Few companies on earth move at Amazon's scale and speed, and few searches carry the weight of the ones you'll own here. Amazon is constantly reinventing itself, and the leaders who steer that reinvention don't come from a résumé database; they have to be found, understood, and won. That's where you come in.
We're looking for a Principal Executive Recruiter to help the business scale by identifying and landing exceptional leaders across a broad portfolio of executive roles -- both technical and non-technical. You'll own Director- and Vice President-level searches end to end, partnering directly with Amazon's most senior executives to shape the teams that will define the next decade of the business. There is no greater reward in search than watching a leader you placed go on to have a significant, lasting impact -- and here, that impact is felt by hundreds of millions of customers.
Key job responsibilities
The Principal Executive Recruiter owns Amazon's most complex, confidential, and consequential Director- and Vice President-level searches across a diverse portfolio of technical and non-technical roles. This leader operates as a strategic advisor to senior executives, a recognized authority on the external talent market, and a force multiplier who raises the bar for how Amazon identifies and attracts leadership talent. Responsibilities include:
* Serving as a trusted talent advisor to VP and SVP hiring leaders — shaping role definition, influencing org design and leadership bar, and guiding go/no-go and selection decisions on the highest-stakes searches.
* Setting the search strategy and market point of view for ambiguous, first-of-their-kind, or business-critical mandates where no clear talent pool exists.
* Developing deep, differentiated market intelligence on industries, competitors, and leadership talent — and translating it into insights that shape Amazon's hiring and org strategy.
* Building and sustaining long-term relationships with senior leaders in the external market, creating durable talent networks that Amazon can draw on over time.
* Personally engaging, assessing, and winning the most senior and hardest-to-reach candidates, representing Amazon credibly at the executive level.
* Raising the bar on the craft of executive search — introducing new approaches, assessment frameworks, and mechanisms that improve quality, speed, and judgment across the recruiting team.
* Mentoring and elevating other recruiters, and acting as an escalation point and thought leader on complex searches, offers, and negotiations.
* Partnering with executive leadership as a true strategic partner — providing candid counsel on talent, market realities, and the tradeoffs behind critical hiring decisions.
About the team
You will join Amazon's Executive Recruiting organization — a tight-knit team of seasoned search professionals who operate as trusted advisors to the company's most senior leaders. We function like a best-in-class retained search firm, but with the unique advantage of being on the inside: we know the business deeply, we live the Leadership Principles, and we are personally invested in the long-term success of every leader we hire.
