AmazonRobotics/AI Motor Control Scientist, Fauna
AI in this role
Key job responsibilities
- Develop controllers that leverage reinforcement learning, imitation learning, or other advanced AI techniques to achieve natural, robust, and adaptive motor behaviors
- Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams to integrate motor control systems with robotic hardware, ensuring alignment with real-world constraints such as actuator dynamics and energy efficiency
- Use simulation and real-world testing to refine and validate control algorithms
- Stay updated on advancements in robotics, AI, and control systems to apply advanced techniques to robotic motion challenges
- Lead technical projects from conception through production deployment
- Mentor junior scientists and engineers
- Bridge research initiatives with practical engineering implementation
About the team
Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, is building capable, safe, and genuinely delightful robots for everyday life. Our goal is simple: make robots people actually want to live and interact with in everyday human spaces.
We believe that future won’t arrive until building for robotics becomes far more accessible. Today, too much effort is spent reinventing the fundamentals. We’re changing that by developing tightly integrated hardware and software systems that make it faster, safer, and more intuitive to create real-world robotic products.
Our work spans the full stack: mechanical design, control systems, dynamic modeling, and intelligent software. The focus is not just functionality, but experience. We’re building robots that feel responsive, expressive, and genuinely useful.
At Fauna, you’ll work at the frontier of this space, helping define how robots move, manipulate, and interact with people in natural environments. It’s an opportunity to solve hard problems across hardware and software with a team focused on making robotics accessible and joyful to build.
If you care about making robotics real for everyone and building systems that are as delightful as they are capable, we’re interested in hearing from you.
an opportunity to solve hard problems across hardware and software with a team focused on making robotics accessible and joyful to build.
If you care about making robotics real for everyone and building systems that are as delightful as they are capable, we’re interested in hearing from you.
Basic qualifications
- PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
- 3+ years of industry or academic research experience
- Experience in Java, C++, Python, or a related language
- Experience leading technical initiatives and key deliverables
- Experience in mentoring, leading, or managing more junior engineers
- Strong publication record at major Robotics/ML/AI conferences (e.g., RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR)
- Experience with simulation environments for robot learning (Isaac Gym/Lab, MuJoCo, or similar)
- Experience with sim-to-real transfer for robotic systems
- Strong understanding of kinematics and motion planning for robotic systems
- Experience with reinforcement learning, imitation learning, or other AI techniques applied to robotic motor control
Preferred qualifications
- Experience working with PyTorch or JAX software, or experience programming with at least one software programming language
- History of impactful first-author publications at major conferences
- Experience with large-scale distributed training for RL
- History of technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration
- Experience bridging research with practical engineering implementation in robotics systems
- Experience bridging academic research and production robotics
- Experience integrating perception systems (e.g., vision and touch sensors) into motor control pipelines
- Familiarity with hardware constraints and actuator dynamics for robots
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, NY, New York - 183,800.00 - 248,700.00 USD annually
How we rate this
Robotics/AI Motor Control Scientist, Fauna at Amazon rates 94 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. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- What's a project where you used PyTorch hands-on?
- Walk me through how you've used Jax in your day-to-day work.
- 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: PyTorch and Jax. 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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