Description

Futures Design is the advanced concept design and incubation team within Amazon’s Device and Services Design Group (DDG). We are responsible for exploring and defining think (very) big opportunities globally and locally — so that we can better understand how new products and services might enrich the lives of our customers and so that product teams and leaders can align on where we're going and why we're going there. We focus on a 3–10+ year time frame, with the runway to invent and design category-defining products and transformational customer experiences. Working with Amazon business and technology partners, we use research, design, and prototyping to guide early product development, bring greater clarity to engineering goals, and develop a UX-grounded point of view.

We're looking for a Principal Design Technologist to join the growing DDG Futures Design team. You thrive in ambiguity and paradigm shifts– remaking assumptions of how customers engage, devices operate, and builders create. You apply deep expertise that spans design, technology, and product, grounding state-of-the-art emerging technologies through storytelling and a maker mindset. You learn and adapt technology trends to enduring customer problems through customer empathy, code, and iterative experimentation.

You will wear multiple hats to quickly assimilate customer problems, convert them to hypotheses, and test them using efficient technologies and design methods to build stakeholder buy-in. You’ll help your peers unlock challenging scenarios and mature the design studio’s ability to deliver design at scale across a breadth of devices and interaction modalities. You will work around limitations and push capabilities through your work. Your curiosity will inspire those around you and facilitate team growth, while your hands-on, collaborative nature will build trust with your peers and studio partners.

Key job responsibilities

Leverage your diverse storytelling, design, and technical skill set to craft prototypes, demos, and proof-of-concepts that push the boundaries of what’s possible, designing entirely novel experiences, and add magic to everyday experiences

Utilize and adapt experimental code to design, convey, and prove emerging technology mental models and interactions

Collaborate with design leadership and key stakeholders from concept through delivery

Work with designers, product managers, applied scientists, management, internal business partners and other subject matter experts

Participate in the full lifecycle of product development; including ideation, design, development, implementation and validation

Advance design thinking through your knowledge of platform capabilities and limitations as you support your design team and work with partner engineering teams

Stay at the cutting-edge of design trends and emerging technologies, and leverage these insights to drive innovation

Work quickly with minimal documentation and technical support

We are open to hiring candidates to work out of one of the following locations:

Seattle, WA, USA

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), related field, or equivalent experience

• 10+ years of experience as a Creative Technologist

• A portfolio of work demonstrating experience creating great user-centered design solutions across consumer electronics, emerging technologies, and multi-modal experiences

• Experience learning new technologies and finding ways to apply them to improve our customers’ lives

• Deep understanding and fluent usage across a broad spectrum of technologies including: Python, HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript, XML, JSON, Native mobile development (Android/iOS), web and server programming and Responsive/Adaptive design

Preferred Qualifications

• Passion for building new products in a fast paced, team-oriented environment

• Track record of innovation, initiating and proposing strategic product initiatives, and defining the vision for strategic technical programs

• Strong interest and proficiency in visual, interaction, conversation, and motion design

• Strong interest in advanced applied science research through paper reading and working across Amazon’s builder community

• Experience working on the experiential inputs and outputs of Large Language Models (LLMs), Foundational Models (FMs), and generative AI

• Experience designing 3D spatial interactions for AR/VR or games using tools like Unity, Unreal Engine, etc.

• Experience taking a lead role developing complex software systems that have successfully been delivered to customers

• Experience collaborating with UX, Product, and non-technical partners

• Experience in communicating with users, and other technical teams to collect requirements, describe software product features and technical designs

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. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $146,800/year in our lowest geographic market up to $285,500/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.