Applied Scientist, Stores Economics & Science; SEAS

Position: Applied Scientist, Stores Economics & Science (SEAS)
Description

Stores Economics and Science (SEAS) is an interdisciplinary science and engineering team in Amazon's Stores organization with a peak-jumping mission: we apply expertise in science and engineering to move from local to global optima in methods, models, and software. We pursue this mission by leveraging frontier science; collaborating with partner teams; and learning from the tools, experience, and perspective of others.

We scale by solving problems, first in the small to prove concepts, and then in the large by building scalable solutions. We also help other teams within Amazon scale by hiring and developing the best and embedding them in other business units.

In 2026, we are focused on economics and science in areas related to (1) lowering cost-to-serve, (2) optimizing selection, and (3) emerging machine learning. We also have some ongoing and highly-leveraged collaborations that help partner teams inside Amazon short-circuit months of R&D or otherwise look around corners. We are looking for an Applied Scientist to build and deliver state-of-the-art science and engineering solutions to improve our Stores business.

In this role, you will work in a team of scientists and engineers with backgrounds in machine learning, NLP, IR, statistics, and economics to identify bottlenecks in our business, conceive new ideas to overcome those challenges, and deploy scientific solutions in partnership with product teams. Your responsibilities include developing and maintaining the scientific models, benchmarks, and services. Graduate education or hands-on experience in machine learning, optimization, causal inference, Bayesian statistics, deep learning, or other quantitative scientific fields is a big plus.

To be successful in this role, you should be a quick learner and comfortable with a high degree of ambiguity.

Key job responsibilities

The successful candidate will lead large-scale science initiatives from research to production and translate complex business problems into mathematical frameworks. They will design and implement large-scale algorithms for complex supply chain and marketplace problems, and design incentive-compatible mechanisms for marketplace challenges.

The ideal candidate will have a strong publication record in top-tier conferences/journals (INFORMS, EC, WINE, ICML, NeurIPS, etc.) and experience coordinating cross-functional projects. Hands-on experience building science solutions to mechanism design problems (e.g., optimal auction design, welfare maximization under constraints, incentive compatible coordination), with expertise in statistical learning and algorithm development.

Leadership responsibilities include influencing technical strategy and roadmaps for complex initiatives, influencing senior stakeholders and shaping technical direction, and fostering team growth.

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 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

- 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.

Los Angeles County applicants:
Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position.

These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound…