H-1B Visa Applied Scientist Jobs
Applied Scientist roles sit squarely within H-1B visa specialty occupation requirements, with most positions requiring a master's or PhD in computer science, statistics, or a related field. Large tech and research employers file H-1B petitions regularly for this title, making it one of the more sponsorship-accessible roles in data and machine learning.
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We are seeking an Applied Scientist to join Compass. In this role, you will own the interface between contact-rich manipulation and the Compass safety software in unstructured environments. You will design learning-based and model-based approaches to contact-rich manipulation when the environment changes unexpectedly. You will collaborate with perception, planning, and controls teams to close the loop from object detection through grasp execution, and you will deploy your algorithms on physical hardware across multiple manipulator platforms. This is an opportunity to define how Amazon's robots safely interact with the physical world: picking, placing, and handling the enormous diversity of objects that flow through our network.
Key job responsibilities
- Develop and deploy manipulation algorithms for contact-rich tasks and placement across diverse object geometries and material properties
- Design force-controlled manipulation strategies that operate safely within Amazon Compass safety constraints
- Build reactive manipulation policies that detect and recover from failures (slips, missed grasps, unexpected contacts) in real time
- Develop learning-based manipulation policies using RL, imitation learning, or hybrid approaches, and transfer them from simulation to physical hardware
- Define and maintain the interface contract between manipulation algorithms and the Compass safety layer, ensuring that grasp and motion plans respect safety bounds without unnecessary conservatism
- Collaborate with perception teams to leverage object pose estimation, tactile sensing, and contact detection for closed-loop manipulation
- Design simulation environments and training curricula for manipulation policy learning, including realistic contact physics and object diversity
- Evaluate manipulation performance through systematic hardware experiments, measuring grasp success rates, cycle times, and safety compliance
- Contribute to scientific publications and internal technical documentation
- Participate in cross-team design reviews and contribute to the broader manipulation and safety architecture
A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- Maternity and Parental Leave Options
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- 401(k) Plan
If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!
About the team
Work with the inventors of control barrier functions on a novel, universal approach to safe autonomy: one that scales across mobile robots, manipulators, mobile manipulators, and future robot platforms with dynamic stability. You'll push the boundary of safe performance by integrating safety with motion planning, RL, and foundation models, ensuring that safety is never a blocker to robot performance. Your work will underpin robots operating alongside people at Amazon's unprecedented scale.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience
- Experience developing manipulation algorithms that have been tested on physical robot hardware
- Strong understanding of contact mechanics, force control, and grasp planning fundamentals
- Proficiency in Python and C++ with experience in robotics software development
- Experience with at least one of: reinforcement learning for manipulation, imitation learning, or model-based grasp planning
- Familiarity with physics simulators for contact-rich tasks (e.g., Isaac Gym/Sim, MuJoCo, Drake)
- Publication record at relevant venues (e.g., ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL, RA-L)
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in professional software development
- Knowledge of safety-critical control (control barrier functions, constrained optimization) as it applies to manipulation
- Experience with dexterous or multi-fingered manipulation and in-hand object reorientation
- Experience with sim-to-real transfer for contact-rich manipulation tasks
- Experience with compliant/impedance control and variable-stiffness actuation
- Familiarity with foundation models or large-scale pre-training applied to manipulation
- Experience working with multiple manipulator platforms (industrial arms, collaborative robots, custom end-effectors)
- Exposure to functional safety concepts as they relate to human-robot interaction during manipulation
- Strong collaboration skills and experience working in cross-functional robotics teams
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.
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.
LOCATION
USA, CA, PASADENA - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually
DESCRIPTION
We are seeking an Applied Scientist to join Compass. In this role, you will own the interface between contact-rich manipulation and the Compass safety software in unstructured environments. You will design learning-based and model-based approaches to contact-rich manipulation when the environment changes unexpectedly. You will collaborate with perception, planning, and controls teams to close the loop from object detection through grasp execution, and you will deploy your algorithms on physical hardware across multiple manipulator platforms. This is an opportunity to define how Amazon's robots safely interact with the physical world: picking, placing, and handling the enormous diversity of objects that flow through our network.
Key job responsibilities
- Develop and deploy manipulation algorithms for contact-rich tasks and placement across diverse object geometries and material properties
- Design force-controlled manipulation strategies that operate safely within Amazon Compass safety constraints
- Build reactive manipulation policies that detect and recover from failures (slips, missed grasps, unexpected contacts) in real time
- Develop learning-based manipulation policies using RL, imitation learning, or hybrid approaches, and transfer them from simulation to physical hardware
- Define and maintain the interface contract between manipulation algorithms and the Compass safety layer, ensuring that grasp and motion plans respect safety bounds without unnecessary conservatism
- Collaborate with perception teams to leverage object pose estimation, tactile sensing, and contact detection for closed-loop manipulation
- Design simulation environments and training curricula for manipulation policy learning, including realistic contact physics and object diversity
- Evaluate manipulation performance through systematic hardware experiments, measuring grasp success rates, cycle times, and safety compliance
- Contribute to scientific publications and internal technical documentation
- Participate in cross-team design reviews and contribute to the broader manipulation and safety architecture
A day in the life
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- Maternity and Parental Leave Options
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- 401(k) Plan
If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!
About the team
Work with the inventors of control barrier functions on a novel, universal approach to safe autonomy: one that scales across mobile robots, manipulators, mobile manipulators, and future robot platforms with dynamic stability. You'll push the boundary of safe performance by integrating safety with motion planning, RL, and foundation models, ensuring that safety is never a blocker to robot performance. Your work will underpin robots operating alongside people at Amazon's unprecedented scale.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of CS, CE, ML or related field experience
- Experience developing manipulation algorithms that have been tested on physical robot hardware
- Strong understanding of contact mechanics, force control, and grasp planning fundamentals
- Proficiency in Python and C++ with experience in robotics software development
- Experience with at least one of: reinforcement learning for manipulation, imitation learning, or model-based grasp planning
- Familiarity with physics simulators for contact-rich tasks (e.g., Isaac Gym/Sim, MuJoCo, Drake)
- Publication record at relevant venues (e.g., ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL, RA-L)
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in professional software development
- Knowledge of safety-critical control (control barrier functions, constrained optimization) as it applies to manipulation
- Experience with dexterous or multi-fingered manipulation and in-hand object reorientation
- Experience with sim-to-real transfer for contact-rich manipulation tasks
- Experience with compliant/impedance control and variable-stiffness actuation
- Familiarity with foundation models or large-scale pre-training applied to manipulation
- Experience working with multiple manipulator platforms (industrial arms, collaborative robots, custom end-effectors)
- Exposure to functional safety concepts as they relate to human-robot interaction during manipulation
- Strong collaboration skills and experience working in cross-functional robotics teams
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.
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.
LOCATION
USA, CA, PASADENA - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually
See all 369+ H-1B Visa Applied Scientist Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new H-1B Visa Applied Scientist Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding H-1B Visa Sponsorship as an Applied Scientist
Align your degree to the SOC code
USCIS evaluates specialty occupation by matching your degree field to the role's SOC code. Applied Scientist roles often file under 15-2051 (Data Scientists) or 15-1221 (Computer and Information Research Scientists), so confirm your transcript language maps directly to whichever code your offer letter uses.
Check LCA filings before applying
Use Migrate Mate to filter Applied Scientist roles by employers with active H-1B LCA filing history. This surfaces companies that have already cleared DOL prevailing-wage certification for this title, cutting out employers who've never navigated the process.
Verify prevailing wage before negotiating
Run your target job's SOC code and work location through the OFLC Wage Search before your offer negotiation. Your employer's LCA must certify a wage at or above the DOL prevailing wage, so knowing the Level I through Level IV thresholds gives you a concrete floor to reference.
Request a cap-exempt employer when possible
Universities, nonprofit research organizations, and government research entities can file H-1B petitions outside the annual cap and lottery. Applied Scientist roles at national labs or research hospitals are often cap-exempt, which means you can start work on approval rather than waiting for an October 1 start date.
Prepare a strong body-of-work portfolio early
USCIS officers occasionally issue RFEs on Applied Scientist petitions questioning whether the role genuinely requires a specific degree. Published papers, patents, or documented model deployments tied to your academic specialty strengthen the specialty occupation argument before an RFE ever arrives.
Clarify filing responsibility before signing
Confirm in writing whether your employer uses in-house legal counsel or an outside immigration firm for H-1B filings, and ask who bears the I-129 filing fee. Employers are prohibited from passing certain USCIS fees to H-1B workers, so get the fee structure documented before your start date.
H-1B Visa Applied Scientist: Frequently Asked Questions
Does an Applied Scientist role qualify as a specialty occupation for H-1B purposes?
Yes. Applied Scientist positions typically require at least a bachelor's degree, and most employers require a master's or PhD in computer science, statistics, mathematics, or a closely related field. USCIS evaluates the specific degree requirement stated in the job description, so the offer letter and job duties need to clearly tie the role to a particular academic discipline rather than accepting any bachelor's degree.
Which employers sponsor H-1B visas for Applied Scientist roles?
Technology companies, cloud platform providers, financial services firms, and research-focused healthcare organizations are among the most active H-1B sponsors for Applied Scientist titles. You can search Migrate Mate to filter Applied Scientist openings by employers with verified H-1B LCA filing history, so you're targeting companies that have already demonstrated they sponsor this specific role type.
How does the H-1B lottery affect my timeline as an Applied Scientist?
If your target employer is cap-subject, USCIS opens H-1B registration in March and selects registrations by lottery. Selected petitions can begin October 1 of that fiscal year. Cap-exempt employers, including universities and qualifying nonprofit research organizations, can file at any time, which is worth factoring in when you're evaluating Applied Scientist opportunities.
What SOC code is typically used for Applied Scientist H-1B filings?
Most Applied Scientist petitions file under 15-2051 (Data Scientists) or 15-1221 (Computer and Information Research Scientists), depending on whether the role is primarily modeling and analysis or foundational research. The SOC code determines the DOL prevailing wage level your employer must certify on the LCA, so it directly affects your minimum compensation floor. You can cross-reference the O*NET profile for each code to see which best matches your actual duties.
Can I transfer my H-1B to a new Applied Scientist role at a different employer?
Yes. H-1B portability under AC21 lets you change employers once your petition has been pending for at least 180 days and you're moving to a same or similar occupational classification. Your new employer files an H-1B transfer petition, and you can start work as soon as USCIS receives it, without waiting for approval. Confirm with your new employer that the transfer petition will be filed before you leave your current role.