In two Amazon units, 'builder' replaces traditional job titles

During Amazon’s annual review season now underway, ⁠hundreds of ⁠employees will see their job titles stripped.

The company is not punishing underperformers. Rather, in a test, it is tossing out traditional titles for white-collar workers in charge of product at its Ring and Blink home security units.

Starting next month, ‌they will be known simply as “builders” and their bosses as “builder leads."

The ‌man ‌overseeing the switch, currently titled chief product officer, laid ‌out the rationale in an internal memo this month, which ⁠Reuters viewed.

“We’re committed to making this an organization of the future, and that means being transparent and open to change,” Jason Mitura wrote in the email, confirmed by Amazon.

“We’re moving to a single job family: Builder,” he wrote.

“As Builders, we define ​and reward success through one question: what is the scope and magnitude of the customer value you create?” Ring and Blink make internet-connected cameras ⁠and doorbells for home monitoring.

Builder has become a catch-all term in Silicon Valley for workers who can single-handedly solve challenges, typically using AI, on projects that once required teams of engineers and project managers. 

Meta has been testing its own version, bestowing the title “AI builder” on certain job functions, Reuters reported this month. Payments firm Block has started calling some managers "player-coach."

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has embarked on a broader project to reduce corporate bureaucracy, including an internal hotline for calling out excessive ​red tape.

Mitura explained that the ⁠title change means “anyone can propose a change to our structure” and that processes that do not work will be ​rolled back. 

But with the elimination of hard-won titles such as “senior” and “lead,” workers in the unit ‌told Reuters they ⁠were concerned the path toward promotions and pay raises may become more difficult. Amazon has strict pay bands and equity grants based on performance and employee levels.

Others, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because ‌they were not authorised to discuss internal matters, said they feared similar title changes could be rolled out companywide.

An Amazon spokesperson said workers’ fears were unfounded. “Compensation, growth, and promotion paths remain unchanged,” she said.

The title change will “help foster a culture of ​experimentation and deliver for customers more efficiently.”

Online shoe retailer Zappos, which Amazon bought for nearly US$1 billion in 2009, tried for several years to eliminate its own hierarchical structure as part of a system it called “holacracy." The ‌effort was abandoned ⁠several years ago.

In 2018, Amazon ​bought Ring for around US$1 billion and Blink for about US$90 million.

Mitura himself will see his job title change too, perhaps also ​to “builder lead,” said the spokesperson.