Senior Applied Scientist - Predictive Scoring, AWS Marketing Science

$167K - $226K New York, NY, US Senior Research Scientist

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Skills & Technologies

AwsMlflowPythonPytorchSagemakerTensorflowTransformers

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

DESCRIPTION

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As a Senior Applied Scientist specializing in lead scoring and deep learning modeling, you will tackle complex challenges in machine learning and deep learning to redefine how our business engages with customers. You will design and deploy high\-impact models that drive customer segmentation, adaptive recommendations, and predictive lead and account prioritization. Leveraging your expertise in deep learning, representation learning, and general modeling, you'll help build solutions that directly influence business outcomes, collaborating with cross\-functional teams to turn novel research into scalable, production\-grade systems.

Key job responsibilities

  • Design and deploy predictive lead scoring models to optimize customer acquisition, conversion, and retention strategies using advanced techniques like survival analysis, graph networks, or transformer\-based architectures.
  • Architect end\-to\-end ML pipelines for large\-scale deep learning models, including data preprocessing, distributed training, model optimization, and real\-time inference.
  • Publish research, file patents, and stay ahead of industry trends in the marketing science, propensity modeling, and customer journey prediction domains.
  • Innovate in multi\-modal modeling (text, graph, behavioral, and temporal data) to enhance scoring accuracy across account and lead levels.
  • Conduct rigorous A/B testing, causal inference, and counterfactual analysis to measure model impact and iterate rapidly.
  • Collaborate with MLOps engineers to streamline model deployment, monitoring, and retraining using tools like AWS SageMaker, or MLflow and other internal tools.
  • Participate in science reviews to raise the science bar in our organization. This includes reviewing your work and the work of others.
  • Mentor junior scientists on ML methodology, experimentation design, and production best practices.
  • Define offline and online evaluation frameworks; establish success metrics tied to business outcomes (conversion rates, pipeline generation).

About the team

The AWS Marketing Science team builds the ML models and measurement systems that drive marketing decisions across Amazon Web Services. We own incrementality and valuation, ROI measurement, marketing attribution, propensity scoring, account and lead clustering, and next\-best\-action models. Our work directly influences how AWS allocates marketing spend, targets accounts, and measures effectiveness across billions in pipeline.BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

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  • 3\+ years of building machine learning models for business application experience
  • PhD, or Master's 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
  • Knowledge of deep learning, machine learning and statistics
  • Experience engaging, verbally and in writing, with internal and external stakeholders to convey complex ideas in a clear, concise manner
  • Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent)
  • Real world experience in recommender systems, transformers, or multi\-objective tasks.
  • Strong background in statistical analysis, experimental design, and SQL/Spark for big data processing
  • Extensive knowledge in a breadth of machine learning topics

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

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  • Proven success in deploying deep learning models (e.g., BERT/Transformers for NLP/behavioral sequences, diffusion models, GANs or general DNNs) to solve business problems.
  • Publications or patents in applied ML domains
  • Expertise in at least one focus area in each of the following:
  • \*\*MLOps\*\*: CI/CD pipelines, model monitoring, cloud platforms, Deployment strategy
  • \*\*Emerging Techniques\*\*: LLM fine\-tuning, federated learning, automated feature engineering, siamese networks, backbones (feature extraction networks), efficient transformer architectures.
  • Experience in at least one focus area in either of the following:
  • \*\*Personalization\*\*: Session\-based and long term interest recommendations. Two\-Tower and Transformer based architectures
  • \*\*Lead Scoring / Behavior\*\*: Predictive analytics, churn modeling, and causal ML for attribution.

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.

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 https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, TX, Austin \- 167,100\.00 \- 226,100\.00 USD annually

Salary Context

This $167K-$226K range is above the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 83 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Title Senior Applied Scientist - Predictive Scoring, AWS Marketing Science
Location New York, NY, US
Category Research Scientist
Experience Senior
Salary $167K - $226K
Remote No

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

Aws (30% of roles) Mlflow (4% of roles) Python (51% of roles) Pytorch (15% of roles) Sagemaker (5% of roles) Tensorflow (11% of roles) Transformers (2% of roles)

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. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. This role's midpoint ($196K) sits 12% below the category median. Disclosed range: $167K to $226K.

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

Based on 197 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for Research Scientist positions is $222,200. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
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.
About 14% of the 3,708 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Amazon Web Services is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from Research Scientist positions include Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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