Interested in this Research Scientist role at Amazon.com?
Apply Now →About This Role
DESCRIPTION
---------------
Do you want to define the scientific direction for how a global contact\-center network forecasts demand, schedules its workforce, and optimizes operations in real time? The Eliza team within Amazon Connect (FCS) is looking for a Principal Research Scientist with a deep operations research specialization to set the research agenda in operations science — combinatorial optimization, queueing theory, stochastic modeling, and forecasting — and to translate that research into production systems that serve millions of customer interactions.
As a Principal Research Scientist, you will be the senior technical voice for operations research across the org. You will identify the highest\-leverage scientific problems, architect novel solutions, and drive them from research through production deployment. You will not sit apart from the work — you will remain deeply hands\-on with data, models, and systems while raising the scientific bar for scientists and engineers around you. This is an individual\-contributor Principal role: your influence comes from technical depth, invention, and the ability to move business and engineering roadmaps through scientific rigor.
You will operate at the intersection of demand forecasting, workforce scheduling, and network optimization — applying combinatorial optimization to large\-scale scheduling and resource\-allocation problems and queueing theory to model contact\-center dynamics under uncertainty, non\-stationarity, and competing operational constraints at Internet scale — turning that reasoning into systems that continuously sense, predict, and optimize.
Key job responsibilities
- Set the multi\-year research direction for operations research across contact\-center demand prediction, workforce scheduling, and network optimization.
- Design and deliver novel algorithms in combinatorial optimization (large\-scale scheduling, resource allocation, integer/constraint programming) and queueing theory (contact\-center modeling, staffing under stochastic arrivals), alongside stochastic modeling and time\-series forecasting, that advance the state of the art while solving real operational problems.
- Own end\-to\-end scientific solutions — from problem formulation and prototyping to production deployment — ensuring robustness, explainability, and seamless integration with existing systems.
- Design rigorous experiments and evaluation methodology to validate hypotheses and quantify business impact; establish scientific\-excellence mechanisms (metrics, benchmarks, peer review) that the broader science team adopts.
- Partner with engineering, product, and operations teams to define data and logging requirements, get them prioritized on roadmaps, and translate scientific capabilities into measurable business outcomes.
- Influence senior leadership through written papers and deep\-dives, framing complex algorithmic trade\-offs in clear business terms.
- Mentor and raise the bar for applied and research scientists across the org while maintaining significant hands\-on technical contribution.
- Represent the team's science externally where appropriate (publications, patents, top\-tier venues such as INFORMS, NeurIPS, ICML).
A day in the life
Your day blends hands\-on science with technical leadership. You might spend the morning deep in data and models — prototyping a new combinatorial\-optimization formulation for workforce scheduling or a queueing model for staffing under stochastic arrivals against production infrastructure — and the afternoon guiding fellow scientists through a hard optimization or stochastic\-modeling problem, reviewing an experiment design, or aligning engineering partners on the data architecture needed to unlock the next capability. You'll drive technical discussions with the team and key stakeholders, and periodically write and present papers that shape the business and engineering roadmap.BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
------------------------
- 10\+ years of tech industry or equivalent experience
- PhD in a quantitative discipline such as statistics, mathematics, economics, computer science, or any related quantitative field
- Experience working effectively with science, data processing, and software engineering teams
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
----------------------------
\- PhD in operations research, applied mathematics, theoretical computer science, or equivalent, or experience in at least one of the related science disciplines (optimization \- LP, MIP, statistics, machine learning, process control, combinatorial optimization)
- Experience in leading large\-scale, technical or engineering programs with a proven record of thought leadership, business case development, realizing customer benefits, and successful program completion
- Experience scripting in modern programming languages, or experience with training and deploying machine learning systems to solve large\-scale optimizations
- Patents or publications at top\-tier peer\-reviewed conferences or journals.
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 \- 208,300\.00 \- 281,800\.00 USD annually
Salary Context
This $208K-$281K range is above the 75th percentile for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $195K across 149 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 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 in Demand for This Role
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. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($245K) sits 10% above the category median. Disclosed range: $208K to $281K.
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 New York pay a median of $220,000 across 1,650 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 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
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.