Principal, BusDev, Academic Research Initiatives

About the role

The Principal Business Development role in the Amazon Research Initiatives (ARI) team is responsible for driving mechanisms that connect Amazon’s mid to long-term scientific areas with potential academic research solutions. This position focuses on understanding business needs to drive research engagements with leading research institutions across the world and to discover research ideas to bring back into Amazon to drive innovation.

Key job responsibilities

• Serve as a deep thinker who excels in cross-functional teams and thrives in fast-paced environments.
• Identify strategic opportunities and evaluate academic research solutions.
• Establish processes to measure ongoing investments.
• Apply strong analytical and communication skills, excellent judgment, and high standards.
• Think strategically while maintaining tactical focus.
• Be results-oriented with a big-picture vision, capable of inspiring others and working effectively across various business units.

About The Team

Amazon’s Academic Research Initiatives (ARI) team’s mission is to make Amazon a place where every transformative idea from academia is efficiently discovered, evaluated, and disseminated to accelerate innovation on behalf of our customers. ARI is an academic research investment management team that sources research proposals from top global universities, matches promising ideas with Amazon business funders, manages research portfolios, diffuses learnings across Amazon to maximize learning impact, and disrupts once salient technology trends emerge. The team provides guardrails to avoid investment waste and connects leaders with similar research interests to amplify their work. Businesses that opt into the ARI model can expect an academic investment strategy that continuously aligns their long-term innovation needs with strategy execution, measurement, and iteration, and ties in to Amazon’s broader technical community.

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of developing, negotiating and executing business agreements experience
• 7+ years of professional or military experience
• Bachelor’s degree
• Experience developing strategies that influence leadership decisions at the organizational level
• 5+ years of relevant work in driving academic research in industry or at a university

Preferred Qualifications

• Venture or corporate business development experience

Pay

Base salary ranges by location:

• San Francisco, CA: $193,700 – $262,000 USD annually
• Boston, MA: $176,100 – $238,200 USD annually
• New York, NY: $193,700 – $262,000 USD annually
• Seattle, WA: $176,100 – $238,200 USD annually

Final compensation includes sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs).