Senior Manager, Applied Science

Description

AWS Applied AI Solutions (AAIS) is building toward a future where every business innovates with Amazon AI teammates. To get there, we build AI solutions that improve human capabilities and transform entire business functions. We create end-to-end products that surprise and delight out-of-the-box, making complex things easy and hard things possible, with no cloud experience required. We start with customers who embrace the future and build bridges to meet the rest where they are. We pursue ambitious opportunities with conviction, and we are looking for builders who share that mindset.

We are seeking a Senior Manager Applied Science to build and lead the science organization across Agentic WorkSpaces. This is a foundational leadership role spanning the full portfolio - Personal Applications and Core and the agentic surfaces (WS4Builders and WorkSpaces for Agents). You will hire, grow, and lead a team of applied scientists who define how we measure and improve the performance of AI agents and human-AI teams. A core part of the role is defining the science agenda itself - identifying which problems are most worth solving and where the highest-leverage bets lie. Directions worth exploring might include Organizational Intelligence (turning institutional knowledge into agent-consumable skills) AI Agent Experience / AiAX (agent observability and autonomous remediation) and contextual behavioral security that adapts enforcement in real time for human and agent sessions - but these are illustrative examples not a fixed roadmap and many other directions are possible. You and your team will define which ones we pursue. The problems your team will solve do not have established industry patterns. You will set the scientific direction and build the team that determines how AI agents and people perceive reason about and act reliably within computing environments at enterprise scale.

What You Will Do Build and lead the applied science team. Hire, develop, and retain a high-caliber team of applied scientists spanning the Agentic WorkSpaces portfolio. Set the bar for scientific talent, create the growth paths, and build the culture that makes AAWS a destination for the best agent and human-AI researchers.

Own the science strategy across the portfolio. Direct the research agenda for how we measure and improve agents and human-AI teams: the benchmarks, task suites, and metrics (accuracy cost-per-task task completion productivity) that turn subjective "it works" judgments into rigorous reproducible measurement that gates what we ship.

Define and drive high-leverage research directions. Work with your team to identify the problems most worth solving and shape the science agenda. Directions worth exploring might include how agents combine deterministic tool use (MCP) with visual reasoning from computer use; Organizational Intelligence and workflow learning (learning from expert recordings voice annotations and SOPs); and AI Agent Experience / AiAX (detecting when agents are stuck or degrading productivity and autonomously remediating) - these are illustrative starting points and your team will weigh them against many other possibilities.

Translate science into shipped product. Partner with engineering, product, and program leaders to move models evaluation and learning systems from prototype into a decade-old production service operating at massive scale without compromising the reliability that customers depend on.

Represent science in leadership and to customers. Be the scientific voice in org-level planning and roadmap decisions across AAWS and engage directly with enterprise customers on how agent performance safety and human-AI productivity are measured and earned.

Key job responsibilities

• Set the long-term scientific vision and team strategy: Define what best-in-class agent performance evaluation and learning look like across Agentic WorkSpaces - for computer-using agents and human-AI teams alike. Chart a multi-year research roadmap and build the team and plan to deliver it. Secure buy-in from VP-level leadership.

• Hire and grow scientific talent: Own recruiting calibration development and retention for the science team. Mentor scientists toward senior and principal scope and raise the scientific bar across the organization.

• Direct research on highly ambiguous novel problems: Guide the team through foundational challenges in agent perception reasoning evaluation reliability and human-AI collaboration - problems where neither the approach nor the success criteria are pre-defined.

• Drive cross-organizational alignment: Work across partner teams (AgentCore Bedrock model teams Identity Security the MCP ecosystem) and across the Applied AI Solutions product portfolio with product and engineering leadership to ensure scientific decisions compose into a coherent product.

• Deliver measurable business impact: Ensure your team's research translates to customer outcomes: higher task accuracy lower cost-per-action faster time-to-production measurable productivity for human-AI teams and the trust that lets enterprises scale agent workflows.

• Establish scientific rigor and operational excellence: Set the standard for experimentation evaluation and reproducibility and the mechanisms that keep the science organization productive and accountable.

• Advance the state of the art: Enable and champion contributions to the external technical community through publications patents and open-source work that position AWS as the leader in the science of secure agent-computer interaction and human-AI teamwork.

About the team

Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn't followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don't let it stop you from applying.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that's why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there's nothing we can't achieve in the cloud.

Here at AWS, it's in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

We're continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth's Best Employer. That's why you'll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD or Master's in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field, or equivalent applied research experience

• 10+ years of applied science experience, including 3+ years managing and growing teams of scientists

• Experience setting research direction and strategy across multiple teams and organizations

• Deep expertise in modern ML, including LLMs / foundation models and evaluation methodology

• Track record of delivering complex, ambiguous research initiatives from concept through production in enterprise environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading science teams working on AI agents, tool use, computer-use / GUI-grounded agents, or autonomous systems

• Experience building science teams from an early stage, including hiring at senior and principal levels

• Experience designing benchmarks, evaluation harnesses, and metrics for non-deterministic or agentic systems

• Experience with agent safety, grounding, guardrails, or reliability for LLM-based systems

• Familiarity with enterprise constraints: security, auditability, and compliance frameworks (NIST, SOC2, FedRAMP, HIPAA)

• A record of scientific leadership evidenced by publications, patents, or open-source contributions

• Experience influencing technical direction at VP+ level in a large technology organization

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

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. Amazon also 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 .

USA, NY, New York - 240,600.00 - 325,500.00 USD annually

USA, WA, Seattle - 218,800.00 - 295,900.00 USD annually