Startups Planning Lead, North America Startups

AWS is seeking a Startups Sales Planning Lead to join the Startups Sales Planning team. This position will be responsible for managing existing AWS Global Sales (AGS) planning processes and mechanisms, including annual planning, in-year planning, headcount planning, and goals planning that enable the Startups business’ priorities and operational agility. You will serve as a trusted advisor to Startups Sales leadership, partnering closely to translate business strategy into executable planning frameworks. You will run the end-to-end planning cycle, from territory design and quota setting to capacity modeling and resource allocation. You will establish and manage critical planning cadences that ensure alignment between strategic priorities and operational execution.

The role requires driving continuous improvement of planning systems and tools to increase efficiency and accuracy. You will identify opportunities to streamline processes, eliminate bottlenecks, and enhance the planning experience for field teams. This includes managing planning-related communications, ensuring stakeholders have timely access to accurate information and clear guidance throughout planning cycles. Additionally, you will lead change management initiatives as new planning methodologies and tools are introduced, ensuring smooth adoption and sustained engagement across the organization.

The right candidate has a strong record of delivering results timely and effectively, with experience managing complex, cross-functional programs in large, multi-national organizations, preferably in technology. The candidate will be a self-starter with a bias towards independent problem solving, a passion for identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, and the foresight to anticipate business needs, make trade-offs, and balance business dynamics despite constraints. The successful candidate must be able to roll up their sleeves and work directly with models and large data sets, demonstrating passion for the work, attention to detail, and excellent problem-solving abilities. Strong communication and customer-relationship skills, analytical insights, and demonstrated ability to influence without explicit authority are essential. Active collaboration with leadership across AWS Sales, Finance, Recruiting, Compensation, and other Operations teams will be crucial to effective execution. You will drive towards simple, scalable solutions to difficult problems, demonstrate excellent project management skills, and communicate complex analytical results clearly and effectively, both in writing and verbally.

Key job responsibilities
- Run end-to-end planning cycles for specific planning workstreams
- Serve as trusted advisor to Startups Sales and Operations leadership, translating business strategy into executable planning frameworks
- Establish and manage critical planning cadences that ensure alignment between strategic priorities and operational execution across the organization
- Drive complex, cross-functional initiatives to increase scale and automation of AGS planning processes, streamline processes, eliminate bottlenecks, and enhance planning experience for field teams


About the team
About AWS
Diverse Experiences
AWS values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Mentorship & Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

AWS Sales, Marketing, and Global Services (SMGS) is responsible for driving revenue, adoption, and growth from the largest and fastest growing small- and mid-market accounts to enterprise-level customers including public sector. The AWS Global Support team interacts with leading companies and believes that world-class support is critical to customer success. AWS Support also partners with a global list of customers that are building mission-critical applications on top of AWS services. - Bachelor's degree or equivalent
- Experience in business-process design or equivalent
- Experience in influencing senior leadership through data driven insights
- Experience in sales planning operations including territory design, quota setting, capacity modeling, and resource allocation in high-growth, complex environments - Experience working within a high-growth, technology company
- Strong understanding of Amazon's operational model and mechanisms

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

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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, CA, San Francisco - 147,300.00 - 199,300.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 133,900.00 - 181,200.00 USD annually