Language Engineer II, Amazon Search

Industry: Machine Learning Science

Company: Amazon

Amazon is among the top 10 most-visited website worldwide. Amazon’s search experience is central to how hundreds of millions of customers shop using billions of queries to find products for sale. The scale and impact of Amazon Search is huge.

Within the Amazon Search organization, the MIDAS (Metrics, Insights, Data Annotation for Search) team delivers high quality labeled data at scale in order to improve the search experience for shopping on Amazon through AI model training and evaluation as well as to produce metrics that measure our customer experiences. We focus on agility, linguistic expertise, high standards for data integrity, enabling self-service, and frugality of resources in order to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations. We collaborate closely with several machine learning (ML) applied science, engineering, and product teams that develop and test ML models to improve the quality of semantic matching, ranking, computer vision, image processing, and augmented reality.

The Language Engineer role in the MIDAS team owns the creation of the data annotation workflow, writing intuitive and labeler-friendly annotation guidelines, data wrangling and analysis, specifications for labeling UI templates, and reporting of labeled data quality metrics to deliver on internal customers’ requirements and achieve the desired Amazon customer outcomes. In order to achieve high rates of accuracy and consistency in labeled data outputs, Language Engineers apply linguistic (i.e., semantics, syntax, pragmatics) and scripting expertise to overcome natural language processing and language understanding challenges.

Key job responsibilities

* Design and develop data annotation guidelines and workflows.

* Manage and process large amounts of structured and unstructured data.

* Adopt and design quality control metrics and methodology to evaluate the quality of data annotation.

* Maximize productivity, process efficiency and quality through streamlined workflows, process standardization, documentation, audits and investigations on a periodic basis.

* Handle annotation & data investigation requests from multiple stakeholders with high efficiency and quality in a fast-paced environment.

* Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and product managers in defining metrics, guidelines, and workflows.

* Initiate and contribute towards improvement projects, present solution proposals, and implement them.

* Establish processes and mechanisms to onboard and train junior data associates on an ongoing basis.

* Handle work prioritization and deliver based on business priorities.

* Be flexible in changes to conventions deployed in response to customers’ requests and change workflows accordingly.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

* Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing (NLP), or other related field.

* Relevant work experience of 5+ years.

* Proficient in Python.

* Knowledge of Regex, SQL, MS Excel, Git.

* Ability to navigate a Unix terminal and use common command line tools.

* Familiarity with annotation tools and workflows.

* Excellent communication and strong organizational skills with a keen eye for details.

* Comfortable working in a fast-paced, collaborative, and dynamic work environment.

* Willingness to support several projects at one time and to accept reprioritization as necessary.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

* Master’s Degree or higher in Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing (NLP), or other related field.

* Proficient in French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, or Japanese.

* Experience in data science and quantitative research.

* Experience with language annotation and other forms of data markup.

* Hands-on experience with machine learning and deep learning techniques in the fields of NLP and search.

* Experience with AWS services (S3, Sagemaker, ML language services, etc.).

* Knowledge of user experience concepts and methods.

* Familiarity with online retail (e-commerce).

Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, 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.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $67,700/year in our lowest geographic market up to $151,400/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits. This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.