Join Amazon's Science Recruiting Team and help us identify and hire the world's most exceptional scientific and technical minds. We hire Amazon's senior-most talent in Science and Academics on both individual contributor (Principal, Senior Principal, Distinguished Scientists) and leadership (Senior Manager, Director, VP) tracks across domains including Computer Vision, Machine Learning, NLP, Robotics, Operations Research, Economics, and more.
This role offers unparalleled visibility, you'll work across all Amazon businesses, advising senior executives and scientists on hiring strategy while building relationships with world-renowned technical leaders. The candidates you engage will influence decisions affecting billions of customers.
Key job responsibilities
Strategic Search Design: Develop multi-channel strategies attracting world-class contributors. Map target companies and research institutions, engage at conferences, generate referral leads. Build talent networks across technology domains and tap industry sources for ongoing candidate pools.
Executive Advisory: Serve as talent adviser to Technical and Business Leaders—educating them about the external Principal Scientist and Engineer demographic. Provide strategic guidance on top talent. Conduct continuous company and talent mapping. Support client meetings with market-relevant content.
Candidate Development: Develop prospects into candidates through sophisticated engagement. Perform assessment and screening, present to executive leadership. Conduct phone interviews, prepare candidates for on-site interviews, coach leaders on talent acquisition at senior levels.
Market Expertise: Serve as expert for technology and science recruiting. Contribute to knowledge base with education on industries and talent pools across all technical domains. Learn new domains quickly and craft effective search strategies.
What We're Looking For
- Research acumen: Learn technical domains quickly, craft effective search strategies, excel at candidate identification, engagement, and creative sourcing
- Executive presence: Compelling communicator who engages busy executives and renowned scientists, self-assured and quick-thinking
- Strategic judgment: Think strategically while executing tactically, relentlessly high standards, results-oriented
- Collaboration: Team leader and member who believes individual wins are team wins
- Experience: 3+ years passive candidate generation in high-tech markets, experience advising executive leadership
A day in the life
You'll map technical leadership at target companies and research labs, identifying Principal Scientists working on problems similar to Amazon's strategic initiatives. You'll craft multi-channel engagement strategies—attending conferences , leveraging networks for warm introductions to passive candidates who would be transformational hires.
You'll advise VPs on search parameters based on market realities, conduct phone screens with renowned scientists assessing technical depth and influence capability, and coach hiring managers on candidate engagement. You'll contribute to the team's knowledge base by documenting insights about emerging talent pools that inform future searches.
About the team
Our mission: identify, build relationships with, and hire every great Principal Scientist and Engineer in the world. We believe rigorous research yields healthy outcomes—well-planned searches accelerate time-to-fill while prioritizing quality touchpoints over quantity. We balance long-term relationships with urgent business needs. We don't take shortcuts. Individual wins are team wins. We turn over every stone with curiosity, asking difficult questions and adapting when searches get stuck. You'll work with a strong, established team of Recruiters and Researchers.
The Principal Scientists and Engineers you hire will shape Amazon's technical future—setting standards, mentoring thousands, solving problems affecting billions. This isn't filling requisitions—it's identifying leaders who will define what's possible at Amazon for the next decade.
- Experience in advising and influencing executive leadership
- Experience building and driving talent sourcing initiatives and pipelines
- Experience creating, measuring and scaling workflow among candidates, hiring managers and the recruiting team
- Experience managing and prioritizing multiple searches, projects and client relationships
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent
- Experience recruiting passive candidates who are the most senior experts in their field
- Experience with executive recruiting in either a blue-chip, global in-house executive search team, or a top executive search firm
- Experience working with recruiting and people-related tools, CRM systems, and complex spreadsheets
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, WA, Seattle - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually
