Director Applied Research Innovation Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Alexa for Shopping (Rufus) is Amazon's new AI-powered shopping assistant that combines the capabilities of Rufus and Alexa+ to provide a more personalized and intelligent shopping experience. We are building the future of AI-powered commerce, where every customer interaction is conversational, personalized, and proactive.
We are seeking a Director, Applied Science to lead the science vision and execution for the next-generation conversational AI platform. This leader will own the end-to-end science roadmap for a multi-agent architecture powered by large language models (LLMs), SLMs, reinforcement learning (RL), and post-training optimization to deliver the most helpful, accurate, and fastest AI shopping assistant in the industry.
This is a transformational leadership role. You will lead the science that makes this possible: distilling Amazon's vast data assets into rich context, building specialized models through fine-tuning and RL that match frontier model quality at a fraction of the latency, and architecting intelligent agent routing across diverse use cases (pre-purchase, post-purchase, cross-Amazon services).
The ideal candidate is deeply steeped in LLM-based architectures, post-training techniques (RLHF, DPO, fine-tuning), and multi-agent systems. They are passionate about applied science, working back from customer experience to define what matters, and building teams that ship production AI at scale. This leader will shape the science philosophy for one of Amazon's highest-visibility AI initiatives.
Key job responsibilities
- Define and execute the science strategy for Alexa for Shopping conversational AI platform
- Lead a large, multidisciplinary organization of Applied Scientists, Research Scientists, and Machine Learning Engineers.
- Architect and scale multi-agent systems
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and senior leadership (including S-team) to align AI investments with long-term business goals and the vision of conversational commerce replacing traditional shopping paradigms.
- Establish scientific best practices across experimentation, evaluation, model iteration, and production deployment for a high-traffic, latency-sensitive customer-facing system.
- Mentor and develop senior technical leaders; foster a culture of innovation, customer obsession, and operational excellence.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Operations Research, or related quantitative field.
- 12+ years in applied machine learning and AI
- 10+ years of people management experience, including experience as a leader of leaders managing multiple science and/or engineering teams.
- Demonstrated track record of building and shipping production AI/ML systems at scale with direct, measurable customer impact.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Operations Research, or related quantitative field.
- Deep expertise in large language models, post-training techniques (RLHF, fine-tuning, distillation), and/or multi-agent systems.
- Experience defining and executing science strategy for organizations operating at the intersection of research innovation and product delivery.
- Strong publication record or demonstrated thought leadership in relevant areas (LLMs, NLP, RL, conversational AI, recommendation systems).
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to influence senior executives and translate complex technical concepts for business audiences.
- Deep technical judgment combined with business acumen - ability to make tradeoffs across quality, latency, cost, and customer experience.
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, Palo Alto - 297,500.00 - 350,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 262,500.00 - 350,000.00 USD annually