Applied Scientist II, Identity Security & Abuse Prevention

About the role

The ISAP SafeGuard team mixes long-term, high-impact projects with near-term innovative solutions to prevent abuse across Amazon. We balance Bias for Action, Dive Deep, Invent and Simplify, and Customer Trust daily. Our team embraces new approaches, technology, and innovation while ensuring our solutions are scalable, accurate, and drive action.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy production ML systems for abuse pattern detection, anomaly detection, threat classification, and automated enforcement across multiple Amazon verticals
• Independently frame ambiguous security and abuse problems into well-defined scientific questions, propose detection approaches, and drive them from hypothesis through production deployment
• Own and improve existing detection models end-to-end: monitor for drift, diagnose degradation, retrain, and extend coverage as abuse patterns evolve
• Design and execute rigorous experiments (A/B testing, offline evaluation, statistical validation) to measure model performance and quantify business impact
• Architect and deploy GenAI and LLM-based solutions for investigation automation, case classification, and intelligent knowledge retrieval
• Contribute to the team's scientific roadmap by identifying high-value detection opportunities, proposing new approaches, and driving prioritization of science investments
• Publish research findings in internal Amazon papers and at external peer-reviewed conferences; contribute to the broader scientific community
• Partner with investigators, security engineers, and data engineers to understand abuse patterns, translate operational insights into model features, and ensure detection systems drive real enforcement actions

Requirements

• 3+ years of building models for business application experience
• PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience
• Experience in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Experience in any of the following areas: algorithms and data structures, parsing, numerical optimization, data mining, parallel and distributed computing, high-performance computing
• Experience managing confidential and sensitive employee information and adherence to strict confidentiality standards
• Experience in fraud investigation, abuse, cyber-crimes, or equivalent
• Experience in one or more of: anomaly detection, classification, graph neural networks, temporal modeling, or causal inference
• Familiarity with LLM fine-tuning, reward modeling, or feedback signal design
• Familiarity with RAG systems, knowledge graphs, or memory-augmented architectures

Qualifications

• Basic Qualifications: 3+ years of building models for business application experience, PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience, Experience in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals, Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language, 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, Experience with large scale distributed systems such as Hadoop, Spark etc., Experience managing confidential and sensitive employee information and adherence to strict confidentiality standards, Experience in fraud investigation, abuse, cyber-crimes, or equivalent, Experience in one or more of: anomaly detection, classification, graph neural networks, temporal modeling, or causal inference, Familiarity with LLM fine-tuning, reward modeling, or feedback signal design, Familiarity with RAG systems, knowledge graphs, or memory-augmented architectures

Benefits

Amazon offers comprehensive benefits including 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. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

Pay

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location.

Schedule

Amazon offers flexible work schedules that provide options for remote work, hybrid work, and in-office work. Learn more about our flexible work policies at https://www.amazon.jobs/en/flexible-work.