Social
Automated reasoning

A gentle introduction to automated reasoning

Meet Amazon Science’s newest research area.

By Byron Cook
December 1, 2021
18 min read
Share

This week, Amazon Science added automated reasoning to its list of research areas. We made this change because of the impact that automated reasoning is having here at Amazon. For example, Amazon Web Services’ customers now have direct access to automated-reasoning-based features such as IAM Access Analyzer, S3 Block Public Access, or VPC Reachability Analyzer. We also see Amazon development teams integrating automated-reasoning tools into their development processes, raising the bar on the security, durability, availability, and quality of our products.

The goal of this article is to provide a gentle introduction to automated reasoning for the industry professional who knows nothing about the area but is curious to learn more. All you will need to make sense of this article is to be able to read a few small C and Python code fragments. I will refer to a few specialist concepts along the way, but only with the goal of introducing them in an informal manner. I close with links to some of our favorite publicly available tools, videos, books, and articles for those looking to go more in-depth.

Let’s start with a simple example. Consider the following C function:

bool f(unsigned int x, unsigned int y) {
   return (x+y == y+x);
}



        
Take a few moments to answer the question “Could f ever return false?” This is not a trick question: I’ve purposefully used a simple example to make a point.
To check the answer with exhaustive testing, we could try executing the following doubly nested test loop, which calls f on all possible pairs of values of the type unsigned int:

            

    
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdbool.h>
#include<limits.h>

bool f(unsigned int x, unsigned int y) {
   return (x+y == y+x);
}

void main() {
   for (unsigned int x=0;1;x++) {
      for (unsigned int y=0;1;y++) {
         if (!f(x,y)) printf("Error!\n");
         if (y==UINT_MAX) break;
      }
      if (x==UINT_MAX) break;
   }
}



        
Unfortunately, even on modern hardware, this doubly nested loop will run for a very long time. I compiled it and ran it on a 2.6 GHz Intel processor for over 48 hours before giving up.
Why does testing take so long? Because UINT_MAX is typically 4,294,967,295, there are 18,446,744,065,119,617,025 separate f calls to consider. On my 2.6 GHz machine, the compiled test loop called f approximately 430 million times a second. But to test all 18 quintillion cases at this performance, we would need over 1,360 years.
When we show the above code to industry professionals, they almost immediately work out that f can't return false as long as the underlying compiler/interpreter and hardware are correct. How do they do that? They reason about it. They remember from their school days that x + y can be rewritten as y + x and conclude that f always returns true.

            

    
        






    
    

        
            
Re:Invent 2021 keynote address by Peter DeSantis, senior vice president for utility computing at Amazon Web Services

        
        
            
Skip to 15:49 for a discussion of Amazon Web Services' work on automated reasoning.

        
    



        
An automated reasoning tool does this work for us: it attempts to answer questions about a program (or a logic formula) by using known techniques from mathematics. In this case, the tool would use algebra to deduce that x + y == y + x can be replaced with the simple expression true.
Automated-reasoning tools can be incredibly fast, even when the domains are infinite (e.g., unbounded mathematical integers rather than finite C ints). Unfortunately, the tools may answer “Don’t know” in some instances. We'll see a famous example of that below.
The science of automated reasoning is essentially focused on driving the frequency of these “Don’t know” answers down as far as possible: the less often the tools report "Don't know" (or time out while trying), the more useful they are.
Today’s tools are able to give answers for programs and queries where yesterday’s tools could not. Tomorrow’s tools will be even more powerful. We are seeing rapid progress in this field, which is why at Amazon, we are increasingly getting so much value from it. In fact, we see automated reasoning forming its own Amazon-style virtuous cycle, where more input problems to our tools drive improvements to the tools, which encourages more use of the tools.
A slightly more complex example. Now that we know the rough outlines of what automated reasoning is, the next small example gives a slightly more realistic taste of the sort of complexity that the tools are managing for us.

            

    
void g(int x, int y) {
   if (y > 0)
      while (x > y)
         x = x - y;
}



        
Or, alternatively, consider a similar Python program over unbounded integers:

            

    
def g(x, y):
   assert isinstance(x, int) and isinstance(y, int)
   if y > 0:
      while x > y:
         x = x - y



        
Try to answer this question: “Does g always eventually return control back to its caller?”
When we show this program to industry professionals, they usually figure out the right answer quickly. A few, especially those who are aware of results in theoretical computer science, sometimes mistakenly think that we can't answer this question, with the rationale “This is an example of the halting problem, which has been proved insoluble”. In fact, we can reason about the halting behavior for specific programs, including this one. We’ll talk more about that later.
Here’s the reasoning that most industry professionals use when looking at this problem:
  1. In the case where y is not positive, execution jumps to the end of the function g. That’s the easy case.
  2. If, in every iteration of the loop, the value of the variable x decreases, then eventually, the loop condition x > y will fail, and the end of g will be reached.
  3. The value of x always decreases only if y is always positive, because only then does the update to x (i.e., x = x - y) decrease x. But y’s positivity is established by the conditional expression, so x always decreases.
The experienced programmer will usually worry about underflow in the x = x - y command of the C program but will then notice that x > y before the update to x and thus cannot underflow.
If you carried out the three steps above yourself, you now have a very intuitive view of the type of thinking an automated-reasoning tool is performing on our behalf when reasoning about a computer program. There are many nitty-gritty details that the tools have to face (e.g., heaps, stacks, strings, pointer arithmetic, recursion, concurrency, callbacks, etc.), but there’s also decades of research papers on techniques for handling these and other topics, along with various practical tools that put these ideas to work.

            

    

        
    
        Policy-code.gif
    


        

        
    


    
        
Automated reasoning can be applied to both policies (top) and code (bottom). In both cases, an essential step is reasoning about what's always true.

    


        
The main takeaway is that automated-reasoning tools are usually working through the three steps above on our behalf: Item 1 is reasoning about the program’s control structure. Item 2 is reasoning about what is eventually true within the program. Item 3 is reasoning about what is always true in the program.
Note that configuration artifacts such as AWS resource policies, VPC network descriptions, or even makefiles can be thought of as code. This viewpoint allows us to use the same techniques we use to reason about C or Python code to answer questions about the interpretation of configurations. It’s this insight that gives us tools like IAM Access Analyzer or VPC Reachability Analyzer.
An end to testing?
As we saw above when looking at f and g, automated reasoning can be dramatically faster than exhaustive testing. With tools available today, we can show properties of f or g in milliseconds, rather than waiting lifetimes with exhaustive testing.
Can we throw away our testing tools now and just move to automated reasoning? Not quite. Yes, we can dramatically reduce our dependency on testing, but we will not be completely eliminating it any time soon, if ever. Consider our first example:

            

    
bool f(unsigned int x, unsigned int y) {
   return (x + y == y + x);
}



        
Recall the worry that a buggy compiler or microprocessor could in fact cause an executable program constructed from this source code to return false. We might also need to worry about the language runtime. For example, the C math library or the Python garbage collector might have bugs that cause a program to misbehave.
What’s interesting about testing, and something we often forget, is that it’s doing much more than just telling us about the C or Python source code. It’s also testing the compiler, the runtime, the interpreter, the microprocessor, etc. A test failure could be rooted in any of those tools in the stack.
Automated reasoning, in contrast, is usually applied to just one layer of that stack — the source code itself, or sometimes the compiler or the microprocessor. What we find so valuable about reasoning is it allows us to clearly define both what we do know and what we do not know about the layer under inspection.
Furthermore, the models of the surrounding environment (e.g., the compiler or the procedure calling our procedure) used by the automated-reasoning tool make our assumptions very precise. Separating the layers of the computational stack helps make better use of our time, energy, and money and the capabilities of the tools today and tomorrow.
Unfortunately, we will almost always need to make assumptions about something when using automated reasoning — for example, the principles of physics that govern our silicon chips. Thus, testing will never be fully replaced. We will want to perform end-to-end testing to try and validate our assumptions as best we can.
An impossible program
I previously mentioned that automated-reasoning tools sometimes return “Don’t know” rather than “yes” or “no”. They also sometimes run forever (or time out), thus never returning an answer. Let’s look at the famous "halting problem" program, in which we know tools cannot return “yes” or “no”.
Imagine that we have an automated-reasoning API, called terminates, that returns “yes” if a C function always terminates or “no” when the function could execute forever. As an example, we could build such an API using the tool described here (shameless self-promotion of author’s previous work). To get the idea of what a termination tool can do for us, consider two basic C functions, g (from above),

            

    
void g(int x, int y) {
   if (y > 0)
      while (x > y)
         x = x - y;
}



        
and g2:

            

    
void g2(int x, int y) {
   while (x > y)
      x = x - y;
}



        
For the reasons we have already discussed, the function g always returns control back to its caller, so terminates(g) should return true. Meanwhile, terminates(g2) should return false because, for example, g2(5, 0) will never terminate.
Now comes the difficult function. Consider h:

            

    
void h() {
   if terminates(h) while(1){}
}



        
Notice that it's recursive. What’s the right answer for terminates(h)? The answer cannot be "yes". It also cannot be "no". Why?
Imagine that terminates(h) were to return "yes". If you read the code of h, you’ll see that in this case, the function does not terminate because of the conditional statement in the code of h that will execute the infinite loop while(1){}. Thus, in this case, the terminates(h) answer would be wrong, because h is defined recursively, calling terminates on itself.
Similarly, if terminates(h) were to return "no", then h would in fact terminate and return control to its caller, because the if case of the conditional statement is not met, and there is no else branch. Again, the answer would be wrong. This is why the “Don’t know” answer is actually unavoidable in this case.
The program h is a variation of examples given in Turing’s famous 1936 paper on decidability and Gödel’s incompleteness theorems from 1931. These papers tell us that problems like the halting problem cannot be “solved”, if by“solved” we mean that the solution procedure itself always terminates and answers either “yes” or “no” but never “Don’t know”. But that is not the definition of “solved” that many of us have in mind. For many of us, a tool that sometimes times out or occasionally returns “Don’t know” but, when it gives an answer, always gives the right answer is good enough.
This problem is analogous to airline travel: we know it’s not 100% safe, because crashes have happened in the past, and we are sure that they will happen in the future. But when you land safely, you know it worked that time. The goal of the airline industry is to reduce failure as much as possible, even though it’s in principle unavoidable.
To put that in the context of automated reasoning: for some programs, like h, we can never improve the tool enough to replace the "Don't know" answer. But there are many other cases where today's tools answer "Don't know", but future tools may be able to answer "yes" or "no". The modern scientific challenge for automated-reasoning subject-matter experts is to get the practical tools to return “yes” or “no” as often as possible. As an example of current work, check out CMU professor and Amazon Scholar Marijn Heule and his quest to solve the Collatz termination problem.
Another thing to keep in mind is that automated-reasoning tools are regularly trying to solve “intractable” problems, e.g., problems in the NP complexity class. Here, the same thinking applies that we saw in the case of the halting problem: automated-reasoning tools have powerful heuristics that often work around the intractability problem for specific cases, but those heuristics can (and sometimes do) fail, resulting in “Don’t know” answers or impractically long execution time. The science is to improve the heuristics to minimize that problem.
Nomenclature
A host of names are used in the scientific literature to describe interrelated topics, of which automated reasoning is just one. Here’s a quick glossary:
  • A logic is a formal and mechanical system for defining what is true and untrue. Examples: propositional logic or first-order logic.
  • A theorem is a true statement in logic. Example: the four-color theorem.
  • A proof is a valid argument in logic of a theorem. Example: Gonthier's proof of the four-color theorem. 
  • A mechanical theorem prover is a semi-automated-reasoning tool that checks a machine-readable expression of a proof often written down by a human. These tools often require human guidance. Example: HOL-light, from Amazon researcher John Harrison. 
  • Formal verification is the use of theorem proving when applied to models of computer systems to prove desired properties of the systems. Example: the CompCert verified C compiler. 
  • Formal methods is the broadest term, meaning simply the use of logic to reason formally about models of systems. 
  • Automated reasoning focuses on the automation of formal methods. 
  • A semi-automated-reasoning tool is one that requires hints from the user but still finds valid proofs in logic. 
As you can see, we have a choice of monikers when working in this space. At Amazon, we’ve chosen to use automated reasoning, as we think it best captures our ambition for automation and scale. In practice, some of our internal teams use both automated and semi-automated reasoning tools, because the scientists we've hired can often get semi-automated reasoning tools to succeed where the heuristics in fully automated reasoning might fail. For our externally facing customer features, we currently use only fully automated approaches.
Next steps
In this essay, I’ve introduced the idea of automated reasoning, with the smallest of toy programs. I haven’t described how to handle realistic programs, with heap or concurrency. In fact, there are a wide variety of automated-reasoning tools and techniques, solving problems in all kinds of different domains, some of them quite narrow. To describe them all and the many branches and sub-disciplines of the field (e.g. “SMT solving”, “higher-order logic theorem proving”, “separation logic”) would take thousands of blogs posts and books.
Automated reasoning goes back to the early inventors of computers. And logic itself (which automated reasoning attempts to solve) is thousands of years old. In order to keep this post brief, I’ll stop here and suggest further reading. Note that it’s very easy to get lost in the weeds reading depth-first into this area, and you could emerge more confused than when you started. I encourage you to use a bounded depth-first search approach, looking sequentially at a wide variety of tools and techniques in only some detail and then moving on, rather than learning only one aspect deeply.
Suggested books:
International conferences/workshops:
Tool competitions:
Some tools:
Interviews of Amazon staff about their use of automated reasoning:
AWS Lectures aimed at customers and industry:
AWS talks aimed at the automated-reasoning science community:
AWS blog posts and informational videos:
Some course notes by Amazon Scholars who are also university professors:
A fun deep track:
Some algorithms found in the automated theorem provers we use today date as far back as 1959, when Hao Wang used automated reasoning to prove the theorems from Principia Mathematica.

    



                            
                        

                    
                


                
                    

                        

    

    

        Research areas
    


    
        
    



                    

                

                
                    

                        

    

    

        Tags
    


    
        
    



                    

                

                

                
                    
About the Author

                    

                        
                            
    

        

            
                

                    Byron Cook
                

            
            
            
                

                    Amazon vice president and distinguished scientist Byron Cook is a leader in the field of formal verification, known for his contributions to SAT, SMT, and symbolic model checking, with applications to biological systems, computer operating systems, programming languages, and security. Byron’s work on automated reasoning at Amazon has led to higher levels of assurance in the cloud as well as new customer features.
                

            
        

    



                        
                    

                
            

        


        
    

    
    



    

        
Related content

        
    




    
        
    

    



    
    



    

        
Work with us
See more jobs
        
            See more jobs
        
    




    
        

            

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Senior Applied Scientist -  Robotics Controls
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
US, MA, North Reading

            
        


        
    
At Amazon Robotics, we design advanced robotic systems capable of intelligent perception, learning, and action alongside humans, all on a large scale. Our goal is to develop robots that increase productivity and efficiency at the Amazon fulfillment centers while ensuring the safety of workers. We are seeking an Applied Scientist to develop innovative, scalable solutions in feedback control and state estimation for robotic systems, with a focus on contact-rich manipulation tasks. In this role, you will formulate physics-based models of robotic systems, perform analytical and numerical studies, and design control and estimation algorithms that integrate fundamental principles with data-driven techniques. You will collaborate with a world-class team of experts in perception, machine learning, motion planning, and feedback controls to innovate and develop solutions for complex real-world problems. As part of your work, you will investigate applicable academic and industry research to develop, implement, and test solutions that support product features. You will also design and validate production designs. To succeed in this role, you should demonstrate a strong working knowledge of physical systems, a desire to learn from new challenges, and the problem-solving and communication skills to work within a highly interactive and experienced team. Candidates must show a hands-on passion for their work and the ability to communicate their ideas and concepts both verbally and visually. Key job responsibilities - Research, design, implement, and evaluate feedback control, estimation, and motion-planning algorithms, ensuring effective integration with perception, manipulation, and system-level components. - Develop experiments, simulations, and hardware prototypes to validate control algorithms, and optimization techniques in contact-rich manipulation and other challenging scenarios. - Collaborate with software engineering teams to enable scalable, real-time, and maintainable implementations of algorithms in production systems. - Partner with cross-functional teams across hardware, systems engineering, science, and operations to transition algorithms from early prototyping to robust, production-ready solutions. - Engage with stakeholders at all levels to iterate on system design, define requirements, and drive integration of control and estimation capabilities into Amazon Robotics platforms. A day in the life Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include: 1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage 2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options 3. Paid Time Off (PTO) 4. 401(k) Plan If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Thermal Engineer, Hardware - Product Integrity
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
IN, KA, Bengaluru

            
        


        
    
You will be working with a unique and gifted team developing exciting products for consumers. The team is a multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists engaged in a fast paced mission to deliver new products. The team faces a challenging task of balancing cost, schedule, and performance requirements. You should be comfortable collaborating in a fast-paced and often uncertain environment, and contributing to innovative solutions, while demonstrating leadership, technical competence, and meticulousness. Your deliverables will include development of thermal solutions, concept design, feature development, product architecture and system validation through to manufacturing release. You will support creative developments through application of analysis and testing of complex electronic assemblies using advanced simulation and experimentation tools and techniques. Key job responsibilities In this role, you will: - Own thermal design for consumer electronics products at the system level, proposing thermal architecture and aligning with functional leads - Perform CFD simulations using tools such as Star-CCM+ or FloEFD to assess thermal feasibility, identify risks, and propose mitigation options - Generate data processing, statistical analysis, and test automation scripts to improve data consistency, insight quality, and team efficiency - Plan and execute thermal validation activities for devices and SoC packages, including test setup definition, data review, and issue tracking - Work closely with cross-functional and cross-geo teams to support product decisions, generate thermal specifications, and align on thermal requirements - Prepare clear summaries and reports on thermal results, risks, and observations for review by cross-functional leads About the team Amazon Lab126 is an inventive research and development company that designs and engineers high-profile consumer electronics. Lab126 began in 2004 as a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., originally creating the best-selling Kindle family of products. Since then, we have produced innovative devices like Fire tablets, Fire TV and Amazon Echo. What will you help us create?




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, Amazon Retail Ad Service (Sponsor Products & Brands)
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
CA, ON, Toronto

            
        


        
    
The Sponsored Products and Brands team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through cutting-edge generative AI technologies, revolutionizing how millions of customers discover products and engage with brands across Amazon.com and beyond. We are at the forefront of re-inventing advertising experiences, bridging human creativity with artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the advertising lifecycle from ad creation and optimization to performance analysis and customer insights. We are a passionate group of innovators dedicated to developing responsible and intelligent AI technologies that balance the needs of advertisers, enhance the shopping experience, and strengthen the marketplace. If you're energized by solving complex challenges and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI, join us in shaping the future of advertising. Key job responsibilities • Collaborate with business, engineering and science leaders to establish science optimization and monetization roadmap for Amazon Retail Ad Service • Drive alignment across organizations for science, engineering and product strategy to achieve business goals • Lead/guide scientists and engineers across teams to develop, test, launch and improve of science models designed to optimize the shopper experience and deliver long term value for Amazon advertisers and third party retailers • Develop state of the art experimental approaches and ML models to keep up with our growing needs and diverse set of customers. • Participate in the Science hiring process as well as mentor other scientists - improving their skills, their knowledge of your solutions, and their ability to get things done. About the team Amazon Retail Ad Service within Sponsored Products and Brands is an ad-tech solution that enables retailers to monetize their online web and app traffic by displaying contextually relevant sponsored products ads. Our mission is to provide retailers with ad-solution for every type of supply to meet their advertising goals. At the same time, enable advertisers to manage their demand across multiple supplies (Amazon, offsite, third-party retailers) leveraging tools they are already familiar with. Our problem space is challenging and exciting in terms of different traffic patterns, varying product catalogs based on retailer industry and their shopper behaviors.




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist II, Amazon Industrial Robotics
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
US, MA, N.reading

            
        


        
    
Amazon Industrial Robotics is seeking exceptional talent to help develop the next generation of advanced robotics systems that will transform automation at Amazon's scale. We're building revolutionary robotic systems that combine cutting-edge AI, sophisticated control systems, and advanced mechanical design to create adaptable automation solutions capable of working safely alongside humans in dynamic environments. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of robotics and automation at an unprecedented scale, working with world-class teams pushing the boundaries of what's possible in robotic dexterous manipulation, locomotion, and human-robot interaction. This role presents an opportunity to shape the future of robotics through innovative applications of deep learning and large language models. At Amazon Industrial Robotics we leverage advanced robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to solve complex operational challenges at an unprecedented scale. Our fleet of robots operates across hundreds of facilities worldwide, working in sophisticated coordination to fulfill our mission of customer excellence. We are pioneering the development of dexterous manipulation system that: - Enables unprecedented generalization across diverse tasks - Enables contact-rich manipulation in different environments - Seamlessly integrates low-level skills and high-level behaviors - Leverage mechanical intelligence, multi-modal sensor feedback and advanced control techniques. The ideal candidate will contribute to research that bridges the gap between theoretical advancement and practical implementation in robotics. You will be part of a team that's revolutionizing how robots learn, adapt, and interact with their environment. Join us in building the next generation of intelligent robotics systems that will transform the future of automation and human-robot collaboration. Key job responsibilities - Design and implement methods for dexterous manipulation - Design and implement methods for use of dexterous end effectors with force and tactile sensing - Develop a hierarchical system that combines low-level control with high-level planning - Utilize state-of-the-art manipulation models and optimal control techniques




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                2026 Applied Scientist Intern, Amazon University Talent Acquisition
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
AT, Graz

            
        


        
    
Are you a MS or PhD student interested in a 2026 internship in the field of machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, large language models and speech technology, robotics, computer vision, optimization, operations research, quantum computing, automated reasoning, or formal methods? If so, we want to hear from you! We are looking for students interested in using a variety of domain expertise to invent, design and implement state-of-the-art solutions for never-before-solved problems. You can find more information about the Amazon Science community as well as our interview process via the links below; https://www.amazon.science/ https://amazon.jobs/content/en/career-programs/university/science https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/university-roles/applied-science Key job responsibilities As an Applied Science Intern, you will own the design and development of end-to-end systems. You’ll have the opportunity to write technical white papers, create roadmaps and drive production level projects that will support Amazon Science. You will work closely with Amazon scientists and other science interns to develop solutions and deploy them into production. You will have the opportunity to design new algorithms, models, or other technical solutions whilst experiencing Amazon’s customer focused culture. The ideal intern must have the ability to work with diverse groups of people and cross-functional teams to solve complex business problems. A day in the life At Amazon, you will grow into the high impact person you know you’re ready to be. Every day will be filled with developing new skills and achieving personal growth. How often can you say that your work changes the world? At Amazon, you’ll say it often. Join us and define tomorrow. Some more benefits of an Amazon Science internship include; • All of our internships offer a competitive stipend/salary • Interns are paired with an experienced manager and mentor(s) • Interns receive invitations to different events such as intern program initiatives or site events • Interns can build their professional and personal network with other Amazon Scientists • Interns can potentially publish work at top tier conferences each year About the team Applicants will be reviewed on a rolling basis and are assigned to teams aligned with their research interests and experience prior to interviews. Start dates are available throughout the year and durations can vary in length from 3-6 months for full time internships. This role may available across multiple locations in the EMEA region (Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, South Africa, UAE, and UK). Please note these are not remote internships.




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Science Manager, Amazon Shipping
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
IN, HR, Gurugram

            
        


        
    
Lead ML teams building large-scale forecasting and optimization systems that power Amazon’s global transportation network and directly impact customer experience and cost. As an Applied Science Manager, you will set scientific direction, mentor applied scientists, and partner with engineering and product leaders to deliver production-grade ML solutions at massive scale. Key job responsibilities 1. Lead and grow a high-performing team of Applied Scientists, providing technical guidance, mentorship, and career development. 2. Define and own the scientific vision and roadmap for ML solutions powering large-scale transportation planning and execution. 3. Guide model and system design across a range of techniques, including tree-based models, deep learning (LSTMs, transformers), LLMs, and reinforcement learning. 4. Ensure models are production-ready, scalable, and robust through close partnership with stakeholders. Partner with Product, Operations, and Engineering leaders to enable proactive decision-making and corrective actions. 5. Own end-to-end business metrics, directly influencing customer experience, cost optimization, and network reliability. 6. Help contribute to the broader ML community through publications, conference submissions, and internal knowledge sharing. A day in the life Your day includes reviewing model performance and business metrics, guiding technical design and experimentation, mentoring scientists, and driving roadmap execution. You’ll balance near-term delivery with long-term innovation while ensuring solutions are robust, interpretable, and scalable. Ultimately, your work helps improve delivery reliability, reduce costs, and enhance the customer experience at massive scale.




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied scientist, Agentic AI, AWS Agentic AI
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
IL, Haifa

            
        


        
    
Come join the AWS Agentic AI science team in building the next generation models for intelligent automation. AWS, the world-leading provider of cloud services, has fostered the creation and growth of countless new businesses, and is a positive force for good. Our customers bring problems that will give Applied Scientists like you endless opportunities to see your research have a positive and immediate impact in the world. You will have the opportunity to partner with technology and business teams to solve real-world problems, have access to virtually endless data and computational resources, and to world-class engineers and developers that can help bring your ideas into the world. As part of the team, we expect that you will develop innovative solutions to hard problems, and publish your findings at peer reviewed conferences and workshops. We are looking for world class researchers with experience in one or more of the following areas - autonomous agents, API orchestration, Planning, large multimodal models (especially vision-language models), reinforcement learning (RL) and sequential decision making.




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Delivery Practice Manager, WWPS ProServe
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
US, VA, Herndon

            
        


        
    
This position requires that the candidate selected be a US Citizen and currently possess and maintain an active Top Secret security clearance. The Amazon Web Services Professional Services (ProServe) team is seeking an experienced Delivery Practice Manager (DPM) to join our ProServe Shared Delivery Team (SDT) at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this role, you'll manage a team of ProServe Delivery Consultants while supporting AWS enterprise customers through transformative projects. You'll leverage your IT and/or Management Consulting background to serve as a strategic advisor to customers, partners, and internal AWS teams. As a DPM you will be responsible for building and managing a team of Delivery Consultants and/or Engagement Managers working with customers and partners to architect and implement innovative solutions. You’ll routinely engage with Director, C-level executives, and governing boards, whilst being responsible for opportunity capture and driving engagement delivery. You’ll work closely with partner teams; drive business development initiatives through thought leadership; provide portfolio guidance and oversight; and meet and exceed customer satisfaction targets. As a DPM you are primarily focused directly or through their teams, on understanding and defining business outcomes for customers by building trust, identifying applicable AWS Professional Services offerings, and creating proposals and SOW’s. Your experience gained leading teams within the technology sector, will equip you with the ability to optimize team performance through implementing tailored people development plans, ensuring your teams are aligned to customer needs, and have the skills and capacity to address customer outcomes. Possessing the ability to translate technical concepts into business value for customers and then talk in technical depth with teams, you will cultivate strong customer, Amazon Global Sales (AGS), and ProServe team relationships which enables exceptional business performance. DPMs success is primarily measured by consistently delivering customer engagements by supporting sales through scoping technical requirements for an engagement, delivering engagements on time, within budget, and exceeding customer expectations. They will hold the Practice total utilization goal and be responsible for optimizing team performance. The AWS Professional Services organization is a global team of experts that help customers realize their desired business outcomes when using the AWS Cloud. We work together with customer teams and the AWS Partner Network (APN) to execute enterprise cloud computing initiatives. Our team provides assistance through a collection of offerings which help customers achieve specific outcomes related to enterprise cloud adoption. We also deliver focused guidance through our global specialty practices, which cover a variety of solutions, technologies, and industries. Key job responsibilities • Building and managing a high-performing team of Delivery Consultants • Collaborating with Delivery Consultants, Engagement Managers, Account Executives, and Cloud Architects to deploy solutions and provide input on new features • Developing and overseeing the implementation of innovative, forward-looking IT strategies for customers • Managing practice P&L, ensuring on-time and within-budget delivery of customer engagements • Driving business development initiatives and exceed customer satisfaction targets




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, Personalization
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
IL, Haifa

            
        


        
    
Are you a scientist interested in pushing the state of the art in Information Retrieval, Large Language Models and Recommendation Systems? Are you interested in innovating on behalf of millions of customers, helping them accomplish their every day goals? Do you wish you had access to large datasets and tremendous computational resources? Do you want to join a team of capable scientist and engineers, building the future of e-commerce? Answer yes to any of these questions, and you will be a great fit for our team at Amazon. Our team is part of Amazon’s Personalization organization, a high-performing group that leverages Amazon’s expertise in machine learning, generative AI, large-scale data systems, and user experience design to deliver the best shopping experiences for our customers. Our team builds large-scale machine-learning solutions that delight customers with personalized and up-to-date recommendations that are related to their interests. We are a team uniquely placed within Amazon, to have a direct window of opportunity to influence how customers will think about their shopping journey in the future. As an Applied Scientist in our team, you will be responsible for the research, design, and development of new AI technologies for personalization. You will adopt or invent new machine learning and analytical techniques in the realm of recommendations, information retrieval and large language models. You will collaborate with scientists, engineers, and product partners locally and abroad. Your work will include inventing, experimenting with, and launching new features, products and systems. Please visit https://www.amazon.science for more information.




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, Personalization
            

        

        

            
                

            

            

            

            

            
                
IL, Haifa

            
        


        
    
Are you a scientist interested in pushing the state of the art in Information Retrieval, Large Language Models and Recommendation Systems? Are you interested in innovating on behalf of millions of customers, helping them accomplish their every day goals? Do you wish you had access to large datasets and tremendous computational resources? Do you want to join a team of capable scientist and engineers, building the future of e-commerce? Answer yes to any of these questions, and you will be a great fit for our team at Amazon. Our team is part of Amazon’s Personalization organization, a high-performing group that leverages Amazon’s expertise in machine learning, generative AI, large-scale data systems, and user experience design to deliver the best shopping experiences for our customers. Our team builds large-scale machine-learning solutions that delight customers with personalized and up-to-date recommendations that are related to their interests. We are a team uniquely placed within Amazon, to have a direct window of opportunity to influence how customers will think about their shopping journey in the future. As an Applied Scientist in our team, you will be responsible for the research, design, and development of new AI technologies for personalization. You will adopt or invent new machine learning and analytical techniques in the realm of recommendations, information retrieval and large language models. You will collaborate with scientists, engineers, and product partners locally and abroad. Your work will include inventing, experimenting with, and launching new features, products and systems. Please visit https://www.amazon.science for more information.




        

        

        

        
    




                    

                
            

        

    

    

        See more jobs
    






        




    

        
            
        
        

            

                
                    

                        

                    

                
            

            
                

                    

                        

  

      
          

              
                  
    
        View from space of a connected network around planet Earth representing the Internet of Things.
    

              
          

      

      

        

          
              
Get more from Amazon Science

          

          
    
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter



        

        
          
        
      

  



                    

                

            
        

    


    

        

        
            
Amazon.com | Conditions of Use | Privacy | © 1996-2026 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates

        
        
            

    
Social