What skills are required to get hired as a data scientist at Amazon?

Amazon is the world's largest and leading online retailing company. The company's business is continuously growing as it fulfils its customers' demands strategically and effectively as well. Amazon's marketing strategy is something that can help a business – from small to large. Amazon is referred to as one of the top companies for data scientists, offering both handsome salaries and exciting career opportunities. Read on to learn how to get onboard as a data scientist at Amazon.

The demand for data scientists is growing unprecedently across the world. Major big firms seek to hire data science professionals, offering huge salaries. Amazon has demonstrated really high standards when it comes to hiring data scientists. The role of a data scientist at Amazon relies on the specific team. These teams include AWS, the forecasting team in the Supply Chain Optimization Technologies (SCOT), Alexa, the NASCO Team, Middle Mile Planning Research and Optimization Science (mmPROS) team, and more.

Interview Process: Data Scientist at Amazon

The interview process for a data scientist at Amazon is similar to other tech companies. The Amazon interview process entails both technical and behavioral screening through an initial phone interview followed by a technical phone screen and an in-person interview in the end.

Through the technical interview, the company analyses a candidate's proficiency with programming languages such as Python, Java, and SQL. It ensures that a candidate has a strong understanding of statistics, mathematics, data mining and data extraction, and the complete data pipeline. It also checks a candidate's familiarity with machine learning and data visualization tools.

Through behavioral screening, the company wants to get to know a candidate; analyse their communication skills; gauge their approaches to problem-solving, and see examples of the 14 leadership principles in action.

Skills Required to Get Hired as a Data Scientist at Amazon

To get a job as Data Scientist at Amazon, a candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Data Analysis, Statistics, etc. His/her maths skills will count as much as their programming skills. Aspirants must have:

• Master's degree in Statistics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Computational Biology, Economics, or equivalent practical experience.

• Experience in statistical software packages and functional programming languages such as R, Stata, MATLAB, Python, SQL, C++, or Java.

• Experience in designing and implementing ML algorithms customized to specific business needs and tested on large data set.

• Experience in data mining and using databases in a business environment with large-scale, complex datasets.

• Experience in an analytical role involving machine learning techniques, data extraction, analysis, and communication.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Different Data Science Roles at Amazon

Data scientists at Amazon perform different functions depending on their roles and the team they have joined. Some of the most in-demand roles are:

Data Analyst: The role focuses on analysing data, identifying areas to improve, defining metrics to measure and monitor programs and building end-to-end reporting solutions. As a data analyst, candidates will work closely with internal business teams to excerpt information from the company's existing systems to create a new analysis, and expose data from its group to wider teams in intuitive ways.

Applied Scientist: The role revolves around building machine learning models and utilising data analysis to deliver scalable solutions to business problems. Candidates for this role will require to run A/B experiments, gather data, and perform statistical analysis. They also need to establish scalable, efficient, automated processes for large-scale data analysis, machine-learning model development, model validation and serving.

Machine Learning Research Scientist: This role focuses mainly on cutting-edge researches in areas like deep learning, NLP, video recommendations, streaming data analysis, social networks, etc. Generally, the position spans from PhDs up to internationally renowned researchers.

Data Engineer: This is the team that built tools or products that are used inside and outside the company. Think AWS or Alexa. As a Data Engineer in Amazon Business Data Analytics and Insights (ABDAI) team, a candidate will be working in one of the world's largest cloud-based data lakes. He/she must have skills in the architecture of data warehouse solutions for the Enterprise using multiple platforms (EMR, RDBMS, Columnar, Cloud). The role significantly overlaps with ML Engineer positions.

Earning Level at Amazon

The data scientist salary at Amazon can be varied based on experience level, skill level, education, and location. The average total compensation can also greatly vary depending on whether someone qualifies for annual bonuses or stock grants. Amazon uses a leveling system to determine compensation and promotions. According to Glassdoor, an average salary of a Data Scientist at Amazon is INR 13,79,556.

Nonetheless, data science is the future. Get yourself prepared and land a job as a data scientist at Amazon.