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
        
    




    
        

            

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Data Scientist - II, Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
IN, KA, Bengaluru

            
        


        
    
Alexa+ is Amazon’s next-generation, AI-powered virtual assistant. Building on the original Alexa, it uses generative AI to deliver a more conversational, personalised, and effective experience. Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence (ASCI) team is developing responsible AI (RAI) solutions for Alexa+, empowering it to provide useful information responsibly. The Mission Build AI safety systems that protect millions of Alexa customers every day. As conversational AI evolves, you'll solve challenging problems in Responsible AI by ensuring LLMs provide safe, trustworthy responses, building AI systems that understand nuanced human values across cultures, and maintaining customer trust at scale. We are looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Data Scientist-II to help build industry-leading technology with Large Language Models (LLMs) and multimodal systems, requiring good learning and generative models knowledge. You will be working with a team of exceptional Data Scientists working in a hybrid, fast-paced organization where scientists, engineers, and product managers work together to build customer facing experiences. You will collaborate with other data scientists while understanding the role data plays in developing data sets and exemplars that meet customer needs. You will analyze and automate processes for collecting and annotating LLM inputs and outputs to assess data quality and measurement. You will apply state-of-the-art Generative AI techniques to analyze how well our data represents human language and run experiments to gauge downstream interactions. You will work collaboratively with other data scientists and applied scientists to design and implement principled strategies for data optimization. Key job responsibilities A Data Scientist-II should have a reasonably good understanding of NLP models (e.g. LSTM, LLMs, other transformer based models) or CV models (e.g. CNN, AlexNet, ResNet, GANs, ViT) and know of ways to improve their performance using data. You leverage your technical expertise in improving and extending existing models. Your work will directly impact our customers in the form of products and services that make use of speech, language, and computer vision technologies. You will be joining a select group of people making history producing one of the most highly rated products in Amazon's history, so if you are looking for a challenging and innovative role where you can solve important problems while growing in your career, this may be the place for you. A day in the life You will be working with a group of talented scientists on running experiments to test scientific proposal/solutions to improve our sensitive contents detection and mitigation for worldwide coverage. This will involve collaboration with partner teams including engineering, PMs, data annotators, and other scientists to discuss data quality, policy, model development, and solution implementation. You will work with other scientists, collaborating and contributing to extending and improving solutions for the team. About the team Our team pioneers Responsible AI for conversational assistants. We ensure Alexa delivers safe, trustworthy experiences across all devices, modalities, and languages worldwide. We work on frontier AI safety challenges—and we're looking for scientists who want to help shape the future of trustworthy AI.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Data Scientist - II, Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
IN, KA, Bengaluru

            
        


        
    
Alexa+ is Amazon’s next-generation, AI-powered virtual assistant. Building on the original Alexa, it uses generative AI to deliver a more conversational, personalised, and effective experience. Alexa Sensitive Content Intelligence (ASCI) team is developing responsible AI (RAI) solutions for Alexa+, empowering it to provide useful information responsibly. The Mission Build AI safety systems that protect millions of Alexa customers every day. As conversational AI evolves, you'll solve challenging problems in Responsible AI by ensuring LLMs provide safe, trustworthy responses, building AI systems that understand nuanced human values across cultures, and maintaining customer trust at scale. We are looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Data Scientist-II to help build industry-leading technology with Large Language Models (LLMs) and multimodal systems, requiring good learning and generative models knowledge. You will be working with a team of exceptional Data Scientists working in a hybrid, fast-paced organization where scientists, engineers, and product managers work together to build customer facing experiences. You will collaborate with other data scientists while understanding the role data plays in developing data sets and exemplars that meet customer needs. You will analyze and automate processes for collecting and annotating LLM inputs and outputs to assess data quality and measurement. You will apply state-of-the-art Generative AI techniques to analyze how well our data represents human language and run experiments to gauge downstream interactions. You will work collaboratively with other data scientists and applied scientists to design and implement principled strategies for data optimization. Key job responsibilities A Data Scientist-II should have a reasonably good understanding of NLP models (e.g. LSTM, LLMs, other transformer based models) or CV models (e.g. CNN, AlexNet, ResNet, GANs, ViT) and know of ways to improve their performance using data. You leverage your technical expertise in improving and extending existing models. Your work will directly impact our customers in the form of products and services that make use of speech, language, and computer vision technologies. You will be joining a select group of people making history producing one of the most highly rated products in Amazon's history, so if you are looking for a challenging and innovative role where you can solve important problems while growing in your career, this may be the place for you. A day in the life You will be working with a group of talented scientists on running experiments to test scientific proposal/solutions to improve our sensitive contents detection and mitigation for worldwide coverage. This will involve collaboration with partner teams including engineering, PMs, data annotators, and other scientists to discuss data quality, policy, model development, and solution implementation. You will work with other scientists, collaborating and contributing to extending and improving solutions for the team. About the team Our team pioneers Responsible AI for conversational assistants. We ensure Alexa delivers safe, trustworthy experiences across all devices, modalities, and languages worldwide. We work on frontier AI safety challenges—and we're looking for scientists who want to help shape the future of trustworthy AI.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                2026 Applied Scientist Intern, Amazon University Talent Acquisition
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
EG, Cairo

            
        


        
    
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.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Intern - Economics, Private Brands - Intelligence
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, San Diego

            
        


        
    
We are looking for detail-oriented, organized, and responsible individuals who are eager to learn how to apply their macroeconomics and forecasting skillsets to solve real world problems. The intern will work in the area of forecasting, developing models to improve the success of new product launches in Private Brands. 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 Amazon Private Brands Intelligence team applies Machine Learning, Statistics and Econometrics/economics to solve high-impact business problems, develop prototypes for Amazon-scale science solutions, and optimize key business functions of Amazon Private Brands and other Amazon orgs. We are an interdisciplinary team, using science and technology and leveraging the strengths of engineers and scientists to build solutions for some of the toughest business problems at Amazon, covering areas such as pricing, discovery, negotiation, forecasting, supply chain and product selection/development.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Scientist, Sponsored Products
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, VA, Arlington

            
        


        
    
About Sponsored Products and Brands The Sponsored Products and Brands 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. About our team The SPB Offsite team builds solutions to extend campaigns to reach customers off the store and extend shopping experiences on third party sites where shoppers search and discover products. We use industry leading machine learning, high scale low latency systems, and AI technologies to create better sponsored customer experiences off the store. This role will have deep interest in building the next innovations in ad tech and shopping wherever shoppers go. You will work with external and internal partners to connect ad tech systems, understand customers, and drive results at scale. You are a deeply technical leader who operates with a GenAI first approach to product, engineering, and science based solutions. As an Applied Scientist on this team, you will: - Drive end-to-end Machine Learning projects that have a high degree of ambiguity, scale, complexity. - Perform hands-on analysis and modeling of enormous data sets to develop insights that increase traffic monetization and merchandise sales, without compromising the shopper experience. - Build machine learning models, perform proof-of-concept, experiment, optimize, and deploy your models into production; work closely with software engineers to assist in productionizing your ML models. - Run A/B experiments, gather data, and perform statistical analysis. - Establish scalable, efficient, automated processes for large-scale data analysis, machine-learning model development, model validation and serving. - Research new and innovative machine learning approaches. Why you will love this opportunity: Amazon is investing heavily in building a world-class advertising business. This team defines and delivers a collection of advertising products that drive discovery and sales. Our solutions generate billions in revenue and drive long-term growth for Amazon’s Retail and Marketplace businesses. We deliver billions of ad impressions, millions of clicks daily, and break fresh ground to create world-class products. We are a highly motivated, collaborative, and fun-loving team with an entrepreneurial spirit - with a broad mandate to experiment and innovate. Impact and Career Growth: You will invent new experiences and influence customer-facing shopping experiences to help suppliers grow their retail business and the auction dynamics that leverage native advertising; this is your opportunity to work within the fastest-growing businesses across all of Amazon! Define a long-term science vision for our advertising business, driven from our customers' needs, translating that direction into specific plans for research and applied scientists, as well as engineering and product teams. This role combines science leadership, organizational ability, technical strength, product focus, and business understanding.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Data Scientist III - AMZ9674163
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, MA, Boston

            
        


        
    
MULTIPLE POSITIONS AVAILABLE Employer: AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC. Offered Position: Data Scientist III Job Location: Boston, Massachusetts Job Number: AMZ9674163 Position Responsibilities: Own the data science elements of various products to help with data-based decision making, product performance optimization, and product performance tracking. Work directly with product managers to help drive the design of the product. Work with Technical Product Managers to help drive the build planning. Translate business problems and products into data requirements and metrics. Initiate the design, development, and implementation of scientific analysis projects or deliverables. Own the analysis, modelling, system design, and development of data science solutions for products. Write documents and make presentations that explain model/analysis results to the business. Bridge the degree of uncertainty in both problem definition and data scientific solution approaches. Build consensus on data, metrics, and analysis to drive business and system strategy. Position Requirements: Master's degree or foreign equivalent degree in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science or a related field and two years of experience in the job offered or a related occupation. Employer will accept a Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent degree in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field and five years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience in the job offered or a related occupation as equivalent to the Master's degree and two years of experience. Must have one year of experience in the following skills: (1) building statistical models and machine learning models using large datasets from multiple resources; (2) building complex data analyses by leveraging scripting languages including Python, Java, or related scripting language; and (3) communicating with users, technical teams, and management to collect requirements, evaluate alternatives, and develop processes and tools to support the organization. Amazon.com is an Equal Opportunity-Affirmative Action Employer – Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation. 40 hours / week, 8:00am-5:00pm, Salary Range $161,803/year to $215,300/year. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, visit: https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits.#0000




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Research Scientist II - AMZ9698004
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, WA, Seattle

            
        


        
    
MULTIPLE POSITIONS AVAILABLE Employer: AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC. Offered Position: Research Scientist II Job Location: Seattle, Washington Job Number: AMZ9698004 Position Responsibilities: Perform and support the main psychometric aspects of exam development and operations, including but not limited to automated test assembly, item and test analyses, optimal item bank design, job task analysis, standard setting, quality assurance, and project planning. Conduct main aspects of psychometric analysis in operational work including performing item analysis using psychometric methods, building optimal test forms and pools via optimization techniques, analyzing and monitoring item bank health, setting pass standards via standard setting studies, and supporting Job Task Analysis (JTA) to define and refresh test blueprints. Conduct main aspects of psychometric analysis in developing and applying statistical and psychometric modeling to evaluate and ensure AWS certification exams’ validity, reliability, applicability, efficiency, and accuracy. Participate in research projects to improve existing operational processes and quality using advanced techniques such as Machine Learning (ML), statistical modeling, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), etc. Develop automation code using R or Python for psychometric workflow pipeline and other tasks to improve operational efficiencies. Present, interpret, and communicate the results of analyses to stakeholders through written and oral reports. Follow the accreditation standards set by ISO/IEC:2012 17024 and the National Council for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) as they relate to valid psychometric practices. Engage with the professional community through conferences and publications. Position Requirements: PhD or foreign equivalent degree in Statistics, Psychometrics, Educational Measurement, Quantitative Psychology, Data Science, Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology, or a related field and one year of research or work experience in the job offered, or as a Research Scientist, Research Assistant, Software Engineer, or a related occupation. Must have 1 year of experience in the following skill(s): 1. large-scale education, licensure, or certification assessment programs. 2. operational psychometric tasks on large-scale education, licensure, or certification assessment programs including item analysis, equating and scaling, item response theory, classical test theory, form and pool assembly, item bank health analysis, standard setting, and job task analysis. 3. at least one of the complex test designs such as linear-on-the-fly testing (LOFT), computerized adaptive testing (CAT). 4. at least one of the following areas including machine learning (ML) or natural language processing (NLP). 5. Programming skills in at least one script-based programming language (R, Python). Amazon.com is an Equal Opportunity-Affirmative Action Employer – Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation. 40 hours / week, 8:00am-5:00pm, Salary Range $136,000/year to $184,000/ year. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, visit: https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits.#0000




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Sr Applied Scientist, Sponsored Products and Brands Ads Response Prediction 
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, CA, Palo Alto

            
        


        
    
The Sponsored Products and Brands team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through industry leading 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. Amazon Ads Response Prediction team is your choice, if you want to join a highly motivated, collaborative, and fun-loving team with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and bias for action. We are seeking an experienced and motivated Machine Learning Applied Scientist who loves to innovate at the intersection of customer experience, deep learning, and high-scale machine-learning systems. Amazon Advertising operates at the intersection of eCommerce and advertising, and is investing heavily in building a world-class advertising business. We are defining and delivering a collection of self-service performance advertising products that drive discovery and sales. Our products are strategically important to our Retail and Marketplace businesses driving long-term growth. We deliver billions of ad impressions and millions of clicks daily and are breaking fresh ground to create world-class products to improve both shopper and advertiser experience. With a broad mandate to experiment and innovate, we grow at an unprecedented rate with a seemingly endless range of new opportunities. We are looking for a talented Machine Learning Applied Scientist for our Amazon Ads Response Prediction team to grow the business. We are providing advanced real-time machine learning services to connect shoppers with right ads on all platforms and surfaces worldwide. Through the deep understanding of both shoppers and products, we help shoppers discover new products they love, be the most efficient way for advertisers to meet their customers, and helps Amazon continuously innovate on behalf of all customers. Key job responsibilities As a Machine Learning Applied Scientist, you will: * Conduct deep data analysis to derive insights to the business, and identify gaps and 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 * Work closely with software engineers to deliver end-to-end solutions into production * Improve the scalability, efficiency and automation of large-scale data analytics, model training, deployment and serving * Conduct research on new machine-learning modeling to optimize all aspects of Sponsored Products and Brands business About the team We are pioneers in applying advanced machine learning and generative AI algorithms in Sponsored Products and Brands business. We empower every customer with a customized discovery experiences from back-end optimization (such as customized response prediction models) to front-end CX innovation (such as widgets), to help shoppers feel understood and shop efficiently on and off Amazon.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Applied Science Manager, Sponsored Products and Brands
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, WA, Seattle

            
        


        
    
The Sponsored Products and Brands team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through industry leading 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 We are looking for an Applied Science Manager to lead the Insights & Prompt Generation vertical within the Conversational Discovery Experiences (CAX) team in Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB). This team owns prompt generation, quality, personalization, and coverage for Sponsored Prompts, a new conversational ad format powered by large language models (LLMs) that helps shoppers discover products across Amazon.com. As an Applied Science Manager, you will lead a team of applied scientists and engineers to build and scale the prompt generation pipeline, develop new prompt themes and quality frameworks, and drive coverage expansion across all surfaces. You will own the science roadmap for prompt generation and personalization. You will define the metrics that measure prompt effectiveness and drive experimentation to improve CTR, helpfulness, and advertiser outcomes. This role requires strong technical depth in NLP, LLMs, and information retrieval, combined with the ability to manage and grow a science team, set research direction, and influence product strategy. You will work across organizational boundaries with engineering, product, and business teams to translate science investments into measurable business impact.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
                    

                        

    

    

        
            

                Senior Applied Scientist, Sponsored Products and Brands
            

        

        

            
                
                    

                
            

            

            

            

            
                
US, NY, New York

            
        


        
    
The Sponsored Products and Brands team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through novel 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 ecosystem. 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 As a Senior Applied Scientist on our team, you will * Develop AI solutions for Sponsored Brands advertiser and shopper experiences. Build recommendation systems that leverage generative models to develop and improve campaigns. * You invent and design new solutions for scientifically-complex problem areas and/or opportunities in new business initiatives. * You drive or heavily influence the design of scientifically-complex software solutions or systems, for which you personally write significant parts of the critical scientific novelty. You take ownership of these components, providing a system-wide view and design guidance. These systems or solutions can be brand new or evolve from existing ones. * Define a long-term science vision and roadmap for our Sponsored Brands advertising business, driven from our customers' needs, translating that direction into specific plans for applied scientists and engineering teams. This role combines science leadership, organizational ability, technical strength, product focus, and business understanding. * Work closely with engineers and product managers to design, implement and launch AI solutions end-to-end; * Design and conduct A/B experiments to evaluate proposed solutions based on in-depth data analyses; * Think big about the arc of development of Gen AI over a multi-year horizon, and identify new opportunities to apply these technologies to solve real-world problems * Effectively communicate technical and non-technical ideas with teammates and stakeholders; * Translate complex scientific challenges into clear and impactful solutions for business stakeholders. * Mentor and guide junior scientists, fostering a collaborative and high-performing team culture. * Stay up-to-date with advancements and the latest modeling techniques in the field About the team We are on a mission to make Amazon the best in class destination for shoppers to discover, engage, and purchase relevant products, from brands that are relevant to them. In this role, you will design and implement Gen AI solutions that help millions of advertisers create more effective ad campaigns with intelligent recommendations, while improving the overall experience at Amazon's global scale.




        

        

        

        
    


    



                    

                
            

        

    

    

        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