AmazonPrincipal Applied Scientist, AWS Data Center Services
Amazon is hiring a Principal Applied Scientist, AWS Data Center Services in Seattle, United States. It pays $199k-$269k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.
Level's read on this job
- Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this applied scientist role: the job is building AI systems.
- Pay on this posting starts 16% higher than the typical applied scientist posting on Level.
- The posting mentions Python, computer vision and generative AI among its tools and skills.
- Amazon has 21,000+ other open roles on Level.
- Posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
Design and deploy applied AI and computer vision models to automate and optimize AWS data center infrastructure and incident response.
The AWS Data Center Services team is hiring a Principal Applied Scientist to innovate and advance the science behind solutions to problems in the rapidly growing AWS data center space.
These problems range from bespoke computer vision models to support our physical infrastructure functions such as repair activities, to increasing the certainty of decisions made by our generative AI service without sacrificing latency or performance. For example, when a data center technician is triaging a critical electrical event at 2am and alarms cascade in seconds, our AI service has to cross-reference topology, live readings, maintenance history, and design documents within minutes - work that today takes an order of magnitude more time and intervention from a senior engineer.
As a Principal Applied Scientist, you will work backwards from these problems and partner with software development teams to deliver solutions. You will work on problems ranging from selecting, training and evolving computer vision models for targeted activities on AWS infrastructure inside our data centers; to building smart retrieval algorithms, reduce model hallucination on safety-critical outcomes, continually improve latency and performance, and ensure our generative AI service's knowledgeable stays current and the service is constantly getting smarter beyond just knowledge retrieval.
A day in the life
You start the morning reviewing traces from last night’s incident triage. The agent correctly walked the topology to the upstream breaker but missed a recent maintenance change that was the real cause — so you design an experiment: does feeding work-order history into the traversal improve accuracy? You test it against historical incident data. Mid-morning, you review verification traces and catch the agent missing a spec deep in a submittal. After lunch, a field engineer walks you through manually cross-referencing five systems during an incident and you turn their scenario into a new benchmark. In the afternoon, you prototype cross-discipline reasoning: when a cascade spans electrical and cooling, can the lead agent delegate scoped investigations and still hold one coherent hypothesis? You publish results and draft a paper. You own the full lifecycle — research through production deployment.
About the team
Data Center Services is part of AWS Infrastructure Services that owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain - and we’re looking for talented people who want to help.
You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.
Basic qualifications
PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Statistics or in a highly quantitative field.
Strong Problem solving ability
Good skills in Python (or similar language)
Strong communication and data presentation skills
Proven track record of delivery
Preferred qualifications
7+ years of industrial experience in predictive modeling and analysis, predictive software development
Experience in Generative AI
Publications or presentation in recognized Computer Vision, Machine Learning or Data Mining journals/conferences
Experience in mentoring junior team members, and guiding them on machine learning and data modeling applications
Experience working with retail or e-commerce data
Experience working with distributed systems and device level software
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, CO, Denver - 198,900.00 - 269,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 198,900.00 - 269,000.00 USD annually
How we rate this
Principal Applied Scientist, AWS Data Center Services at Amazon rates 90 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.
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.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in applied scientist jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $199k
- Typical applied scientist job
- $172k
This posting starts 16% above the typical applied scientist job. See applied scientist jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
- Tell me about a project where generative ai was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where algorithm design was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used Python in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Computer vision, Generative AI, Machine learning, Algorithm Design, and Python. 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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