Applied Scientist, Fauna
About the role
We are seeking an Applied Scientist to lead the development of evaluation frameworks and data collection protocols for robotic capabilities. In this role you will design how we measure, stress‑test, and improve robot behavior across a wide range of real‑world tasks. Your work will shape policy validation and high‑quality dataset generation to accelerate system performance. You will operate at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and human‑in‑the‑loop systems, building infrastructure and methodologies that connect teleoperation, evaluation, and learning.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement evaluation frameworks to measure robot capabilities across structured tasks, edge cases, and real‑world scenarios.
- Develop task definitions, success criteria, and benchmarking methodologies that enable consistent and reproducible evaluation of policies.
- Create and refine data collection protocols that generate high‑quality, task‑relevant datasets aligned with model development needs.
- Build and iterate on teleoperation workflows and operator interfaces to support efficient, reliable, and scalable data collection.
- Analyze evaluation results and collected data to identify performance gaps, failure modes, and opportunities for targeted data collection.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate evaluation tooling, logging systems, and data pipelines into the broader robotics stack.
- Stay current with advances in robotics, evaluation methodologies, and human‑in‑the‑loop learning to continuously improve internal approaches.
- Lead technical projects from conception through production deployment.
- Mentor junior scientists and engineers.
About the team
Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, is building capable, safe, and genuinely delightful robots for everyday life. The goal is to make robots that people actually want to live and interact with in everyday human spaces. Fauna develops tightly integrated hardware and software systems to make robotics faster, safer, and more intuitive, spanning mechanical design, control systems, dynamic modeling, and intelligent software. The focus is on experience as well as functionality, creating robots that feel responsive, expressive, and genuinely useful.
Requirements
Basic qualifications
- 3+ years of building models for business application experience.
- PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of experience in computer science, computer engineering, machine learning, or a related field.
- Experience with patents or publications at top‑tier peer‑reviewed conferences or journals.
- Programming experience in Java, C++, Python, or related languages.
- Experience in any of the following areas: algorithms and data structures, parsing, numerical optimization, data mining, parallel and distributed computing, high‑performance computing.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience using Unix/Linux.
- Experience in professional software development.
Pay
Base salary range: USD $172,400 – $223,400 annually. Compensation includes sign‑on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs); final amount is determined based on experience, qualifications, and location.
Benefits
- Health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription).
- Basic Life & AD&D insurance with optional supplemental life plans.
- Employee Assistance Program and mental health support.
- Medical advice line.
- Flexible Spending Accounts.
- Adoption and surrogacy reimbursement coverage.
- 401(k) matching.
- Paid time off and parental leave.