Applied Scientist, Intelligent Talent Acquisition - Lead Generation & Detection Services

Do you want to make a real difference to real people's lives? Want to design and build fair and explainable systems which automate recruitment processes across Amazon? Come and be part of a team that develops new machine learning (ML) technologies, which help Amazon scale for its customers by recruiting diverse teams.

Join our Recommendations team within Intelligent Talent Acquisition (ITA) where you’ll build machine learning products that transform how job seekers find opportunities and recruiters discover talent. You’ll develop sophisticated recommendation systems powering both Amazon Jobs and internal hiring platforms, operating at global scale to match the right people with the right positions. Using techniques including representation learning, reinforcement learning, and probabilistic modeling, your work will directly improve efficiency for recruiters and help candidates find their ideal roles. This position offers the chance to solve complex problems with significant impact by creating systems that make Amazon’s entire hiring ecosystem more effective while collaborating with scientists across the organization.

Key job responsibilities

• Design and implement machine learning models that power recommendation systems for job seekers and recruiters, ensuring high performance, scalability, and reliability at global scale. Our ideal candidate has a strong scientific foundation and experience of statistical analysis and model building and has a passion for fairness and explainability in ML systems.
• Collaborate with engineers, scientists, and product managers to define requirements, create solutions, and deliver products that improve the hiring experience.
• Participate in the full software development lifecycle including scoping, design, coding, testing, documentation, deployment, and maintenance of recommendation systems and ML models.
• Solve complex ML problems using optimal data structures and algorithms, making thoughtful trade-offs between efficiency and maintainability.
• Stay current with scientific literature and develop novel approaches that address business challenges in talent acquisition. You will have the opportunity to provide feedback on scientific work across the organization helping the entire Intelligent Talent Acquisition organization improve.

A day in the life You might spend the morning reviewing a colleague’s code for a new recommendation algorithm feature, then collaborate with product managers to refine requirements for an upcoming enhancement. After lunch, you’ll dive into model development, analyzing performance metrics from recent A/B tests and implementing improvements to the job-seeker recommendation pipeline. Throughout the day, you’ll participate in scientific discussions with peers across the organization, providing valuable feedback while continuing to refine your expertise.

About the team The Recommendations team is a hybrid group of software engineers and applied scientists located in Edinburgh. We build tools that match people to jobs and jobs to people, optimizing experiences for both recruiters and candidates. Our work directly impacts Amazon’s ability to find and hire exceptional talent globally. The team maintains a collaborative environment with regular knowledge sharing and mentorship opportunities. We work closely with our product teams to understand business needs and develop innovative scientific solutions that improve hiring outcomes across both industry and student requisitions worldwide.

Basic qualifications

• Experience in solving business problems through machine learning, data mining and statistical algorithms
• Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• Speak, write, and read fluently in English
• Experience that includes strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and effective communication abilities

Preferred qualifications

• PhD in computer science, machine learning, engineering, or related fields
• Experience in designing experiments and statistical analysis of results
• Experience in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.

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.