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About This Role
DESCRIPTION
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In this role, you will design and build intelligent multi\-agent systems that automate root cause analysis for advertising campaign delivery at scale. You will architect agentic orchestration patterns where specialized sub\-agents (campaign diagnostics, deal\-level troubleshooting, pacing control) are invoked as composable tools by a reasoning layer that determines which subsystems to query based on the nature of the issue. You will develop hierarchical analysis frameworks that move from daily trend detection to intra\-day anomaly isolation, enabling the system to pinpoint when and why delivery degraded rather than relying on static time windows. You will build self\-learning feedback loops where the system identifies recurring failure signatures (auction dynamics, pacing anomalies, supply contention), updates its diagnostic knowledge as engineering teams deploy fixes, and retires stale patterns automatically. We are looking for a passionate Applied Scientist with technical expertise in LLM\-based agent architectures, retrieval\-augmented generation, time\-series anomaly detection, and production ML systems. In addition to hands\-on experience building agentic AI solutions, an ideal candidate should demonstrate the ability to translate complex distributed system behaviors into structured diagnostic reasoning, show a willingness to push the boundaries of how LLMs interact with real\-time operational data, and thrive in an environment where you ship production systems that directly reduce advertiser escalation time from days to minutes.
Key job responsibilities
- Conduct deep data analysis to derive insights for the business, identify gaps, and uncover new opportunities.
- Develop scalable and effective machine learning models and optimization strategies to solve business problems.
- Run regular A/B experiments, gather data, and perform statistical analysis to optimize advertiser experiences.
- Collaborate closely with software engineers to deliver end\-to\-end solutions into production.
- Enhance the scalability, efficiency, and automation of large\-scale data analytics, model training, deployment, and serving.
- Research and implement new machine learning models and techniques to improve advertising performance.
A day in the life
Your primary focus is building a multi\-agent diagnostic system that automates root cause analysis for advertising campaign delivery issues. On a typical day, you might review how the system handled recent escalations, identify where it reasoned incorrectly, adjust orchestration logic, and write new evaluation cases. You will design agent architectures that invoke specialized sub\-agents as tools, build hierarchical analysis frameworks that move from trend detection to anomaly isolation, and develop self\-learning loops that keep the system's diagnostic knowledge current as the underlying platform evolves. You will work closely with SDEs building the diagnostic platform, product managers defining the troubleshooting experience, and the support teams who rely on your system to resolve advertiser delivery issues in minutes instead of days. Beyond the core agent work, you may find yourself diving into causal inference to measure recommendation effectiveness, prototyping proactive anomaly detection, or contributing to evaluation science for systems that reason over complex operational data.
About the team
The Demand Enablement, Product Analytics and Operations team builds the diagnostic and intelligence layer for Amazon DSP, the demand\-side platform powering Amazon's programmatic advertising business. We own the systems that detect, diagnose, and surface delivery issues across campaigns, giving internal teams and advertisers the visibility to act before problems impact spend. Our product portfolio spans automated troubleshooting platforms, advertiser\-facing delivery insights, and AI\-powered root cause analysis using multi\-agent architectures on foundation models. We are a small, high\-ownership team that ships production systems end\-to\-end, from data pipelines processing billions of bid events to LLM\-based agents that reason over complex advertising systems. If you want to work at the intersection of applied science, distributed systems observability, and real business impact measured in advertiser dollars recovered, this is the team.BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
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- 3\+ years of building models for business application experience
- PhD, or Master's degree and 4\+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience
- Experience programming in Java, C\+\+, Python or related language
- Experience in any of the following areas: algorithms and data structures, parsing, numerical optimization, data mining, parallel and distributed computing, high\-performance computing
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
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- Experience developing and implementing deep learning algorithms, particularly with respect to computer vision algorithms
- Experience in professional software development
- Experience in designing experiments and statistical analysis of results
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, NY, New York \- 172,400\.00 \- 223,400\.00 USD annually
USA, WA, SEATTLE \- 142,800\.00 \- 193,200\.00 USD annually
Salary Context
This $142K-$223K range is above the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 109 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 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 3% of the market. At Amazon.com, 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 $223,400 based on 280 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $165,000. This role's midpoint ($183K) sits 18% below the category median. Disclosed range: $142K to $223K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
Amazon.com AI Hiring
Amazon.com has 102 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist, AI/ML Engineer, AI Product Manager, Data Scientist. Positions span New York, NY, US, Palo Alto, CA, US, Bellevue, WA, US. Compensation range: $129K - $300K.
Location Context
AI roles in New York pay a median of $211,000 across 2,643 tracked positions. That's 5% above the national median.
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 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 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 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). 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 (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) 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 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 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 $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. 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 Engineering Manager roles lead at $275,000 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 (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 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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