Sr. Program Manager, Upstream Defect Elimination (UDE)

Sr. Program Manager, Upstream Defect Elimination (UDE)

DESCRIPTION
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Today, we operate retail websites in nine countries, offering millions of products in more than 40 categories worldwide, and we still like to work hard, have fun and make history!

Amazon Vendor Services (AVS), in partnership with Retail Business Services (RBS), offers a premium B2B consulting program to help leading vendors maximize their success on the Amazon marketplace. The Vendor Consultant Program (VCP) provides hands-on strategic guidance, operational support, and performance optimization for key vendor partners. As part of this service, experienced consultants work directly with vendors to streamline logistics, enhance product content, optimize advertising, and drive greater sales growth on the Amazon platform. Vendors enrolled in the VCP benefit from dedicated account management, data-driven recommendations, and customized consulting to navigate the complexities of the vendor-Amazon relationship. This paid program is designed for vendors seeking a competitive edge and deeper integration with Amazon's systems and processes.

Vendor Consultant Program (VCP) is looking for a highly skilled and analytical Sr. Program Manager, to drive Upstream Defect Elimination (UDE) initiatives across our Vendor Consultant Program (VCP) organization, delivering measurable business impact through strategic defect prevention at source.

Key Responsibilities include.
1) Lead high-impact UDE projects in cost optimization and revenue generation by identifying systemic defects, influencing upstream team roadmaps, and driving cross-organizational alignment.
2) Establish comprehensive governance frameworks for UDE programs, including pipeline development, quality controls, and executive reporting mechanisms.
3) Partner with senior leaders (L7-L8) across multiple VP organizations to secure bandwidth and prioritize defect elimination over reactive fixes.
4) Drive headcount optimization goals through strategic UDE implementation, building robust pipelines that exceed targets while maintaining rigorous quality standards.

Candidate Profile:
Core Competencies:
Strategic Vision & Execution - Demonstrates ability to identify opportunities, build comprehensive pipelines, and exceed ambitious targets. Translates complex technical problems into executive-level strategic narratives that secure leadership buy-in across multiple VP organizations.
Cross-Functional Partnership - Proven track record partnering with L7-L8 leaders across multiple VP organizations to influence roadmaps without direct authority. Builds trust through data-driven insights and vendor advocacy, converting bottom-line initiatives to top-line priorities.
Program Governance Excellence - Establishes scalable frameworks including quality controls, standardized methodologies, and executive reporting mechanisms. Maintains rigorous oversight of 30+ concurrent initiatives while driving accountability through structured reviews and clear escalation paths.
Financial Acumen - Quantifies complex business impacts across COI, iGMS, VCtS, and HC savings with Data Science’s & finance validation. Secures pre-approvals and entitlement sign-offs through systematic methodology alignment with RBS Finance and Data Sciences teams.
Technical Problem-Solving - Conducts root cause analysis on systemic defects, designs upstream solutions, and drives end-to-end implementation across legacy systems. Navigates technical complexities while managing engineering dependencies and resource constraints.
Stakeholder Management - Orchestrates workshops with 10+ cross-functional teams, presents strategic documents to retail leaders, and maintains regular engagement with senior stakeholders. Translates technical details into business outcomes for executive audiences.
What makes this candidate exceptional: They combine strategic thinking with execution rigor, influence without authority, and scale solutions from marketplace-specific pilots to worldwide implementations, all while maintaining the highest quality standards and exceeding every measurable goal.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
5+ years of program management experience with demonstrated success managing complex, cross-organizational initiatives spanning multiple VP organizations
Proven ability to influence technical roadmaps and secure alignment from senior leaders (L7-L8) across multiple organizations without direct authority
Strong analytical and financial acumen to quantify business impact across COI, iGMS, VCtS, and HC savings metrics with finance validation
Track record of exceeding ambitious goals through strategic planning, systematic execution, and rigorous quality standards
Demonstrated capability conducting root cause analysis on systemic defects and designing upstream solutions across legacy systems
Experience managing engineering dependencies and navigating technical complexities while balancing resource constraints
Strong stakeholder management skills orchestrating workshops with 10+ cross-functional teams and presenting to L7-L8 retail leaders
Ability to translate technical details into business outcomes and strategic narratives for executive audiences

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience with supply chain operations, vendor management, or retail systems preferred
- Background in defect elimination, process optimization, or operational excellence initiatives highly valued
- Experience with SQL queries
- Project management certificate
- Lean Six Sigma certificate – GB or BB
- Master's degree

Basic Qualifications

- 5+ years of working cross functionally with tech and non-tech teams experience
- 5+ years of program or project management experience
- 5+ years of delivering cross functional projects experience
- Experience using data and metrics to determine and drive improvements

Preferred Qualifications

- 2+ years of driving process improvements experience
- Master's degree, or MBA in business, operations, human resources, adult education, organizational development, instructional design or related field

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Experience Level

Senior Level