Senior Applied Science Manager, Safe Autonomy, Compass

We are seeking a Senior Applied Science Manager to join the Compass team. In this role, you will lead a team of world-class applied scientists and engineers developing the next generation of safe autonomy systems. You will define the technical vision, drive research strategy, and ensure your team's innovations translate into production systems that operate at Amazon scale. You will interface with interdisciplinary teams across Amazon working on autonomous mobile robots, mobile manipulators, quadrupeds, and humanoids.

Key job responsibilities
• Hire and build a team of software developers and scientist delivering safety-certified software for diverse robot embodiments.
• Define and execute a multi-year product and science roadmaps for safe autonomy software that spans mobile robots, manipulators, quadrupeds, and humanoids.
• Drive integration of control barrier functions with motion planning, reinforcement learning, and foundation models to achieve safe, high-performance robot behavior
• Collaborate with robotics teams across Amazon to deploy safe autonomy solutions at scale
• Publish research findings at top-tier conferences and contribute to the broader robotics community
• Build relationships with academic and industry partners to stay at the forefront of safe autonomy


A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:

1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options
3. Paid Time Off (PTO)
4. 401(k) Plan

If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!

About the team
Work with the inventors of control barrier functions on a novel, universal approach to safe autonomy: one that scales across mobile robots, manipulators, quadrupeds, and humanoids. You'll push the boundary of safe performance by integrating safety with motion planning, RL, and foundation models, ensuring that safety is never a blocker to robot performance. Your work will underpin Amazon's path to millions of robots operating alongside people.

- 5+ years of science or engineering team management experience
- PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Control Theory, Machine Learning, or related field
- 10+ years of experience in applied research or product development in robotics, autonomous systems, or related fields
- Track record of research that has transitioned to production systems
- Track record of publications in top-tier conferences (RSS, ICRA, CoRL, NeurIPS, ICML) or patents in robotics and autonomy
- Deep expertise and technical understanding of robotics concepts for sensing, perception, planning, and control.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and comfort working at the boundary between research and commercial robotics
- Experience coordinating teams and stakeholders across geographies
- Experience deploying software on diverse robot embodiments

- Experience with foundation models for robotics, vision-language-action models, reinforcement learning for planning, or classical task and motion planning
- Experience with optimization and control in robotics.
- Familiarity with robotics simulation environments (e.g., Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Drake, OMPL)

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

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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, CA, PASADENA - 218,800.00 - 295,900.00 USD annually