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
        
    




    
        

            

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist , Amazon Customer Service
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, Santa Clara

            
        


        
    
We are seeking an Applied Scientist II to join Amazon Customer Service's Science team, where you will build AI-based automated customer service solutions using state-of-the-art techniques in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic AI, and post-training of large language models. You will work at the intersection of research and production, developing intelligent systems that directly impact millions of customers while collaborating with scientists, engineers, and product managers in a fast-paced, innovative environment. Key job responsibilities - Design, develop, and deploy information retrieval systems and RAG pipelines using embedding models, reranking algorithms, and generative models to improve customer service automation - Conduct post-training of large language models using techniques such as Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), and Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) to optimize model performance for customer service tasks - Build and curate high-quality datasets for model training and evaluation, ensuring data quality and relevance for customer service applications - Design and implement comprehensive evaluation frameworks, including data curation, metrics development, and methods such as LLM-as-a-judge to assess model performance - Develop AI agents for automated customer service, understanding their advantages and common pitfalls, and implementing solutions that balance automation with customer satisfaction - Independently perform research and development with minimal guidance, staying current with the latest advances in machine learning and AI - Collaborate with cross-functional teams including engineering, product management, and operations to translate research into production systems - Publish findings and contribute to the broader scientific community through papers, patents, and open-source contributions - Monitor and improve deployed models based on real-world performance metrics and customer feedback A day in the life As an Applied Scientist II, you will start your day reviewing metrics from deployed models and identifying opportunities for improvement. You might spend your morning experimenting with new post-training techniques to improve model accuracy, then collaborate with engineers to integrate your latest model into production systems. You will participate in design reviews, share your findings with the team, and mentor junior scientists. You will balance research exploration with practical implementation, always keeping the customer experience at the forefront of your work. You will have the autonomy to drive your own research agenda while contributing to team goals and deliverables. About the team The Amazon Customer Service Science team is dedicated to revolutionizing customer support through advanced AI and machine learning. We are a diverse group of scientists and engineers working on some of the most challenging problems in natural language understanding and AI automation. Our team values innovation, collaboration, and a customer-obsessed mindset. We encourage experimentation, celebrate learning from failures, and are committed to maintaining Amazon's high bar for scientific rigor and operational excellence. You will have access to world-class computing resources, massive datasets, and the opportunity to work alongside some of the brightest minds in AI and machine learning.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Senior Applied Scientist
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, Sunnyvale

            
        


        
    
Amazon 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 innovative 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 unprecedented scale, working with world-class teams pushing the boundaries of what's possible in robotic 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. We leverage advanced robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to solve complex operational challenges at 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 robotics foundation models that: - Enable unprecedented generalization across diverse tasks - Integrate multi-modal learning capabilities (visual, tactile, linguistic) - Accelerate skill acquisition through demonstration learning - Enhance robotic perception and environmental understanding - Streamline development processes through reusable capabilities 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. As a Senior Applied Scientist, you will develop and improve machine learning systems that help robots perceive, reason, and act in real-world environments. You will leverage state-of-the-art models (open source and internal research), evaluate them on representative tasks, and adapt/optimize them to meet robustness, safety, and performance needs. You will invent new algorithms where gaps exist. You’ll collaborate closely with research, controls, hardware, and product-facing teams, and your outputs will be used by downstream teams to further customize and deploy on specific robot embodiments. Key job responsibilities As a Senior Applied Scientist in the Foundations Model team, you will: - Leverage state-of-the-art models for targeted tasks, environments, and robot embodiments through fine-tuning and optimization. - Execute rapid, rigorous experimentation with reproducible results and solid engineering practices, closing the gap between sim and real environments. - Build and run capability evaluations/benchmarks to clearly profile performance, generalization, and failure modes. - Contribute to the data and training workflow: collection/curation, dataset quality/provenance, and repeatable training recipes. - Write clean, maintainable, well commented and documented code, contribute to training infrastructure, create tools for model evaluation and testing, and implement necessary APIs - Stay current with latest developments in foundation models and robotics, assist in literature reviews and research documentation, prepare technical reports and presentations, and contribute to research discussions and brainstorming sessions. - Work closely with senior scientists, engineers, and leaders across multiple teams, participate in knowledge sharing, support integration efforts with robotics hardware teams, and help document best practices and methodologies.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, AGI , AGI Information
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, Sunnyvale

            
        


        
    
Amazon's AGI Information is seeking an exceptional Applied Scientist to drive science advancements in the Amazon Knowledge Graph team (AKG). AKG is re-inventing knowledge graphs for the LLM era, optimizing for LLM grounding. At the same time, AKG is innovating to utilize LLMs in the knowledge graph construction pipelines to overcome obstacles that traditional technologies could not overcome. As a member of the AKG IR team, you will have the opportunity to work on interesting problems with immediate customer impact. The team is addressing challenges in web-scale knowledge mining, fact verification, multilingual information retrieval, and agent memory operating over Graphs. You will also have the opportunity to work with scientists working on the other challenges, and with the engineering teams that deliver the science advancements to our customers. A successful candidate has a strong machine learning and agent background, is a master of state-of-the-art techniques, has a strong publication record, has a desire to push the envelope in one or more of the above areas, and has a track record of delivering to customers. The ideal candidate enjoys operating in dynamic environments, is self-motivated to take on new challenges, and enjoys working with customers, stakeholders, and engineering teams to deliver big customer impact, shipping solutions via rapid experimentation and then iterating on user feedback and interactions. Key job responsibilities As an Applied Scientist, you will leverage your technical expertise and experience to demonstrate leadership in tackling large complex problems. You will collaborate with applied scientists and engineers to develop novel algorithms and modeling techniques to build the knowledge graph that delivers fresh factual knowledge to our customers, and that automates the knowledge graph construction pipelines to scale to many billions of facts. Your first responsibility will be to solve entity resolution to enable conflating facts from multiple sources into a single graph entity for each real world entity. You will develop generic solutions that work fo all classes of data in AKG (e.g., people, places, movies, etc.), that cope with sparse, noisy data, that scale to hundreds of millions of entities, and that can handle streaming data. You will define a roadmap to make progress incrementally and you will insist on scientific rigor, leading by example.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Communications Engineer, Simulation and Modeling 
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, WA, Redmond

            
        


        
    
Amazon Leo is an initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world. As a Communications Engineer in Modeling and Simulation, this role is primarily responsible for the developing and analyzing high level system resource allocation techniques for links to ensure optimal system and network performance from the capacity, coverage, power consumption, and availability point of view. Be part of the team defining the overall communication system and architecture of Amazon Leo’s broadband wireless network. This is a unique opportunity to innovate and define novel wireless technology with few legacy constraints. The team develops and designs the communication system of Leo and analyzes its overall system level performance, such as overall throughput, latency, system availability, packet loss, etc., as well as compatibility for both connectivity and interference mitigation with other space and terrestrial systems. This role in particular will be responsible for 1) evaluating complex multi-disciplinary trades involving RF bandwidth and network resource allocation to customers, 2) understanding and designing around hardware/software capabilities and constraints to support a dynamic network topology, 3) developing heuristic or solver-based algorithms to continuously improve and efficiently use available resources, 4) demonstrating their viability through detailed modeling and simulation, 5) working with operational teams to ensure they are implemented. This role will be part of a team developing the necessary simulation tools, with particular emphasis on coverage, capacity, latency and availability, considering the yearly growth of the satellite constellation and terrestrial network. Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum. Key job responsibilities • Work within a project team and take the responsibility for the Leo's overall communication system design and architecture • Extend existing code/tools and create simulation models representative of the target system, primarily in MATLAB • Design interconnection strategies between fronthaul and backhaul nodes. Analyze link availability, investigate link outages, and optimize algorithms to study and maximize network performance • Use RF and optical link budgets with orbital constellation dynamics to model time-varying system capacity • Conduct trade-off analysis to benefit customer experience and optimization of resources (costs, power, spectrum), including optimization of satellite constellation design and link selection • Work closely with implementation teams to simulate expected system level performance and provide quick feedback on potential improvements • Analyze and minimize potential self-interference or interference with other communication systems • Provide visualizations, document results, and communicate them across multi-disciplinary project teams to make key architectural decisions




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                PhD Econ Intern, Store Economics and Science
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, WA, Seattle

            
        


        
    
We are looking for detail-oriented, organized, and responsible individuals who are eager to learn how to apply their causal inference / structural econometrics skillsets to solve real world problems. The intern will work in the area of Store Economics and Science (SEAS) and develop models to SEAS. Our PhD Economist Internship Program offers hands-on experience in applied economics, supported by mentorship, structured feedback, and professional development. Interns work on real business and research problems, building skills that prepare them for full-time economist roles at Amazon and beyond. You will learn how to build data sets and perform applied econometric analysis collaborating with economists, scientists, and product managers. These skills will translate well into writing applied chapters in your dissertation and provide you with work experience that may help you with placement. These are full-time positions at 40 hours per week, with compensation being awarded on an hourly basis. About the team The Stores Economics and Science Team (SEAS) is a Stores-wide interdisciplinary team at Amazon with a "peak jumping" mission focused on disruptive innovation. The team applies science, economics, and engineering expertise to tackle the business's most critical problems, working to move from local to global optima across Amazon Stores operations. SEAS builds partnerships with organizations throughout Amazon Stores to pursue this mission, exploring frontier science while learning from the experience and perspective of others. Their approach involves testing solutions first at a small scale, then aligning more broadly to build scalable solutions that can be implemented across the organization. The team works backwards from customers using their unique scientific expertise to add value, takes on long-run and high-risk projects that business teams typically wouldn't pursue, helps teams with kickstart problems by building practical prototypes, raises the scientific bar at Amazon, and builds and shares software that makes Amazon more productive.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Principal Applied Scientist
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, WA, Seattle

            
        


        
    
Amazon 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 electromechanical 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 manipulation, locomotion, and human-robot interaction. Amazon is seeking a talented and motivated Principal Applied Scientist to develop tactile sensors and guide the sensing strategy for our gripper design. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in sensor development, analysis, testing and integration. This candidate must have the ability to work well both independently and in a multidisciplinary team setting. Key job responsibilities - Author functional requirements, design verification plans and test procedures - Develop design concepts which meet the requirements - Work with engineering team members to implement the concepts in a product design - Support product releases to manufacturing and customer deployments - Work efficiently to support aggressive schedules




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist II, Annapurna ML
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, Cupertino

            
        


        
    
The AWS Neuron Science Team is looking for talented scientists to enhance our software stack, accelerating customer adoption of Trainium and Inferentia accelerators. In this role, you will work directly with external and internal customers to identify key adoption barriers and optimization opportunities. You'll collaborate closely with our engineering teams to implement innovative solutions and engage with academic and research communities to advance state-of-the-art ML systems. As part of a strategic growth area for AWS, you'll work alongside distinguished engineers and scientists in an exciting and impactful environment. We actively work on these areas: - AI for Systems: Developing and applying ML/RL approaches for kernel/code generation and optimization - Machine Learning Compiler: Creating advanced compiler techniques for ML workloads - System Robustness: Building tools for accuracy and reliability validation - Efficient Kernel Development: Designing high-performance kernels optimized for our ML accelerator architectures A day in the life AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS, including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services. Additionally, this role may involve exposure to and experience with Amazon's growing suite of generative AI services and other cloud computing offerings across the AWS portfolio. About the team AWS Neuron is the software of Trainium and Inferentia, the AWS Machine Learning chips. Inferentia delivers best-in-class ML inference performance at the lowest cost in the cloud to our AWS customers. Trainium is designed to deliver the best-in-class ML training performance at the lowest training cost in the cloud, and it’s all being enabled by AWS Neuron. Neuron is a Software that include ML compiler and native integration into popular ML frameworks. Our products are being used at scale with external customers like Anthropic and Databricks as well as internal customers like Alexa, Amazon Bedrocks, Amazon Robotics, Amazon Ads, Amazon Rekognition and many more.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, Secure 3P Tools
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, TX, Austin

            
        


        
    
Amazon Security is seeking an Applied Scientist to work on GenAI acceleration within the Secure Third Party Tools (S3T) organization. The S3T team has bold ambitions to re-imagine security products that serve Amazon's pace of innovation at our global scale. This role will focus on leveraging large language models and agentic AI to transform third-party security risk management, automate complex vendor assessments, streamline controllership processes, and dramatically reduce assessment cycle times. You will drive builder efficiency and deliver bar-raising security engagements across Amazon. Key job responsibilities Own and drive end-to-end technical delivery for scoped science initiatives focused on third-party security risk management, independently defining research agendas, success metrics, and multi-quarter roadmaps with minimal oversight. Understanding approaches to automate third-party security review processes using state-of-the-art large language models, development intelligent systems for vendor assessment document analysis, security questionnaire automation, risk signal extraction, and compliance decision support. Build advanced GenAI and agentic frameworks including multi-agent orchestration, RAG pipelines, and autonomous workflows purpose-built for third-party risk evaluation, security documentation processing, and scalable vendor assessment at enterprise scale. Build ML-powered risk intelligence capabilities that enhance third-party threat detection, vulnerability classification, and continuous monitoring throughout the vendor lifecycle. Coordinate with Software Engineering and Data Engineering to deploy production-grade ML solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing third-party risk management workflows and scale across the organization. About the team Security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. At Amazon, our Security organization is designed to drive bar-raising security engagements. Our vision is that Builders raise the Amazon security bar when they use our recommended tools and processes, with no overhead to their business. 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 , AWS Healthcare-AI
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, Mountain View

            
        


        
    
At AWS Healthcare AI, we're revolutionizing healthcare delivery through AI solutions that serve millions globally. As a pioneer in healthcare technology, we're building next-generation services that combine Amazon's world-class AI infrastructure with deep healthcare expertise. Our mission is to accelerate our healthcare businesses by delivering intuitive and differentiated technology solutions that solve enduring business challenges. The AWS Healthcare AI organization includes services such as HealthScribe, Comprehend Medical, HealthLake, and more. We're seeking a Senior Applied Scientist to join our team working on our AI driven clinical solutions that are transforming how clinicians interact with patients and document care. Key job responsibilities To be successful in this mission, we are seeking an Applied Scientist to contribute to the research and development of new, highly influencial AI applications that re-imagine experiences for end-customers (e.g., consumers, patients), frontline workers (e.g., customer service agents, clinicians), and back-office staff (e.g., claims processing, medical coding). As a leading subject matter expert in NLU, deep learning, knowledge representation, foundation models, and reinforcement learning, you will collaborate with a team of scientists to invent novel, generative AI-powered experiences. This role involves defining research directions, developing new ML techniques, conducting rigorous experiments, and ensuring research translates to impactful products. You will be a hands-on technical innovator who is passionate about building scalable scientific solutions. You will set the standard for excellence, invent scalable, scientifically sound solutions across teams, define evaluation methods, and lead complex reviews. This role wields significant influence across AWS, Amazon, and the global research community.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, Center for Quantum Computing
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, San Francisco

            
        


        
    
The Amazon Center for Quantum Computing (CQC) is a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and technicians, all working to innovate in quantum computing for the benefit of our customers. We are looking to hire an Applied Scientist to design and model novel superconducting quantum devices (including qubits), readout and control schemes, and advanced quantum processors. The ideal candidate will have a track record of original scientific contributions, strong engineering principles, and/or software development experience. Resourcefulness, as well as strong organizational and communication skills, is essential. About the team The Amazon Center for Quantum Computing (CQC) is a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and technicians, on a mission to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer. Inclusive Team Culture Here at Amazon, 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 (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness. Diverse Experiences 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. Mentorship & 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, mentorship 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 we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud. Export Control Requirement Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be either a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be able to obtain a US export license. If you are unsure if you meet these requirements, please apply and Amazon will review your application for eligibility. Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be either a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be able to obtain a U.S export license. If you are unsure if you meet these requirements, please apply and Amazon will review your application for eligibility.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
            

        

    

    

        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 newsletter



        

        
          
        
      

  



                    

                

            
        

    


    

        

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

        
        
            

    
Social