Senior Applied Scientist - Manipulation RL, Amazon Robotics - Vulcan Stow

Our organization in Amazon Robotics builds robots that perform contact-rich manipulation safely and reliably in complex, unstructured environments, at Amazon scale. Our scientists and engineers push the boundaries of robotic manipulation to handle enormous object diversity, bringing deep expertise across planning, control, perception, and machine learning. We learn from real-world data at a scale that few teams in robotics can access.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Applied Scientist to help guide a small team advancing reinforcement learning for manipulation. We are creating robots that learn how to push, flip, rearrange, and dexterously insert items with unparalleled robustness, speed, and reliability. Our goal is to deploy robots that will work across Amazon"s global network and can handle the full diversity of items that Amazon sells. You will set the technical direction for how we learn these behaviors, from simulation training through reliable execution on physical robots, and you will demonstrate new manipulation capabilities on real hardware at scale. This team"s mission reaches beyond any single product: to invent and apply manipulation capabilities that generalize to many future robotics applications. The robots our organization already deploys at scale give you a rare proving ground to collect data, run experiments, and get new policies onto real hardware faster than almost anywhere in the field. You will raise the bar for scientific rigor and engineering quality, and mentor other scientists as the team grows.

Key job responsibilities

• Set the technical direction for learning non-prehensile and contact-rich manipulation policies, from testing the latest advances in the field through demonstrated capability on hardware.
• Oversee the development of reinforcement learning approaches that address the long tail of diverse, demanding manipulation conditions.
• Own the path from simulation training to reliable, real-time execution on physical robots, making evidence based calls on where learned approaches should replace engineered ones.
• Demonstrate new manipulation capabilities on real robots at scale, and turn one-off results into repeatable methods.
• Establish the standards, evaluation practices, and data-informed improvement loops that the team builds on.
• Mentor scientists and engineers, and raise the bar for applied science rigor and engineering quality.
• Partner across control, perception, and hardware to integrate learned behaviors into working systems.
• Represent Amazon in academia through publications and scientific presentations.

A day in the life

Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:

1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage

2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options

3. Paid Time Off (PTO)

4. 401(k) Plan

If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we"d still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you're passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply