Sr. Applied Scientist, Fauna

Sr. Applied Scientist – Robot Navigation

About the role

Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, is building capable, safe, and genuinely delightful robots for everyday life. Our goal is to make robots people actually want to live and interact with in everyday human spaces.

We believe that the future won't arrive until building for robotics becomes far more accessible. Today, too much effort is spent reinventing the fundamentals. We're changing that by developing tightly integrated hardware and software systems that make it faster, safer, and more intuitive to create real-world robotic products.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and implement robust navigation systems that enable reliable autonomous operation in complex, dynamic indoor environments with static and dynamic obstacles
• Build simulation-based and on-device evaluation frameworks with comprehensive benchmarks and metrics for systematic comparison of navigation methods
• Conduct sim-to-real transfer experiments, analyzing performance gaps and developing techniques to ensure reliable real-world navigation performance
• Collaborate with world model, manipulation, and other teams to ensure seamless integration of navigation capabilities into the full robot system
• Stay current with the latest advances in robot navigation, spatial reasoning, and related fields, and apply relevant findings to improve system performance
• Mentor fellow scientists and engineers while maintaining strong individual technical contributions

Basic qualifications

• PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• 3+ years of industry or academic research experience
• Strong publication record at major Robotics/ML/AI conferences (e.g., RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR)
• Experience programming in Python, C++, or related language
• Experience with sim-to-real transfer for robotic systems
• Demonstrated track record of leading technical projects
• Experience mentoring junior scientists/engineers

Preferred qualifications

• History of impactful first-author publications at major conferences
• Experience bridging research with practical engineering implementation in robotics systems
• Experience with visual navigation, semantic navigation, or foundation models applied to robot navigation
• Experience evaluating and benchmarking multiple navigation approaches (classical, learning-based, foundation model-based)

Compensation and benefits

Base salary range: $192,200.00 - $260,000.00 USD annually (USA, CA, Sunnyvale)

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 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.

Equal opportunity

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company's reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Workplace accommodations: 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.