervised machine learning models for moderately complex projects in business, science, or engineering. Telecommuting may be permitted.
The base pay range for this position in New York City is USD $183800 \- $248700 (yr). Pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job\-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A sign\-on payment and restricted stock units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, or other benefits, dependent on the position offered. Applicants should apply via Amazon's internal or external careers site.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
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Master’s degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field and two years of research or work experience in the job offered, or as a Research Scientist, Research Assistant, Software Engineer, or a related occupation. Employer will accept a Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field and five years of research or work experience in the job offered or a related occupation as equivalent to the Master’s degree and two years of research or work experience. Must have one year of research or work experience in the following skill(s): programming in Java, C\+\+, Python, or equivalent programming language; and conducting the analysis and development of various supervised and unsupervised machine learning models for moderately complex projects in business, science, or engineering. Telecommuting may be permitted.
The base pay range for this position in New York City is USD $183800 \- $248700 (yr). Pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job\-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A sign\-on payment and restricted stock units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, or other benefits, dependent on the position offered. Applicants should apply via Amazon's internal or external careers site.
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 https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how\-we\-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
Salary Context
This $183K-$248K range is above the 75th percentile for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 83 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.
The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 3% of the market. At Amazon Web Services, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
Skills Required
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.
Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 197 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $200,000. Disclosed range: $183K to $248K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Amazon Web Services AI Hiring
Amazon Web Services has 73 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Product Manager, Research Scientist, Data Scientist. Positions span New York, NY, US, Austin, TX, US, Jersey City, NJ, US. Compensation range: $129K - $342K.
Location Context
AI roles in New York pay a median of $220,000 across 1,045 tracked positions.
Career Path
Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.
The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.
What to Expect in Interviews
Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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