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Join to apply for the Principal Applied Scientist, Amazon Q role at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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Join to apply for the Principal Applied Scientist, Amazon Q role at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Description

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to join the Amazon Q team. Q is AWSs enterprise generative AI assistant that helps users answer questions, summarize documents, generate content, take actions, and automate workflows using information across enterprise systems. As a key member of this team, you will lead research and development efforts in generative AI and Agentic AI to enable intelligent agents that perform complex reasoning, automate multi-step workflows, and make enterprise users significantly more productive.

Description

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to join the Amazon Q team. Q is AWSs enterprise generative AI assistant that helps users answer questions, summarize documents, generate content, take actions, and automate workflows using information across enterprise systems. As a key member of this team, you will lead research and development efforts in generative AI and Agentic AI to enable intelligent agents that perform complex reasoning, automate multi-step workflows, and make enterprise users significantly more productive.

Youll work on building and optimizing multi-modal foundation models, training and fine-tuning state-of-the-art LLMs, and architecting systems that scale efficiently across domains. This role blends science leadership, hands-on innovation, and deep collaboration with engineering teams to bring research into production.

Key job responsibilities

Lead the design and development of foundational models and intelligent agent architectures tailored to enterprise use cases.

Partner with engineering, product, and UX teams to integrate generative AI into the Amazon Q assistant.

Drive experimentation to improve model accuracy, safety, latency, and cost efficiency.

Mentor other scientists and engineers, helping raise the technical bar across the team.

Contribute to and publish in top-tier conferences or file patents based on novel research contributions.

About The Team

Amazon Q is a generative AI-powered assistant that helps employees become more productive by answering questions, generating content, summarizing data, and automating workflows using enterprise information. Our team builds the intelligence behind Q, leveraging large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, and agentic architectures to orchestrate complex workflows securely and at scale. Were focused on building systems that reason, plan, and act across multiple modalities and business tools. As part of AWSs broader Agentic AI initiative, were shaping the future of enterprise AIempowering organizations to solve problems faster, reduce operational overhead, and unlock new levels of efficiency and decision-making.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field OR a Masters degree with 5+ years of relevant industry or research experience.
• Industry experience developing machine learning models for real-world applications.
• Experience with generative AI, including model training or building systems with pre-trained foundation models.
• Proven record of peer-reviewed publications or granted patents in AI/ML.
• Proficiency in Python or similar programming languages.
• Experience in at least one of the following areas: natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLMs), computer vision, or Agentic AI.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience applying generative AI to enterprise or multi-modal tasks (e.g., code generation, document understanding, or task planning).
• Strong understanding of agentic architectures, autonomous systems, or task orchestration.
• Hands-on experience with scalable ML infrastructure, distributed training, or optimization of large models.
• Deep knowledge of AI safety, hallucination mitigation, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Experience mentoring junior scientists and influencing cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to think strategically and communicate complex technical topics to non-experts, including senior leadership.
• Track record of shipping scientific innovations into customer-facing products at scale.

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 judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Companys reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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 for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $179,000/year in our lowest geographic market up to $309,400/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.

Company - Amazon Development Center U.S., Inc.

Job ID: A3037566

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Not Applicable

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Research, Science, and Engineering

• Industries

  IT Services and IT Consulting

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