Applied Scientist, AWS Science of Security at Amazon
Seattle, WA
$172,400–$223,400from the description
Jul 15, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A research-focused engineering role within AWS's security organization, centered on applying formal methods and program analysis to hard security, privacy, and sovereignty problems at cloud scale. The work involves designing and delivering novel technical solutions with long-term impact, drawing on expertise in areas such as SAT/SMT solving, theorem proving, type systems, or symbolic simulation. Best suited to candidates with a PhD-level background in these formal methods disciplines.
Senior level · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA · Doctorate required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 3 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
Why we read it this way (6)
The role title is 'Applied Scientist' in AWS Security, focused on formal methods, program analysis, and security research — it sits between Data Scientists (15-2051) and Software Developers (15-1252). 15-2051 was chosen because the primary work is scientific research and innovation rather than shipping production software, but 15-1252 is a genuine runner-up given the emphasis on design, implementation, and delivery.
The posting lists two separate salary bands: $172,400–$223,400/year for New York, NY and $142,800–$193,200/year for Arlington, VA. The higher New York band is reported here; the Arlington band cannot be represented in a single comp range.
The Basic Qualifications gate on a PhD (or equivalent research experience) AND experience in at least one of: SAT, SMT, mechanical theorem proving, symbolic simulation, programming language type systems, or program analysis. These are treated as a single interchangeable requirement since the JD explicitly lists them as alternatives.
Programming language experience (OCaml, Dafny, Haskell, Kotlin, Lean, Rust, Scala) appears under Preferred Qualifications and is therefore not a hard gate.
Professional software development experience also appears under Preferred Qualifications only.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): software development.
Read the full posting
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