Senior Applied Scientist, Fauna

Amazon is hiring a Senior Applied Scientist, Fauna in Sunnyvale, United States. It pays $192k-$260k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

AI in this role

Research and build advanced semantic and world understanding algorithms for domestic robotics spatial intelligence.

tensorflowscikit-learnpythonc

roboticsspatial-intelligencemachine-learningcomputer-visionworld-modeling

We are seeking a Senior Applied Scientist to focus on Robotics Spatial Intelligence and Semantic Understanding. In this role, you'll research and build advanced semantic and world understanding algorithms that enable robots to observe, understand, and reason about complex and dynamic home environments. You'll work across a broad spectrum of 3D perception, contextual understanding, and world modeling approaches to build robust solutions that support autonomous decision making, task planning, navigation, and manipulation.

Key job responsibilities
- Develop and implement robust World Understanding and Modeling algorithms for a domestic robot.
- Build simulation-based and on-robot evaluation frameworks with comprehensive benchmarks and metrics for systematic evaluation of Our Spatial Intelligence stack.
- Conduct sim-to-real transfer experiments, analyzing performance gaps and developing techniques to ensure reliable real-world performance.
- Collaborate with navigation, manipulation, and other teams to ensure seamless integration of World Understanding capabilities.
- Stay current with the latest advances in World Modeling, Spatial Reasoning, and related fields and apply relevant findings to improve system performance

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.

Basic qualifications

- PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
- Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language

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.

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, Sunnyvale - 192,200.00 - 260,000.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior Applied Scientist, Fauna 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.

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. Open the description and count.

Key facts

Senior Applied Scientist, Fauna 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, Sunnyvale.
The job was posted on October 15, 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

RoboticsSpatial IntelligenceMachine learningComputer visionWorld ModelingTensorFlowscikit-learnPython

Also common in applied scientist jobs at this level

Machine learning Deep learning LLM Generative AI NLP Reinforcement learning

Pay

This job starts at: $192k
Typical applied scientist job: $167k

This posting starts 15% above the typical applied scientist job. See applied scientist jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where robotics was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where spatial intelligence 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?
Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
Tell me about a project where world modeling was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Robotics, Spatial Intelligence, Machine learning, Computer vision, and World Modeling. 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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