Senior Applied Scientist, Delivery Foundation Model

Amazon is hiring a Senior Applied Scientist, Delivery Foundation Model in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $192k-$260k 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 12% higher than the typical applied scientist posting on Level.
The posting mentions Python, PyTorch and machine learning among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Design and implement novel foundation models for logistics and delivery applications at Amazon.

PythonPyTorch

machine-learningdeep-learningfoundation-modelsnlpcomputer-vision

Join the next science and engineering revolution at Amazon's Delivery Foundation Model team, where you'll work alongside world-class scientists and engineers to pioneer the next frontier of logistics through advanced AI and foundation models.

We are seeking an exceptional Senior Applied Scientist to help develop innovative foundation models that enable delivery of billions of packages worldwide. In this role, you'll combine highly technical work with scientific leadership, ensuring the team delivers robust solutions for dynamic real-world environments. Your team will leverage Amazon's vast data and computational resources to tackle ambitious problems across a diverse set of Amazon delivery use cases.

Key job responsibilities
• Design and implement novel deep learning architectures combining a multitude of modalities, including image, video, and geospatial data.
• Solve computational problems to train foundation models on vast amounts of Amazon data and infer at Amazon scale, taking advantage of latest developments in hardware and deep learning libraries.
• As a foundation model developer, collaborate with multiple science and engineering teams to help build adaptations that power use cases across Amazon Last Mile deliveries, improving experience and safety of a delivery driver, an Amazon customer, and improving efficiency of Amazon delivery network.
• Guide technical direction for specific research initiatives, ensuring robust performance in production environments.
• Mentor fellow scientists while maintaining strong individual technical contributions.

A day in the life
• Develop and implement novel foundation model architectures, working hands-on with data and our extensive training and evaluation infrastructure
• Guide and support fellow scientists in solving complex technical challenges, from trajectory planning to efficient multi-task learning
• Guide and support fellow engineers in building scalable and reusable infra to support model training, evaluation, and inference
• Lead focused technical initiatives from conception through deployment, ensuring successful integration with production systems- Drive technical discussions within the team and and key stakeholders
• Conduct experiments and prototype new ideas
• Mentor team members while maintaining significant hands-on contribution to technical solutions

About the team
The Delivery Foundation Model team combines ambitious research vision with real-world impact. Our foundation models provide generative reasoning capabilities required to meet the demands of Amazon's global Last Mile delivery network. We leverage Amazon's unparalleled computational infrastructure and extensive datasets to deploy state-of-the-art foundation models to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of Amazon deliveries. Our work spans the full spectrum of foundation model development, from multimodal training using images, videos, and sensor data, to sophisticated modeling strategies that can handle diverse real-world scenarios. We build everything end to end, from data preparation to model training and evaluation to inference, along with all the tooling needed to understand and analyze model performance.

Join us if you're excited about pushing the boundaries of what's possible in logistics, working with world-class scientists and engineers, and seeing your innovations deployed at unprecedented scale.

Basic qualifications

- PhD in engineering, technology, computer science, machine learning, robotics, operations research, statistics, mathematics or equivalent quantitative field, or Master's degree and 10+ years of industry or academic research experience
- 5+ years of building machine learning models or developing algorithms for business application experience
- Proficient with Data, experience with SQL and Spark
- Expert coders comfortable working in production environments using Python, C++ or other languages
- Strong publication record at top-tier conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, RSS, CoRL) OR Demonstrated experience in applying machine learning innovation in industry- Experience mentoring junior scientists / engineers.

Preferred qualifications

- Experience building foundation models for industry or research
- Experience designing multi-modal model architectures
- Experience building models for motion prediction, e.g. autonomous driving - Track record of successful production ML deployments
- Experience with large-scale distributed environments for ML training and inference
- History of impactful first-author publications at major conferences

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 Company’s 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 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, CA, SANTA CLARA - 192,200.00 - 260,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Bellevue - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior Applied Scientist, Delivery Foundation Model at Amazon rates 95 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

Senior Applied Scientist, Delivery Foundation Model is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $192k-$260k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Santa Clara.
The job was posted on August 20, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
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

Machine learningDeep learningFoundation ModelsNLPComputer visionPythonPyTorch

Also common in applied scientist jobs at this level

Java LLM Generative AI NLP Reinforcement learning TensorFlow

Pay

This job starts at: $192k
Typical applied scientist job: $172k

This posting starts 12% above the typical applied scientist job. See applied scientist jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where deep learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where foundation models was part of your work. What did you do?
What NLP problem have you worked on, and how did you measure whether it actually worked?
Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Machine learning, Deep learning, Foundation Models, NLP, and Computer vision. 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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