Senior Applied Scientist - Robotics Controls

Amazon • North Reading, MA

1d

About The Position

At Amazon Robotics, we design advanced robotic systems capable of intelligent
perception, learning, and action alongside humans, all on a large scale. Our
goal is to develop robots that increase productivity and efficiency at the
Amazon fulfillment centers while ensuring the safety of workers.

We are seeking an Applied Scientist to develop innovative, scalable solutions in
feedback control and state estimation for robotic systems, with a focus on
contact-rich manipulation tasks. In this role, you will formulate physics-based
models of robotic systems, perform analytical and numerical studies, and design
control and estimation algorithms that integrate fundamental principles with
data-driven techniques. You will collaborate with a world-class team of experts
in perception, machine learning, motion planning, and feedback controls to
innovate and develop solutions for complex real-world problems.

As part of your work, you will investigate applicable academic and industry
research to develop, implement, and test solutions that support product
features. You will also design and validate production designs. To succeed in
this role, you should demonstrate a strong working knowledge of physical
systems, a desire to learn from new challenges, and the problem-solving and
communication skills to work within a highly interactive and experienced team.
Candidates must show a hands-on passion for their work and the ability to
communicate their ideas and concepts both verbally and visually.

Requirements

• 3+ years of building machine learning models for business application experience
• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience with neural deep learning methods and machine learning

Nice To Haves

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Research, design, implement, and evaluate feedback control, estimation, and motion-planning algorithms, ensuring effective integration with perception, manipulation, and system-level components.
• Develop experiments, simulations, and hardware prototypes to validate control algorithms, and optimization techniques in contact-rich manipulation and other challenging scenarios.
• Collaborate with software engineering teams to enable scalable, real-time, and maintainable implementations of algorithms in production systems.
• Partner with cross-functional teams across hardware, systems engineering, science, and operations to transition algorithms from early prototyping to robust, production-ready solutions.
• Engage with stakeholders at all levels to iterate on system design, define requirements, and drive integration of control and estimation capabilities into Amazon Robotics platforms.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
• Maternity and Parental Leave Options
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• 401(k) Plan
• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree