Applied Scientist – Robotics Controls

Description

At Amazon Robotics, we design advanced robotic systems capable of intelligent perception, learning, and action alongside humans, all on a large scale. Our goal is to develop robots that increase productivity and efficiency at the Amazon fulfillment centers while ensuring the safety of workers.

We are seeking an Applied Scientist to develop innovative, scalable solutions in feedback control and state estimation for robotic systems, with a focus on contact‑rich manipulation tasks. In this role, you will formulate physics‑based models of robotic systems, perform analytical and numerical studies, and design control and estimation algorithms that integrate fundamental principles with data‑driven techniques. You will collaborate with a world‑class team of experts in perception, machine learning, motion planning, and feedback controls to innovate and develop solutions for complex real‑world problems.

As part of your work, you will investigate applicable academic and industry research to develop, implement, and test solutions that support product features. You will also design and validate production designs. To succeed in this role, you should demonstrate a strong working knowledge of physical systems, a desire to learn from new challenges, and the problem‑solving and communication skills to work within a highly interactive and experienced team.

Candidates must show a hands‑on passion for their work and the ability to communicate their ideas and concepts both verbally and visually.

• Research, design, implement, and evaluate feedback control, estimation, and motion‑planning algorithms, ensuring effective integration with perception, manipulation, and system‑level components.
• Develop experiments, simulations, and hardware prototypes to validate control algorithms, and optimization techniques in contact‑rich manipulation and other challenging scenarios.
• Collaborate with software engineering teams to enable scalable, real‑time, and maintainable implementations of algorithms in production systems.
• Partner with cross‑functional teams across hardware, systems engineering, science, and operations to transition algorithms from early prototyping to robust, production‑ready solutions.
• Engage with stakeholders at all levels to iterate on system design, define requirements, and drive integration of control and estimation capabilities into Amazon Robotics platforms.

Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full‑time employees include:

If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we’d still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!

• PhD, or Master’s degree and 4+ years of science, technology, engineering or related field experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience implementing algorithms using both toolkits and self‑developed code

• Demonstrated ability to innovate and deliver robust, scalable solutions for complex robotics problems in production environments.
• Deep expertise in developing force‑based and impedance/control strategies for contact‑rich manipulation.
• Experience with state‑estimation techniques, including classical observers, Kalman Filters, EKF/UKF, and Particle Filters.
• Experience modeling robotic or physical systems for simulation, as well as characterizing and validating system dynamics on hardware.

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

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