AmazonPosted 3mo ago

Sr. Applied Scientist, Amazon Cyber Threat Intelligence

Sr. Applied Scientist, Amazon Cyber Threat Intelligence at Amazon scores 96 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, MD, Annapolis Junctionseniorfull-time$167k-$226k

AI in this role

bedrockpytorchtensorflowjaxsagemaker

prompt-engineeringragfine-tuningnlp

We are seeking a Senior Applied Scientist to pioneer the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to cyber threat intelligence at Amazon scale. In this role, you will invent and deploy novel AI/ML systems that automate threat detection, accelerate intelligence analysis, and enable proactive defense capabilities. You will work on ambiguous, scientifically-complex problems where traditional engineering approaches fall short—from building predictive models that score threat likelihood against Amazon's specific attack surface, to developing graph neural networks that cluster adversary infrastructure, to creating LLM-powered systems that multiply analyst productivity.

This is a unique opportunity to bring scientific rigor to one of the most consequential problem domains in technology—protecting hundreds of millions of customers and the infrastructure that powers the global economy. You will be the first Applied Scientist embedded within ACTI, establishing the science agenda and building the foundation for AI-driven threat intelligence at Amazon.

This position requires that the candidate selected be a US Citizen.

Key job responsibilities
Invent
• Identify, frame, and solve scientifically-complex threat intelligence problems where no textbook solutions exist—including threat scoring, malware classification, infrastructure clustering, and intelligence automation
• Drive the scientific agenda for AI/ML within ACTI by proposing research initiatives, defining success metrics, and securing management buy-in
• Extend and invent machine learning techniques for cybersecurity applications, including anomaly detection on noisy data, few-shot learning for emerging threat families, and graph-based reasoning over attacker infrastructure
• Publish research at peer-reviewed venues (e.g., USENIX Security, IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, NeurIPS workshops)

Implement
• Design, build, and deploy production AI/ML systems that process threat data at scale—from model training on petabyte-scale security logs to real-time inference serving millions of predictions daily
• Partner with ACTI engineering teams to integrate AI/ML models into existing intelligence platforms
• Develop end-to-end solutions including data pipelines, feature engineering, model training, evaluation frameworks, and production monitoring
• Write production-quality code and deploy models with operational excellence—reliability, maintainability, and cost efficiency

Influence
• Influence across multiple ACTI sub-teams and partner organizations
• Build consensus on scientific approaches, balancing analytical rigor with operational urgency inherent to threat intelligence
• Mentor security engineers and analysts on AI/ML concepts, helping the broader ACTI team develop data literacy and scientific thinking
• Represent ACTI in Amazon's internal science community and contribute to the broader information security research ecosystem

About the team
Amazon Cyber Threat Intelligence (ACTI) is responsible for identifying, curating, and reporting timely, accurate, and actionable threat intelligence to protect Amazon's global businesses and customers. We investigate, analyze, and defend against sophisticated cyber threats across all Amazon business lines—AWS, retail, entertainment, logistics, and corporate infrastructure. Our intelligence products serve Amazon and AWS leadership, service teams, partners, and both internal and external customers.

ACTI operates within Amazon's broader security organization led by the Chief Security Officer. We deliver intelligence that enables proactive defense, informs security investment decisions, and supports incident response across the world's largest cloud infrastructure.

Diverse Experiences
Amazon Security values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why Amazon Security?
At Amazon, security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. Our organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a high bar for security across all of Amazon’s products and services. We offer talented security professionals the chance to accelerate their careers with opportunities to build experience in a wide variety of areas including cloud, devices, retail, entertainment, healthcare, operations, and physical stores.

Inclusive Team Culture
In Amazon Security, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Ongoing DEI events and learning experiences inspire us to continue learning and to embrace our uniqueness. Addressing the toughest security challenges requires that we seek out and celebrate a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and voices.

Training & Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, training, and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Basic qualifications

- PhD in engineering, technology, computer science, machine learning, robotics, operations research, statistics, mathematics or equivalent quantitative field
- 5+ years of relevant, broad research experience after PhD (or equivalent body of work demonstrating scientific innovation)
- Experience deploying AI/ML models into production systems with direct, verified customer impact
- Experience in one or more: NLP/LLMs, graph neural networks, anomaly detection, deep learning, or probabilistic modeling
- Software development skills
- Publication record (including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, KDD, USENIX Security, IEEE S&P, or equivalent)

Preferred qualifications

- Experience applying AI/ML to cybersecurity problems
- Ability to independently frame ambiguous problems, define research agendas, and deliver results with limited guidance
- Familiarity with threat intelligence frameworks and security operations concepts
- Experience with large-scale graph analytics, knowledge graphs, or graph neural networks
- Experience building and deploying LLM/GenAI applications (RAG systems, fine-tuning, prompt engineering at scale)
- Familiarity with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX)
- Proficiency with AWS services (SageMaker, Bedrock, EMR, Glue, Lambda, S3)

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, MD, Annapolis Junction - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York - 183,800.00 - 248,700.00 USD annually
USA, TX, Austin - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Arlington - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually

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Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Prompt EngineeringRagFine TuningNlpBedrockPyTorchTensorFlowJax

Questions you could be asked

How do you structure and test a prompt to get consistent output from a language model?
How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
Walk me through fine-tuning a model: what data did you use, and how did you check the result?
What NLP problem have you worked on, and how did you measure whether it actually worked?
Walk me through how you've used Bedrock in your day-to-day work.

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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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