Applied Science Manager, Prime Air

Amazon • Seattle, WA

1d

About The Position

How do you orchestrate a fleet of autonomous drones to deliver packages safely
in under an hour, while maximizing every minute of flight time? How do you scale
a mission planning system to handle thousands of concurrent deliveries in
complex, shifting environments?

Our team of scientists, engineers, and aerospace professionals is solving these
exact problems. We are looking for an Applied Science Manager to lead the
evolution of our Mission Planning and Orchestration System. You will be at the
forefront of defining how Prime Air moves from point A to point B with maximum
efficiency.

As an Applied Science Manager, you will lead a high-caliber team of scientists
and engineers focused on the "brains" of our fleet orchestration. You will
bridge the gap between Geospatial Intelligence and Machine Learning to
revolutionize our path planning and scheduling algorithms. Your primary north
star? Increasing deliveries per hour (DPH) through intelligent, automated
optimization.

In a typical day, you lead an agile squad through high-velocity sprints,
starting with a stand-up to unblock path-planning prototypes and ensure the team
is on track for mission-critical delivery milestones. You spend your time
bridging the gap between research and reality, reviewing code and design docs to
ensurealgorithms for geospatial orchestration are production-ready and optimized
for real-world drone throughput. Between deep-dive technical reviews, you focus
heavily on people development—conducting 1:1s to mentor scientists and
architecting career growth paths—while collaborating with cross-functional leads
to ensure your team's innovations seamlessly integrate into the live mission
planning system.

We're a mix of software developers, applied and research scientists, and
geospatial experts as well as system developers.

Requirements

• Experience managing a team of scientists and/or engineers in a production environment.
• PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Operations Research, or a related field.
• Strong foundation in Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and spatial data analysis.
• Proven track record of applying Machine Learning (e.g., Reinforcement Learning, Graph Neural Networks) to optimization problems like path planning or vehicle routing.
• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience directly managing scientists or machine learning engineers
• Experience with the Scrum methodology (or similar alternatives) for agile software development

Nice To Haves

• Experience with autonomous systems, UAVs, or large-scale logistics networks.
• Knowledge of combinatorial optimization and real-time scheduling constraints.
• A knack for turning ambiguous "blue sky" research into deployed, high-impact features.
• Experience communicating with users, other technical teams, and management to collect requirements, describe software product features, and technical designs
• Experience hiring and growing top talent
• Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations

Responsibilities

• Lead & Mentor: Manage a cross-functional team of Applied Scientists and Engineers, fostering a culture of scientific rigor and rapid iteration.
• Innovate Path Planning: Leverage ML/RL and heuristic search techniques to develop dynamic path-planning algorithms that navigate complex airspace and weather patterns.
• Optimize Orchestration: Drive the development of high-scale scheduling systems that manage battery life, maintenance cycles, and delivery windows to maximize fleet utilization.
• Geospatial Mastery: Utilize deep geospatial data (3D maps, urban topology, etc.) to improve situational awareness and mission safety.
• System Architecture: Define the long-term technical roadmap for mission orchestration, ensuring our systems are modular, scalable, and resilient.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Hardware, Flight Safety, and Supply Chain teams to translate business requirements into technical breakthroughs.
• Strategic Technical Leadership & Throughput: Lead the development of path planning and geospatial orchestration models to maximize deliveries per hour, ensuring complex algorithms are production-ready and integrated into the mission system.
• Team Management & Delivery: Build and scale a world-class science team by mentoring talent and fostering career growth, while maintaining a high bar for operational excellence to deliver mission-critical software on schedule.

Benefits

• 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
• parental leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager