Applied Scientist, AWS Identity

About the role

Are you passionate about programming languages, applying formal verification, program analysis, constraint-solving, and/or theorem proving to real world problems? Do you want to create products that help customers? In this role, you will interact with internal teams and external customers to understand their requirements, propose innovative solutions, create software prototypes, and productize prototypes into production systems using software development tools and methodologies. You will also support and scale your solutions to meet growing customer demand.

Responsibilities

• Interact with various teams to develop an understanding of their security and safety requirements.
• Apply acquired knowledge to build tools to find problems or demonstrate the absence of security/safety issues.
• Implement these tools using SAT, SMT, BDDs, and concepts from programming languages, theorem proving, formal verification, and constraint solving.
• Perform analysis of customer systems using tools developed in-house or externally provided.
• Create software prototypes to verify and validate devised solutions; integrate prototypes into production systems using standard software development tools and methodologies.
• Present and defend company-wide technical decisions to internal technical communities and represent the company at technical conferences.
• Serve as a functional thought leader, sought after for key technical decisions.
• Successfully sell ideas to executive-level decision makers.
• Mentor and train the research scientist community on complex technical issues.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent research experience.
• Experience programming in OCaml, Dafny, Haskell, Kotlin, Lean, Rust, Scala, or related languages.

About the team

The Automated Reasoning in Identity (ARI) team works on applying automated reasoning techniques to services within AWS's Identity organization, building on the successes of projects like Zelkova and Access Analyzer. The team is growing rapidly, with more scientists joining to expand its reach.

Why AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, pioneering cloud computing and continuously innovating. As part of the AWS Utility Computing (UC) organization, you’ll support the development and management of core services like compute, database, storage, IoT, and productivity apps, as well as specialized security solutions for customers.

Work environment

• Inclusive culture: AWS fosters a culture of learning and curiosity, with employee-led affinity groups and events like Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity).
• Work-life balance: AWS values work-life harmony, offering flexibility to support both professional and personal well-being.
• Mentorship and growth: Access to knowledge-sharing, mentorship, and career-advancing resources to help you develop as a professional.
• Diverse experiences: Amazon values diverse backgrounds and encourages candidates with non-traditional career paths to apply.

Pay

Base salary range: $142,800.00 - $193,200.00 USD annually (Arlington, VA). Your total compensation package will include sign-on payments, restricted stock units (RSUs), and comprehensive benefits such as health insurance, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Final compensation is determined based on experience, qualifications, and location.

Benefits

• Health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, basic life & AD&D, with options for supplemental life plans).
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and mental health support.
• Medical Advice Line and Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Adoption and surrogacy reimbursement coverage.
• 401(k) matching.
• Paid time off and parental leave.