Applied Scientist, Leo Security

$142K - $193K Seattle, WA, US Mid Level Research Scientist

Interested in this Research Scientist role at Amazon.com?

Apply Now →

Skills & Technologies

PythonPytorchRustTensorflow

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

DESCRIPTION

---------------

Amazon Leo is a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low\-latency, high\-speed broadband network connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

We are looking for an Applied Scientist to join the founding cohort of the Engineering and R\\\&D team within Leo Infrastructure and IP Security. The team defends the manufacturing lines, launch sites, and global ground infrastructure behind the constellation from the most sophisticated threat actors on the planet. The data is unlike anything you have worked with: badge and door\-access events, asset movement, network telemetry, and industrial control signals from factories, ground stations, and launch facilities, all of which must be modeled, baselined, and defended. You will build the statistical and behavioral models that separate threat actor behavior from the noise of a global operation, and the privacy\-preserving data representations that let detection science scale without exposing sensitive data. This is an R\\\&D role with a production mandate: every model you build becomes part of the system Leo's security teams use to protect the constellation.

\#\#\#\# Export Control Requirement

Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Key job responsibilities

  • Build behavioral and statistical models that baseline normal activity across heterogeneous security telemetry, including specialized industrial\-control and factory\-floor data sources, so detections extend to new environments with low false\-positive rates.
  • Design privacy\-preserving representations of sensitive security data, and verify that models and detections tuned against them remain accurate against the real data — turning data\-protection guarantees into measurable, provable properties rather than assertions.
  • Define the methodology and own the analysis for difficult, loosely defined problems: gather complex data across domains, select the right techniques from a range of data science methods, and justify your approach with evidence.
  • Develop the metrics and evaluation frameworks that measure model and detection performance against threat actor behavior before a model is trusted in production.
  • Contribute to the team's neurosymbolic reasoning platform, adapting state\-of\-the\-art techniques from the literature and shipping components at production quality.
  • Document your work with the rigor of a peer\-reviewed publication, and communicate results clearly to both scientific and security\-operations audiences.

A day in the life

You will move between analysis and production in the same week: profiling a telemetry source the team has never modeled, establishing what normal looks like for it, and shipping the baseline as a component detections build on. Security engineers on your team translate threat intelligence into the adversary behaviors that matter; you build and tune the models that detect those behaviors and evaluate model performance against them. You might spend a morning chasing a false\-positive pattern to its statistical root cause, and the afternoon verifying that an anonymized dataset still preserves the signal a detection depends on. You will work semi\-autonomously with guidance from senior scientists, backtest candidate detections against retained telemetry, and deliver scientific artifacts that ship.

About the team

Leo Infrastructure and IP Security protects the people, facilities, hardware, and supply chain behind a global satellite constellation. The Engineering and R\\\&D team within this organization builds the platforms and tooling the security pillar teams operate on, moving security operations from manual triage to correlation\-based detection, automated response, and agentic AI. The team is composed of applied scientists, software engineers, and security engineers working across physical and digital security domains.

\#\#\#\# Inclusive Team Culture

In Amazon Security, it's in our nature to learn and be curious. Ongoing DEI events and learning experiences inspire us to continue learning and to embrace our uniqueness. Addressing the toughest security challenges requires that we seek out and celebrate a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and voices.

\#\#\#\# Training \& Career Growth

We're continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth's Best Employer. That's why you'll find endless knowledge\-sharing, training, and other career\-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better\-rounded professional.

\#\#\#\# Work/Life Balance

We value work\-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there's nothing we can't achieve.BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

------------------------

  • 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 with statistical modeling and analysis of large, heterogeneous datasets, including anomaly detection, time\-series analysis, or behavioral baselining

\- \- Fluency in Python; experience with a systems language such as Rust or C\+\+ is a plus

\- \- Experience with popular deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

----------------------------

\- Experience in one or more of the following domains: access\- control system and methodology, network security, application\- and system\-development security, security architecture and models, cryptography, and operations security

  • Experience in professional software and systems development

\- \- Publications at top\-tier peer\-reviewed machine learning, data mining, or security venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, CCS, USENIX Security)

\- \- Experience with privacy\-preserving machine learning, including synthetic data generation, anonymization, or differential privacy, and validating fidelity of transformed data

\- \- Experience designing evaluation frameworks and metrics for models where ground truth requires human judgment

\- \- Experience modeling operational or sensor telemetry, including industrial control systems (OT/SCADA), IoT, or physical\-world event data

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, WA, Seattle \- 142,800\.00 \- 193,200\.00 USD annually

Salary Context

This $142K-$193K range is below the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $195K across 149 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Company Amazon.com
Title Applied Scientist, Leo Security
Location Seattle, WA, US
Category Research Scientist
Experience Mid Level
Salary $142K - $193K
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 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 4% 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

Python (52% of roles) Pytorch (15% of roles) Rust (1% of roles) Tensorflow (12% 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 378 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $194,400. This role's midpoint ($168K) sits 24% below the category median. Disclosed range: $142K to $193K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.

Amazon.com AI Hiring

Amazon.com has 122 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Research Scientist, AI Product Manager, AI Software Engineer. Positions span Seattle, WA, US, Santa Clara, CA, US, New York, NY, US. Compensation range: $128K - $338K.

Location Context

AI roles in Seattle pay a median of $228,700 across 516 tracked positions. That's 6% 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 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 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 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). 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 (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) 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 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 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 $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. 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 $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. 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 (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 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 378 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 15% of the 4,317 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.com 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.

Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence

Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.