Senior Applied Scientist - AWS Data Catalog Permissions

Role Overview

This position offers a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of data security and governance with global scale impact at AWS. As a Senior Applied Scientist III, you will apply your profound knowledge in formal methods, programming languages, and automated reasoning to advance the permissions model within AWS’s data catalog. This ensures customers can accurately specify who may access data and trust that permissions are enforced regardless of how or where the data is accessed. Experience with large language models (LLMs), multi-agent workflows, and advanced structured guardrails to ensure deterministic LLM outputs is advantageous. You will join an experienced team of applied scientists in a supportive environment that encourages cognitive safety and professional growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Leverage deep expertise in programming languages and formal reasoning to design permission expression languages and formal semantics that cover catalog resources at granular levels, including columns and rows.
• Develop a permissions model that balances correctness, compactness, expressiveness for actual customer needs, clear explainability when requests are denied, and comprehensive testability.
• Navigate ambiguities to trade off properties carefully and document design decisions thoroughly to build rapid alignment within the team.
• Lead the design and implementation of scientifically complex software components that are mission-critical and stable, delivering tangible customer benefits.
• Tackle concrete challenges such as verifying policy changes don’t exceed intended access, equivalence of policies from different models, ensuring fast evaluation paths align with reference semantics, and maintaining permission integrity as schemas and data evolve.
• Maintain in-depth understanding of team systems and proactively identify and enact improvements that enhance efficiency and consistency across team boundaries.
• Shape your team’s scientific and business strategies by collaborating closely with Applied Scientists, Engineers, and Product Managers in identity, storage, analytics, and machine learning disciplines.
• Forge consensus among often conflicting viewpoints by providing thoughtful and constructive feedback.
• Apply advanced scientific techniques to bottlenecks and establish yourself as a trusted, innovative problem solver within and beyond your team.
• Contribute to AWS’s academic leadership through publications, talks, and advancements in data security, governance, programming languages, and automated reasoning.

About The Team

The team is responsible for the permissions layer of AWS’s data catalog, including:

• Developing the models and formal semantics customers use to author permissions across catalogs, databases, tables, columns, and rows.
• Implementing evaluation mechanisms that convert permissions into authorization decisions for every request under rigorous latency constraints.
• Detecting and resolving discrepancies between intended permissions and actual enforcement as resources change.
• Consolidating existing permission models into a unified system with proofs that migrations preserve access boundaries.
• Collaborating extensively with identity, storage, and analytics groups across AWS.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements

• A minimum of 6 years developing machine learning models applied to business contexts.
• PhD degree, or a Master's degree combined with at least 6 years of applied research experience.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, C++, or Python.
• Demonstrated skills in neural deep learning methodologies and general machine learning.

Preferred Experience

• Familiarity with data science and machine learning frameworks including R, scikit-learn, Spark MLLib, MxNet, TensorFlow, numpy, and scipy.
• Experience managing or developing within large-scale distributed systems such as Hadoop and Spark.

Compensation and Benefits

The annual salary range for this position is CAD 195,900 to CAD 327,200. As Amazon offers a comprehensive total compensation package, the final offer may include sign-on bonuses and restricted stock units. Benefits encompass medical, dental, vision, prescription coverage, life and AD&D insurance, a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (DPSP), paid time off, and wellness resources.

Diversity and Inclusion

Amazon is committed to equal employment opportunities and does not discriminate based on protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected categories. The workplace is inclusive, empowering employees to deliver outstanding results for customers. Accommodations are available for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process.