April 20, 2022
The new Amazon + UW Science Hub collaboration, led by Professor Josh Smith wanted to ensure you had awareness of a new initiative for Ph.D. graduates. At the end of last week, Amazon launched The Amazon Postdoctoral Science(APS) program.
Overview of the newly-launched Amazon Postdoctoral Science program
This new program provides recent Ph.D. graduates with a formal avenue to gain up to two years of industry experience and apply their domain knowledge as active contributors to Earth’s most Customer-centric company. The program advances Postdoctoral Scientists’ career development through industry exposure, publications, and science mentorship. Additionally, APS emphasizes engagement in the broader scientific research community through built-in weekly writing time, access to scientific peer-review roundtables, and annual financial support to present at academic conferences. Postdocs will also have the chance to interact with, and learn from, one another through cohort-based programming.
Definition of an Amazon Postdoctoral Scientist
Amazon is looking for hands-on, problem-solvers interested in leveraging their domain expertise to innovate and improve the customer experience while exploring new research areas. Amazon Postdoctoral Scientists are recent Ph.D. graduates who earned their degree within two years of starting at Amazon. Postdoctoral Science roles are full-time, one-year commitments; postdocs cannot have a dual affiliation during their time at Amazon. Postdoctoral Scientists have the unique opportunity to work alongside and receive mentorship from scientists with backgrounds in both industry and academia in their full-time roles.
Currently Available Postdoc Opportunities:
Amazon’s Postdoc offerings will change throughout the year based on business needs. Please visit Amazon’s job finder for the latest Postdoc opportunities and locations. Several currently open roles include:
- Robotics AI: 3D scene understanding and robotics applications
- NLP: Several roles within the Alexa org, focused on reasoning, understanding, and fairness
- ML: Support ML teams in design fairness and other Responsible AI virtues into their solutions from conception
Next Steps & Learn More
Join us for an information meeting on April 15th at 9 AM PST/12 PM EST. Please register here. This meeting is for administrative and faculty leaders at our science hub institutions, not for prospective postdocs.
Interested Candidates: We invite interested candidates to apply now to join us in the inaugural cohort of postdocs at Amazon. For questions about applying to the program, please reach out to postdoc-interest@amazon.com.
Faculty with Postdoc Referrals: We welcome and encourage referrals directly from faculty for qualified candidates who received their Ph.D. in the last two years. Please direct referrals to postdoc-interest@amazon.com.