Research Scientist, Amazon Fulfillment (FBA)

The FBA Inventory team is seeking a Research Scientist with robust modeling and analytical skills to join our multidisciplinary science team, comprised of data scientists, applied scientists, research scientists, and economists. As a Research Scientist at FBA, you will be in charge of designing and implementing cutting-edge optimization models, constructing an automatic inventory management system, and partnering with business and software teams to tackle key challenges facing the global FBA Seller business. These challenges include: 1) creating the next iteration of Amazon’s cost-effective storage solution and enhancing FBA Seller inventory efficiency, 2) harmonizing the supply and demand of FBA Seller capacity for a tiered network, and 3) driving down costs across the FBA supply chain. Unlike many companies that purchase pre-existing planning systems, we are tasked with studying, designing, and producing systems to meet Amazon’s unique needs. Our team members have the chance to spearhead supply chain innovation by working on some of the industry’s most complex problems alongside some of the best product managers, research scientists, statisticians, economists, and software developers. Key Job Responsibilities As a science team member, you will play an essential role in Amazon's FBA inventory management with the following technical and leadership duties: - Design, prototype, analyze, and refine models crucial to our Seller inventory management systems. - Collaborate closely with software development teams and business partners to integrate prototypes into production systems and ensure model implementations meet both business and performance scalability requirements. - Utilize domain knowledge and business acumen to identify new opportunities and quantify their impact, align research direction with business needs, and make informed decisions on research project prioritization. - Develop scalable mathematical models to derive optimal or near-optimal solutions to extant and novel inventory planning challenges. - Advocate technical solutions to business stakeholders, engineering teams, and executive-level decision-makers. - Establish policy evaluation methods to track the performance of implemented solutions, identify areas ripe for improvement, and partner with internal teams to enhance solutions with new features. A Day in the Life In this role, you will serve as a technical specialist with significant scope and high visibility. Your solutions could affect billions of dollars of Amazon’s revenue or profit margins. You will collaborate closely with Product Managers, Software Engineers, and other Scientists, deeply understanding the FBA Seller business's problems and priorities. You will analyze large amounts of business data, define new metrics and business cases, design simulations and experiments, develop scientific solutions, and collaborate with colleagues in business, software engineering, and research. About the Team Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) lets sellers delegate order fulfillment to Amazon, utilizing Amazon's world-class facilities to offer Prime delivery to customers. In recent years, sellers have enjoyed robust business growth, with FBA shipping most products offered by Amazon. FBA’s focus is on assisting sellers with automating and optimizing the third-party supply chain. We work full-stack, focusing on everything from foundational backend systems to avant-garde user interfaces. Our culture promotes rapid prototyping, rigorous experimentation, and data-driven decision-making. Basic Qualifications - PhD in operations research, management science, statistics, engineering, mathematics, or computer science and at least four years of related work experience. - Proficiency in building quantitative math models to represent various supply chain, transportation, and logics systems. - Ability to develop system prototypes. - Proficiency in Python, SQL, and/or C/C++. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Preferred Qualifications - In-depth familiarity with operations, supply chain, inventory, and/or logistics management. - Prior proven academic experience with multiple works in top-tier academic publications. - Programming experience using at least one modern programming language such as Python, Java, or C++. - Proficiency in model development and validation for large-scale applications. - Experience with developing prototypes by manipulating and analyzing complex, high-volume data from diverse sources. Amazon is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate based on race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, age, or other protected status. Reasonable accommodations are available for individuals with disabilities. Our compensation reflects the labor cost in several US markets, ranging from $124,100/year to $212,800/year depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and geographical location. Pay may also include equity, sign-on payments, and other compensation forms as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.