Principal Talent Management, Amazon Talent & Compensation

The Principal, Product Manager in Talent Management is a senior individual contributor who designs, leads, and scales enterprise-wide talent management strategies and programs. This role operates with significant autonomy in highly ambiguous environments, driving talent management initiatives across multiple business units or geographies. The Principal serves as a recognized subject-matter expert and trusted advisor to senior leaders (Director and VP level), shaping the talent agenda and influencing long-term workforce strategy.

Come Build How Amazon Grows Its Best People

Amazon doesn't just hire great talent — we obsess over how to develop, retain, and grow it. Our Talent Management team builds the programs, systems, and strategies that shape the employee experience for over 1.5 million people worldwide. This is where people science meets product thinking at a scale no other company can match.

We're looking for a Principal who thinks like a product leader and operates like a program owner. Someone who can take a complex, cross-functional challenge — spanning product, UX, engineering, and analytics — and turn it into a launched experience with clear strategy, measurable outcomes, and executive-level visibility. You'll own end-to-end product management and design for talent programs, writing docs, orchestrating cross-functional teams, and presenting to PXT leadership monthly. You won't inherit a playbook. You'll write one.

Key job responsibilities
• Enterprise Talent Strategy: Design and own the end-to-end talent management strategy for the enterprise, including talent evaluation, high-potential identification and retention, performance management, and AI-enhanced talent experiences.

• Product Ownership & Delivery: Own the product vision, roadmap, and delivery for talent management programs. Write strategy docs, engage UX/Design/Analytics/Engineering partners, and drive cross-functional teams to ship at scale — without direct authority over those teams.

• Executive Communication: Present product launches and program updates to PXT LT and executives monthly. Translate complex technical and programmatic work into crisp narratives for senior leadership.

• Organizational Health & Insights: Leverage data and analytics to diagnose organizational health trends, identify talent risks, and develop proactive interventions. Translate complex talent data into actionable insights for senior leadership.

• Talent Evaluation & Calibration: Design talent evaluation and calibration processes, ensuring consistency, fairness, and alignment with role guidelines and leadership principles.

• Growth & Development: Architect and implement scalable growth & development programs that accelerate the growth of high-value talent and address capability gaps across the organization.

• AI Transformation: Drive experimentation and adoption of AI-powered talent experiences, partnering closely with engineering and technical teams to bring innovation from concept to production.

• Mechanisms & Scalability: Create scalable mechanisms, tools, and frameworks that raise the bar on talent management practices and can be adopted broadly across the company.

A day in the life
You'll own the full lifecycle of products and programs that have considerable impact across multiple Amazon organizations. That means defining the mission and vision, writing strategy documents, aligning with senior leaders, building go-to-market and change management plans, and driving execution across UX, Design, Analytics, and Program Management teams that don't report to you.

You'll develop KPI frameworks that give leadership real visibility into performance, and you'll use data to tell the story of what's working and where to push harder.

You'll be the connective tissue between product, design, technical, and business teams — identifying gaps before they become failures, sourcing and coordinating resources across organizations, and proactively mitigating risks that others haven't spotted yet. When a problem is ambiguous, you'll define it. When a path forward isn't clear, you'll build one.

About the team
The Compensation & Talent team is a newly formed organization within PXT that brings together talent evaluation, performance management, and compensation under one leader. Our mission is to accelerate and advance how Amazon identifies and rewards its people — uniting the full cycle of talent assessment and compensation into a streamlined, end-to-end experience. We own compensation product, tech, and program management, as well as talent management design, program, and policy work.

You'll operate at the intersection of people strategy and technology, working on initiatives that directly influence how Amazon identifies, develops, and retains talent at unprecedented scale. The stakeholders are senior, the problems are genuinely hard, and the work ships to an audience of hundreds of thousands.

Basic Qualifications

- 8+ years of product or program management, product marketing, business development or technology experience
- Bachelor's degree
- Experience with feature delivery and tradeoffs of a product
- Experience with end to end product delivery
- Experience owning/driving roadmap strategy and definition
- Experience as a product manager or owner
- 10+ years of progressive experience in talent management, organizational development, HR business partnership, or a related field
- Demonstrates experience designing and implementing enterprise-wide talent management programs (e.g., talent evaluation, performance management, growth & development)
- Experience advising and influencing senior leaders (Director level and above) on talent strategy and organizational health
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to leverage data and voice of the customer to drive talent decisions and measure program effectiveness

Preferred Qualifications

- Master's degree or advanced certification in a relevant discipline (e.g., MBA, M.S. in I/O Psychology, SHRM-SCP, or equivalent)
- Experience with performance management systems, competency frameworks, and assessment methodologies
- Demonstrated ability to manage through influence rather than authority, building consensus across diverse stakeholder groups

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, VA, Arlington - 161,900.00 - 219,000.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 161,900.00 - 219,000.00 USD annually