Sr. Applied Scientist, AWS Identity

Company: Amazon
Location: Arlington
Posted on: April 1, 2026

Job Description:

Are you passionate about programming languages, applying formal verification, program analysis, constraint-solving, and/or theorem proving to real world problems? Do you want to create products that help customers? If so, then we have an exciting opportunity for you. In this role, you will interact with internal teams and external customers to understand their requirements. You will apply your knowledge to propose innovative solutions, create software prototypes, and productize prototypes into production systems using software development tools and methodologies. In addition, you will support and scale your solutions to meet the ever growing demand of customer use. Technical Responsibilities: - Interact with various teams to develop an understanding of their security and safety requirements. - Apply the acquired knowledge to build tools find problems, or show the absence of security/safety problems. - Implement these tools through the use of SAT, SMT, and various concepts from programming languages, theorem proving, formal verification and constraint solving. - Perform analysis of the customer systems using tools developed in-house or externally provided - Create software prototypes to verify and validate the devised solutions methodologies; integrate the prototypes into production systems using standard software development tools and methodologies. Leadership Responsibilities: - Can present and defend company-wide technical decisions to the internal technical community and represent the company effectively at technical conferences. - Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions. Can successfully sell ideas to an executive level decision maker. - Mentors and trains the research scientist community on complex technical issues. AWS has the most services and more features within those services, than any other cloud provider–from infrastructure technologies like compute, storage, and databases–to emerging technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, data lakes and analytics, and Internet of Things. Whether its Identity features such as access management and sign on, cryptography, console, builder & developer tools, and even projects like automating all of our contractual billing systems, AWS Platform is always innovating with the customer in mind. The AWS Platform team sustains over 750 million transactions per second. We have a formal mentor search application that lets you find a mentor that works best for you based on location, job family, job level etc. Your manager can also help you find a mentor or two, because two is better than one. In addition to formal mentors, we work and train together so that we are always learning from one another, and we celebrate and support the career progression of our team members. Key job responsibilities Technical Responsibilities: - Interact with various teams to develop an understanding of their security and safety requirements. - Apply the acquired knowledge to build tools find problems, or show the absence of security/safety problems. - Implement these tools through the use of SAT, SMT, BDDs, and various concepts from programming languages, theorem proving, formal verification and constraint solving. - Perform analysis of the customer systems using tools developed in-house or externally provided - Create software prototypes to verify and validate the devised solutions methodologies; integrate the prototypes into production systems using standard software development tools and methodologies. Leadership Responsibilities: - Can present and defend company-wide technical decisions to the internal technical community and represent the company effectively at technical conferences. - Functional thought leader, sought after for key tech decisions. Can successfully sell ideas to an executive level decision maker. - Mentors and trains the research scientist community on complex technical issues. A day in the life You will be working on cutting edge technology related to formal methods, automated reasoning, automated testing, and adjacent areas. You will work with fellow applied scientists to solve challenging problems that provide value to customers by improving the quality of software. You will have an opportunity to publish your work. Why AWS Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses. AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations — from foundational services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (Iot), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS, including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services. Inclusive Team Culture Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity) conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness. Work/Life Balance We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud. Mentorship and Career Growth We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional. Diverse Experiences Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying. About the team The Automated Reasoning in Identity (ARI) team is growing fast. It works on applying automated reasoning techniques to services within AWS's Identity organization, building on initial successes of the Zelkova and Access Analyzer projects. The reach of AR within Identity is growing, with more scientists joining all the time. - PhD, or Master's degree and 6 years of applied research experience - Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language - Experience in any of the following areas: algorithms and data structures, parsing, numerical optimization, data mining, parallel and distributed computing, high-performance computing - Experience in patents or publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals - 5 years of industry or academic research experience - Experience in professional software development 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. 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, VA, Arlington - 167,100.00 - 226,100.00 USD annually

Keywords: Amazon, Columbia , Sr. Applied Scientist, AWS Identity, Science, Research & Development , Arlington, Maryland