Job Description

DESCRIPTION

At the intersection of AI and natural language understanding, voice-assistant technology is one of the most exciting industries to work in today. Creating advanced personal assistants means understanding how to address the many ways a user can ask a single question and appropriately inferring intent from metadata such as a customer's location. Deploying this technology worldwide only adds to these challenges.

That’s where you come in. As a Language Enablement Knowledge Engineer, you will work in close collaboration with Software Development Engineers, Global and International Knowledge Engineers to manage and expand Alexa’s capabilities to understand and answer questions from more users around the world. You will be responsible for leading and implementing projects to improve Alexa’s performance in an international market, whether by finding gaps across languages, coordinating projects that require international efforts, or by assisting the global enablement of new features. Your proficiency in French, Spanish or Portuguese will be critical in assisting and driving the development of the features for this language.

The Language Enablement Knowledge Engineer role is unique in that a given day involves work typical of both individual contributors and product managers. You will work in a culturally sensitive international team. You will have the opportunity to drive knowledge engineering projects from end to end, embed with other teams to optimize their work for your area of responsibility, and stay abreast of global developments. Language Enablement KEs have a high degree of flexibility in how they deliver customer impact; no two days in our sunny Santa Barbara office are ever the same.

In this role, you will:
· Expand and maintain Alexa’s ability to understand and answer questions for International customers, with a focus on French, Spanish or Portuguese language
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· Develop and manage complex data pipelines
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· Leverage your cultural knowledge to innovate on behalf of your customers
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· Partner with software developers, product managers, other knowledge engineering teams, and business leaders to enhance Alexa’s key functions worldwide
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· Closely monitor specific KPIs, drive improvements in query success.
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· Constantly solicit input from users and colleagues to improve our products
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· Help drive the development of the world’s smartest personal assistant
Amazon is an Equal Opportunity-Affirmative Action Employer – Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

· Bachelor's degree, or equivalent, in a technical, science, or analytical field
· French, Spanish or Portuguese proficiency
· Experience working on simultaneous projects with cross-functional teams

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

· Strong problem solvers. The ability to think critically is fundamental to the Knowledge Engineer role. We're looking for applicants who demonstrate a quantitative, systematic approach to solving problems.
· A varied background. In our Santa Barbara community, your coworkers will range from those who graduated with a PhD in neuroscience to those who graduated with a B.A. in Literature. There are people who have started (and sold) their own companies, and people who have transferred in from other Amazon departments. Your degree is less important than the skills you demonstrate: prove to us this is a field you should be in.
· Curiosity. We have found the desire to learn more about the world is an important factor in someone's success at Amazon. When we hire, we look for individuals that strive to understand a problem before they approach it and are genuinely curious about how things work - whether it relates to their role or not.
· Excellent communication and team skills. The Language Enablement KE role is heavily based on building relationships with other teams to expand the product. We are looking for those who are comfortable communicating in a fast-paced development environment.

As well as:
· Ability to solve complex problems with analytical thinking
· Strong logical and conceptual thought processes
· Bias to action and ambitious personality
· Ability to work autonomously with minimal supervision
· Technical interest (e.g. MySQL, HTML, Javascript, ETL, Excel)
Our Santa Barbara office is unique within Amazon; many of our current employees came directly from a small tech company. We balance the drive of a scrappy start-up with the immense resources of a cloud computing giant, and are looking for people with similar ambition. Apply today, or reach out to one of our employees on LinkedIn to learn more about being a KE.

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//.