AI Engineer - RL Manipulation, RIVR

Amazon is hiring an AI Engineer - RL Manipulation, RIVR in Zurich, Switzerland. Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this AI engineer role: the job is building AI systems.
The posting mentions PyTorch, TensorFlow and AI research among its tools and skills.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.
Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

pytorchtensorflow

ai-research

Are you passionate about pushing the boundaries of what robots can do? Amazon is looking for a creative and driven Applied Scientist to help build intelligent robotic manipulation systems powered by reinforcement learning. In this role, you will research, design, and deploy machine learning solutions that enable robots to interact with the physical world in increasingly capable ways. You will tackle complex, ambiguous problems where textbook answers don't exist, working backwards from real-world needs to invent new approaches. Your work will directly influence how automation systems learn, adapt, and perform at Amazon's scale — and you will see your research come to life on real hardware.

Key job responsibilities
- Research and develop reinforcement learning methods for robotic manipulation, advancing the state of the art in sim-to-real transfer, contact-rich control, and adaptive grasping strategies.
- Design, implement, and evaluate machine learning models and algorithms, leveraging deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow to train policies that generalize across varied manipulation tasks.
- Build and maintain production-quality code that integrates scientific prototypes into larger robotics systems, making thoughtful tradeoffs between complexity, performance, and maintainability.
- Collaborate with cross-functional engineering and science teams to define simulation requirements, validate model performance, and iterate on solutions informed by real-world hardware feedback.
- Contribute to the team's scientific roadmap by identifying new research directions, mentoring fellow scientists, and publishing results at peer-reviewed venues when appropriate.

A day in the life
You might start your morning reviewing overnight training runs, analyzing reward curves and failure modes from your latest reinforcement learning experiments. After a quick sync with robotics engineers, you shift to refining a simulation environment to close a gap you spotted between sim and real performance. In the afternoon, you pair with a teammate to design a new evaluation framework, then wrap up by drafting a short write-up of your findings to share with the broader team.

About the team
Our team sits at the intersection of machine learning research and real-world robotics, focused on teaching robots to manipulate objects with precision and adaptability. We combine reinforcement learning, physics-based simulation, and hands-on hardware validation to deliver solutions that work beyond the lab. We value intellectual curiosity, collaborative problem-solving, and a shared commitment to turning ambitious research ideas into tangible impact. If you are excited about building intelligent systems that learn from experience and operate at scale, this is the team for you.

Basic qualifications

- Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field such as Engineering, Robotics, or Machine Learning.
- A minimum of five years of industry or research experience, with PhD experience applicable.
- Strong deep learning fundamentals, including supervised and self-supervised learning techniques, and reinforcement learning, including Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), neural network architectures, policy optimization algorithms, model-based vs. model-free RL, exploration-exploitation strategies, value function methods, transfer learning, domain adaptation, sim-to-real transfer, etc.
- Strong background in robotics including autonomy and/or manipulation.
- Experience with deploying artificial neural networks on hardware platforms.
- Ability to write production-level code in modern C++.
- Ability to prototype algorithms and train deep neural networks in Python.
- Strong background in robotic manipulation, including dynamics, grasp synthesis, and trajectory optimization.

Preferred qualifications

- PhD degree in Robotics, Engineering, Computer Science, Machine Learning or a similar discipline, or an equivalent amount of research experience.
- Publications at top-tier conferences (e.g., ICRA, IROS, CoRL, RSS) specifically focusing on robotic manipulation, grasping, or contact-rich RL.
- Demonstrated experience working with tactile sensing, multi-fingered robotic hands, or bimanual manipulation.

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.

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.

How we rate this

AI Engineer - RL Manipulation, RIVR at Amazon rates 99 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

AI Engineer - RL Manipulation, RIVR is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The role is based in CH, Zurich.
The job was posted on November 3, 2026.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI ResearchPyTorchTensorFlow

Also common in AI engineer jobs at this level

LLM AI agents AWS Generative AI Azure RAG

Pay

Typical AI engineer job: $183k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical AI engineer figure when pay comes up. See AI engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
Walk me through how you've used PyTorch in your day-to-day work.
What are the limits of TensorFlow that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Research, PyTorch, and TensorFlow. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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