AmazonPosted 1mo ago

Applied Scientist, Search Ranking

Applied Scientist, Search Ranking at Amazon scores 97 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 4 of 4 (Builds AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.

US, WA, Seattleseniorfull-time$167k-$226k

AI in this role

tensorflowscikit-learn

ai-agents

Amazon's Search team creates ML algorithms that connect customers around the world with products that delight them. We harness machine learning at Amazon's scale to make the customer experience easier and smoother. Our impact is large. For example, if your innovations save even 1 minute per customer per year, then for every 100 million customers, you save approximately 190 years of human effort.

Key job responsibilities
As an Applied Scientist on the Search Ranking team, you will build search ranking models that work for thousands of product types, billions of queries, and hundreds of millions of customers spread around the world. You will find the next set of big improvements to ranking, leverage large datasets to understand the complexities of customer behavior, and build ML models that work at Amazon scale. Amazon's Search ranking relies on efficient early stage ranking followed by power final stage ranking models. this role focuses on efficient models for early stage ranking phase, and techniques to personalize these models and optimize them automatically.

A day in the life
Our primary focus is improving search ranking systems. On a day-to-day this means building ML models, analyzing data from your recent A/B tests, and collaborating with partner teams on joint goals. We leverage agentic workflows to improve our scientific velocity, and partner closely with engineering teams to bring our ideas to production. You will shape the future of search ranking by presenting proposals to Amazon's business and tech leaders.

About the team
We are a team consisting of ML scientists and software engineers. Our interests span machine learning for better ranking, personalization to refine the ranking of our models, reinforcement learning to bring the benefits of exploration to search ranking, and infrastructure to make it all happen at scale and efficiently.

Basic qualifications

- 4+ years of applied research experience
- 3+ years of building machine learning models for business application experience
- PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
- Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
- Experience with neural deep learning methods and machine learning

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with modeling tools such as R, scikit-learn, Spark MLLib, MxNet, Tensorflow, numpy, scipy etc.
- Experience with large scale distributed systems such as Hadoop, Spark etc.

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

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.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, WA, Seattle - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually

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Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI AgentsTensorFlowscikit-learn

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Walk me through how you've used TensorFlow in your day-to-day work.
What are the limits of scikit-learn 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?

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List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents, TensorFlow, and scikit-learn. 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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