Principal Applied Scientist, Sponsored Products And Brands Off - search

Principal Applied Scientist

The Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) team at Amazon Ads is re-imagining the advertising landscape through state-of-the-art generative AI technologies, revolutionizing how millions of customers discover products and engage with brands across Amazon.com and beyond. We are at the forefront of re-inventing advertising experiences, bridging human creativity with artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the advertising lifecycle from ad creation and optimization to performance analysis and customer insights. We are a passionate group of innovators dedicated to developing responsible and intelligent AI technologies that balance the needs of advertisers, enhance the shopping experience, and strengthen the marketplace. If you're energized by solving complex challenges and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI, join us in shaping the future of advertising.

Key job responsibilities:

The Principal Applied Scientist will drive transformative innovation in Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) auction design across non-search surfaces, including product detail pages, the home page, and specialty stores. This role will be pivotal in rethinking how ads contribute to a personalized, relevant, and inspirational shopping experience, with the customer value proposition at the forefront. The key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Improving Auction Mechanism: The Principal Scientist will reimagine auction mechanisms to holistically optimize business drivers, shopper needs, and ad placement across non-search pages. This involves developing new auction functions through both offline simulation and online testing that consider ad relevance, ads revenue, and advertiser demand, while remaining sensitive to seasonality and bespoke shopping experiences. Moreover, they will also design, prototype and iterate models that continually improve efficiency and effectiveness of ad inventory allocation with the objective of maximizing value delivered for both shoppers and advertisers, while consistently delivering a clear customer value proposition.
• Advancing Scientific and Technical Capabilities: As a senior leader, the Principal Scientist will play a critical role in elevating the team's scientific and technical rigor, identifying and implementing best-in-class algorithms, methodologies, and infrastructure that enable rapid experimentation and scaling. They will establish a long-term vision for continued scientific innovation, setting strategic goals to future-proof the organization's technical stacks and ML/LLM frameworks to support new and emerging business objectives. Additionally, the scientist will mentor and guide junior scientists and engineers, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning to enhance the organization's ability to solve complex problems in advertising science.

Through his/her work, the Principal Applied Scientist will directly impact key business metrics by improving ad relevance and auction efficiency, ultimately contributing to revenue growth, improved customer satisfaction, and differentiated shopper experiences.

About the team:

The Off-Search team within Sponsored Products and Brands (SPB) is focused on building delightful ad experiences across various surfaces beyond Search on Amazon—such as product detail pages, the homepage, and store-in-store pages—to drive monetization. Our vision is to deliver highly personalized, context-aware advertising that adapts to individual shopper preferences, scales across diverse page types, remains relevant to seasonal and event-driven moments, and integrates seamlessly with organic recommendations such as new arrivals, basket-building content, and fast-delivery options. To execute this vision, we work in close partnership with Amazon Stores stakeholders to lead the expansion and growth of advertising across Amazon-owned and -operated pages beyond Search. We operate full stack—from backend ads-retail edge services, ads retrieval, and ad auctions to shopper-facing experiences—all designed to deliver meaningful value.