Senior Applied Science Manager, Alexa for Shopping (Rufus)

About the role

Alexa for Shopping (Rufus) is Amazon’s new AI-powered shopping assistant that combines the capabilities of Rufus and Alexa+ to provide a more personalized and intelligent shopping experience. We are building the future of AI-powered commerce, where every customer interaction is conversational, personalized, and proactive. We are searching for pioneers who are passionate about technology, innovation, and customer experience, and are ready to make a lasting impact on the industry.

In this role, you will be managing a team working on Large Language Model (LLM) and/or Vision-Language Model (VLM) post-training and alignment for new shopping experiences. You will set the roadmap and vision for science investments across multiple new customer experiences and to optimize existing experiences to deliver the most helpful, accurate, and fastest AI shopping assistant in the industry. You’ll be working with talented scientists, engineers, and product managers to innovate on behalf of our customers.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team focused on LLM and/or VLM post-training and alignment for new shopping experiences.
• Set the roadmap and vision for science investments across multiple new customer experiences and to optimize existing experiences.
• Drive innovation to deliver the most helpful, accurate, and fastest AI shopping assistant in the industry.
• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and product managers to solve complex problems and deliver customer-centric solutions.

Requirements

• 8+ years of building large-scale machine learning and AI solutions at Internet scale experience.
• 3+ years of science or engineering team management experience.
• Master’s degree in Computer Science (Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, or equivalent).
• Experience distilling informal customer requirements into problem definitions, dealing with ambiguity and competing objectives.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of practical work applying ML to solve complex problems for large-scale applications experience.
• 5+ years of science or engineering team management experience.
• PhD in Computer Science (Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, or equivalent).
• Experience in practical work applying ML to solve complex problems for large scale applications.
• Experience in LLM post-training (SFT and RL) a plus.

Pay

Base salary ranges:

• Palo Alto, CA: $251,600 – $340,300 USD annually
• Seattle, WA: $218,800 – $295,900 USD annually

Benefits

• 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.
• Parental leave.