Applied Scientist, Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA)

FBA Science seeks an Applied Scientist to invent and build optimization models and algorithms that improve how Amazon plans and places seller inventory across its worldwide fulfillment network.

FBA moves the inventory of hundreds of thousands of sellers through a multi-echelon network of origin storage, national and regional distribution, and fulfillment centers - putting the right inventory in the right place, on time and at low cost. Operating this network is a constant stream of decisions: how much a seller should send, and where and when it should flow, all under scarce receiving and storage capacity. And these decisions are not ours to make alone - sellers choose what to send and how to respond to the options and incentives we offer, so we have to plan the network and shape seller behavior together. Solve it well and we drive out cost and speed up delivery, while making FBA the easiest way for a seller to grow their business. Our strategy is to make these decisions with science-driven technology, and because existing techniques rarely fit Amazon's scale and unique business needs, we invent new approaches and algorithms.

As an Applied Scientist, you'll develop optimization models and algorithms across FBA's inventory planning and placement systems. Your role will initially focus on joint replenishment and placement decisions. Your models will impact business decisions worth billions of dollars and improve the experience of every FBA seller.

Key job responsibilities

- Own the development of the replenishment, placement, and transportation-planning algorithms that decide how a seller's inventory flows across Amazon's fulfillment network.

- Design and implement large-scale optimization models and algorithms for complex inventory-planning problems, and the prediction and estimation layer they depend on.

- Partner closely with Product Managers and engineers to define high-impact problems, translate ambiguous business challenges into well-scoped science initiatives, and deliver actionable, science-driven solutions.

- Build and deploy science solutions into production pipelines, ensuring that models operate reliably at scale across a network serving hundreds of thousands of sellers.

A day in the life

You will own a science area with significant scope, impact, and high visibility, and your work will touch millions of products, hundreds of thousands of selling partners, and tens of millions of customers. You will be in the seller's critical path and you will be involved in every step, from idea generation and business analysis through research to the development and deployment of production-grade models. You will move between the optimization and the behavior. You are expected to make decisions about methodology, model architecture, and technology choices, and to strive for simplicity and demonstrate judgment backed by mathematical rigor. You will work closely with product managers, engineers, and fellow scientists, and collaborate with the broader science community across Amazon to broaden the horizon of your work. You will be entrepreneurial, wear many hats, and work in a fast-paced, high-energy, highly collaborative environment where we value people who deliver results, know their subject deeply, and are eager to learn new areas.

About the team

Sellers play a vital role in Amazon’s ecosystem, integral to our mission of offering the Earth’s largest selection, lowest prices, and fastest delivery speed. FBA is an optional service that enables third-party sellers to outsource order fulfillment to Amazon, and leverage Amazon’s world-class facilities to provide customers fast delivery promise. With commitment to taking on even more of the supply chain and operational complexities on behalf of our selling partners, Amazon now provides an end-to-end suite of supply chain services. This comprehensive solution empowers sellers to reliably transport products from manufacturing sites to customers worldwide. The FBA team is the core group in charge of warehousing, inventory management, fulfillment and pricing, and a diverse range of recommendation services for sellers, as well as building the internal resource management systems. We work to learn seller behavior, understand seller experience, recommend right actions to sellers, design seller policies and incentives, and develop science products and services that empower sellers to grow their businesses. To do so, we build and innovate science solutions that leverage the right tools across different fields including operations research, economics, machine learning, statistics, and data analytics. Our culture is centered on rapid prototyping, rigorous experimentation, and data-driven decision-making.

Basic qualifications

- 2+ years of building models for business application experience

- Experience in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals

- Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language

- Demonstrated ability to build complex optimization models from scratch and take them to production.

- PhD in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Economics, or a related quantitative field.

Preferred qualifications

- Track record of translating ambiguous business problems into well-defined science solutions with measurable impact.

- Proven ability to work effectively across product, engineering, and science teams.

- Experience with supply chain optimization, demand forecasting, inventory management, or transportation/logistics algorithms.

- Experience with reinforcement learning applied to sequential decision-making in operations or supply chain contexts.

- Experience with product selection or assortment optimization for capacity-constrained systems.

- Strength in mechanism design, auction theory, or game theory, particularly in settings involving strategic agents, capacity allocation, or market-based resource allocation.

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

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

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, WA, Bellevue - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually