Applied Scientist, Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence; ASCI

Alexa+ is Amazon’s next-generation, AI-powered virtual assistant. Building on the original Alexa, it uses generative AI to deliver a more conversational, personalized, and effective experience. As an Applied Scientist II on the Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence (ASCI) team, you’ll be part of an elite group developing industry-leading technologies in attribute extraction and sensitive content detection that work seamlessly across all languages and countries.

Your innovations will directly shape how millions of customers interact with Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, and Fire TV devices every day. In this role, you’ll join a team of exceptional scientists pushing the boundaries of Natural Language Processing. Working in our dynamic, fast-paced environment, you’ll develop novel algorithms and modeling techniques that advance the state of the art in NLP.

Your work will be crucial in ensuring Alexa remains at the forefront of AI technology while maintaining the highest standards of trust and safety.

Design and implement GenAI solutions that define the future of AI interaction. Pioneer novel algorithms, conduct ground-breaking experiments, and optimize user experiences through innovative approaches to sensitive content detection and mitigation.

Transform theoretical breakthroughs into practical, scalable solutions that strengthen user trust in Alexa globally, working alongside exceptional engineers and scientists.

Mentor rising talent, contributing to Amazon’s culture of scientific excellence while helping build high-performing teams that deliver swift, impactful results.

Collaborate with brilliant minds on advancing state-of-the-art NLP algorithms, analyze experiment results, and partner with cross-functional teams—including engineers and product managers—to ensure data quality, refine policies, and enhance model performance.

Guide technical discussions, shape roadmaps, and influence key platform features that require cross-team leadership.

The mission of the Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence (ASCI) team is to (1) minimize negative surprises to customers caused by sensitive content, (2) detect and prevent potential brand-damaging interactions, and (3) build customer trust through appropriate interactions on sensitive topics.

The term “sensitive content” includes within its scope a wide range of categories such as offensive content (e.g., hate speech, racist speech), profanity, age-restricted material, politically polarizing content, and religiously polarizing content. It refers to any material exposed to customers by Alexa (including 1P and 3P experiences) and includes text, speech, audio, and video.

• 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 in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals
• 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

• Experience using Unix/Linux
• Experience in professional software development

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.