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Automated reasoning

A gentle introduction to automated reasoning

Meet Amazon Science’s newest research area.

By Byron Cook
December 1, 2021
18 min read
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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.

    



                            
                        

                    
                


                
                    

                        

    

    

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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.
                

            
        

    



                        
                    

                
            

        


        
    

    
    



    

        
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                Member of Technical Staff, FAR (Frontier AI & Robotics)
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, San Francisco

            
        


        
    
Join the next revolution in robotics at Amazon's Frontier AI & Robotics team, where you'll work alongside world-renowned AI pioneers to lead key initiatives in robotic intelligence. As a Member of Technical Staff, you'll spearhead the development of breakthrough foundation models that enable robots to perceive, understand, and interact with the world in unprecedented ways. You'll drive technical excellence in areas such as perception, manipulation, science understanding, sim2real transfer, multi-modal foundation models, and multi-task learning, designing novel algorithms that bridge the gap between state-of-the-art research and real-world deployment at Amazon scale. In this role, you'll combine hands-on technical work with scientific leadership, ensuring your team delivers robust solutions for dynamic real-world environments. You'll leverage Amazon's vast computational resources to tackle ambitious problems in areas like very large multi-modal robotic foundation models and efficient, promptable model architectures that can scale across diverse robotic applications. Key job responsibilities - Lead technical initiatives in robotics foundation models, driving breakthrough approaches through hands-on research and development in areas like open-vocabulary panoptic scene understanding, scaling up multi-modal LLMs, sim2real/real2sim techniques, end-to-end vision-language-action models, efficient model inference, video tokenization - Design and implement novel deep learning architectures that push the boundaries of what robots can understand and accomplish - Guide technical direction for specific research initiatives, ensuring robust performance in production environments - Mentor and support fellow scientists while maintaining strong individual technical contributions - Collaborate with engineering teams to optimize and scale models for real-world applications - Influence technical decisions and implementation strategies within your area of focus A day in the life - Develop and implement novel foundation model architectures, working hands-on with our extensive compute infrastructure - Guide and support fellow scientists in solving complex technical challenges, from sim2real transfer to efficient multi-task learning - Lead focused technical initiatives from conception through deployment, ensuring successful integration with production systems - Drive technical discussions within your team and with key stakeholders - Conduct experiments and prototype new ideas using our massive compute cluster - Mentor team members while maintaining significant hands-on contribution to technical solutions 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! About the team At Frontier AI & Robotics, we're not just advancing robotics – we're reimagining it from the ground up. Our team is building the future of intelligent robotics through ground breaking foundation models and end-to-end learned systems. We tackle some of the most challenging problems in AI and robotics, from developing sophisticated perception systems to creating adaptive manipulation strategies that work in complex, real-world scenarios. What sets us apart is our unique combination of ambitious research vision and practical impact. We leverage Amazon's massive computational infrastructure and rich real-world datasets to train and deploy state-of-the-art foundation models. Our work spans the full spectrum of robotics intelligence – from multimodal perception using images, videos, and sensor data, to sophisticated manipulation strategies that can handle diverse real-world scenarios. We're building systems that don't just work in the lab, but scale to meet the demands of Amazon's global operations. Join us if you're excited about pushing the boundaries of what's possible in robotics, working with world-class researchers, and seeing your innovations deployed at unprecedented scale.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist II, Demand Enablement, Product Analytics and Operations
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, NY, New York

            
        


        
    
In this role, you will design and build intelligent multi-agent systems that automate root cause analysis for advertising campaign delivery at scale. You will architect agentic orchestration patterns where specialized sub-agents (campaign diagnostics, deal-level troubleshooting, pacing control) are invoked as composable tools by a reasoning layer that determines which subsystems to query based on the nature of the issue. You will develop hierarchical analysis frameworks that move from daily trend detection to intra-day anomaly isolation, enabling the system to pinpoint when and why delivery degraded rather than relying on static time windows. You will build self-learning feedback loops where the system identifies recurring failure signatures (auction dynamics, pacing anomalies, supply contention), updates its diagnostic knowledge as engineering teams deploy fixes, and retires stale patterns automatically. We are looking for a passionate Applied Scientist with technical expertise in LLM-based agent architectures, retrieval-augmented generation, time-series anomaly detection, and production ML systems. In addition to hands-on experience building agentic AI solutions, an ideal candidate should demonstrate the ability to translate complex distributed system behaviors into structured diagnostic reasoning, show a willingness to push the boundaries of how LLMs interact with real-time operational data, and thrive in an environment where you ship production systems that directly reduce advertiser escalation time from days to minutes. Key job responsibilities * Conduct deep data analysis to derive insights for the business, identify gaps, and uncover new opportunities. * Develop scalable and effective machine learning models and optimization strategies to solve business problems. * Run regular A/B experiments, gather data, and perform statistical analysis to optimize advertiser experiences. * Collaborate closely with software engineers to deliver end-to-end solutions into production. * Enhance the scalability, efficiency, and automation of large-scale data analytics, model training, deployment, and serving. * Research and implement new machine learning models and techniques to improve advertising performance. A day in the life Your primary focus is building a multi-agent diagnostic system that automates root cause analysis for advertising campaign delivery issues. On a typical day, you might review how the system handled recent escalations, identify where it reasoned incorrectly, adjust orchestration logic, and write new evaluation cases. You will design agent architectures that invoke specialized sub-agents as tools, build hierarchical analysis frameworks that move from trend detection to anomaly isolation, and develop self-learning loops that keep the system's diagnostic knowledge current as the underlying platform evolves. You will work closely with SDEs building the diagnostic platform, product managers defining the troubleshooting experience, and the support teams who rely on your system to resolve advertiser delivery issues in minutes instead of days. Beyond the core agent work, you may find yourself diving into causal inference to measure recommendation effectiveness, prototyping proactive anomaly detection, or contributing to evaluation science for systems that reason over complex operational data. About the team The Demand Enablement, Product Analytics and Operations team builds the diagnostic and intelligence layer for Amazon DSP, the demand-side platform powering Amazon's programmatic advertising business. We own the systems that detect, diagnose, and surface delivery issues across campaigns, giving internal teams and advertisers the visibility to act before problems impact spend. Our product portfolio spans automated troubleshooting platforms, advertiser-facing delivery insights, and AI-powered root cause analysis using multi-agent architectures on foundation models. We are a small, high-ownership team that ships production systems end-to-end, from data pipelines processing billions of bid events to LLM-based agents that reason over complex advertising systems. If you want to work at the intersection of applied science, distributed systems observability, and real business impact measured in advertiser dollars recovered, this is the team.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Sr Manager, Applied Science, AWS Compliance & Security Assurance
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, NY, New York

            
        


        
    
About the Team Our team builds and operates automated reasoning technology that powers security and privacy assurance across Amazon and AWS at scale. Our technology is deeply integrated into critical Amazon and AWS security workflows. We operate at the intersection of automated reasoning, program analysis, and applied security — and our work directly impacts the security posture of every AWS service. About the Role We are looking for an experienced Applied Science Manager to lead the team's static analysis platform science team. In this role, you will own the technical vision and roadmap for our automated reasoning engine's static analysis capabilities, drive innovation in scalable program analysis, and lead a team of applied scientists working at the frontier of automated reasoning for security while also contributing technically as a player/coach. You will partner closely with security, privacy, and compliance stakeholders across AWS to expand the reach and impact of provably correct code analysis. You will also partner closely with automated reasoning experts across the company and contribute to the science of security Key job responsibilities Technical Leadership: Own the science roadmap for our automated reasoning engine, including taint analysis, compositional heap analysis, modular method summarization, and dataflow graph generation Hands-on Contribution: Personally contribute to key research and design decisions, including prototyping novel analyses and reviewing technical artifacts Team Building & Management: Hire, develop, and retain a world-class team of applied scientists; foster a culture of scientific rigor, innovation, and operational excellence Product Integration: Partner with application security and service teams to expand our platform's integration footprint and deliver new security and privacy analysis capabilities Research & Innovation: Advance the state of the art in static program analysis, including exploring formal verification of analysis correctness (e.g., using Lean, Coq, or Dafny), expanding language support beyond Java, and developing novel analysis techniques for emerging security properties Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with AWS AppSec, Privacy Engineering, and service teams to understand their security assurance needs and translate them into analysis capabilities Strategic Influence: Represent our team in the broader Automated Reasoning community at Amazon; contribute to automated reasoning initiatives, and academic partnerships About the team Our team builds and operates automated reasoning technology that powers security and privacy assurance across Amazon and AWS at scale. Our automated reasoning engine is the core technology behind our managed dataflow mapping service, which automatically tracks how data flows through AWS service teams’ code and infrastructure. Our technology is deeply integrated into critical Amazon and AWS security workflows. We operate at the intersection of automated reasoning, program analysis, and applied security — and our work directly impacts the security posture of every AWS service. Diverse Experiences Amazon Security values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the 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. Why Amazon Security? At Amazon, security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. Our organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a high bar for security across all of Amazon’s products and services. We offer talented security professionals the chance to accelerate their careers with opportunities to build experience in a wide variety of areas including cloud, devices, retail, entertainment, healthcare, operations, and physical stores. Inclusive Team Culture In Amazon Security, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Ongoing DEI events and learning experiences inspire us to continue learning and to embrace our uniqueness. Addressing the toughest security challenges requires that we seek out and celebrate a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and voices. Training & Career Growth 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, training, and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional. Work/Life Balance 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.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist II, Conversational Ad Experiences
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, WA, Seattle

            
        


        
    
The Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through 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. This position will be part of the Conversational Ad Experiences team within the Amazon Advertising organization. Our cross-functional team focuses on designing, developing and launching innovative ad experiences delivered to shoppers in conversational contexts. We utilize leading-edge engineering and science technologies in generative AI to help shoppers discover new products and brands through intuitive, conversational, multi-turn interfaces. We also empower advertisers to reach shoppers, using their own voice to explain and demonstrate how their products meet shoppers' needs. We collaborate with various teams across multiple Amazon organizations to push the boundary of what's possible in these fields. We are seeking a science leader for our team within the Sponsored Products & Brands organization. You'll be working with talented scientists, engineers, and product managers to innovate on behalf of our customers. An ideal candidate is able to navigate through ambiguous requirements, working with various partner teams, and has experience in generative AI, large language models (LLMs), information retrieval, and ads recommendation systems. Using a combination of generative AI and online experimentation, our scientists develop insights and optimizations that enable the monetization of Amazon properties while enhancing the experience of hundreds of millions of Amazon shoppers worldwide. If you're fired up about being part of a dynamic, driven team, then this is your moment to join us on this exciting journey! Key job responsibilities - Serve as a tech lead for defining the science roadmap for multiple projects in the conversational ad experiences space powered by LLMs. - Build POCs, optimize and deploy models into production, run experiments, perform deep dives on experiment data to gather actionable learnings and communicate them to senior leadership - Work closely with software engineers on detailed requirements, technical designs and implementation of end-to-end solutions in production. - Work closely with product managers to contribute to our mission, and proactively identify opportunities where science can help improve customer experience - Research new machine learning approaches to drive continued scientific innovation - Be a member of the Amazon-wide machine learning community, participating in internal and external meetups, hackathons and conferences - Help attract and recruit technical talent, mentor scientists and engineers in the team




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
            

        

    

    

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