Getty Images; Mike Blake/Reuters

Amazon has big shoes to fill after a series of high-profile executive departures that took place over the past year.

The changes are remarkable — and unprecedented in Amazon's 27-year history — given the company is known for seeing little turnover among its most senior ranks. 

It's not just CEO Jeff Bezos who's moving on to a new position. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy will have to find his replacement when he takes over Bezos's role later this year. Jeff Blackburn, a long time Bezos confidant, announced his resignation this week, leaving another void in the leadership team. Dave Clark, who replaced Jeff Wilke as Amazon's retail CEO this year, hasn't yet announced his successor for SVP of worldwide operations.

Insider put together a list of 12 senior executive positions that are currently empty at Amazon. Their jobs span cloud computing, robotics, finance, and workplace diversity. Some of them are expected to be filled soon, while others are no longer open or the company has no intention to fill them, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

These executive changes and vacancies touch nearly every major business division at Amazon. The company's legal, human resources, and press and public policy offices have either been left largely untouched or Insider was unable to confirm any recent turnover at the executive level.

These are the 12 executive positions Amazon may decide to fill in the coming months:

Todd Williamson/Getty Images for Amazon Studio

With Jassy's promotion, Amazon needs a new CEO for its AWS cloud unit. It's one of the most important positions at Amazon, given that AWS accounts for a growing part of the company's revenue and more than half of its profits. A handful of internal and external candidates are rumored to be in the running for the job.

Blackburn's departure this week means there's no longer an SVP of business and corporate development, a position that oversaw Amazon's video streaming, advertising, and mergers and acquisition teams, among others. Amazon appears to have been prepping for this moment after Blackburn took a leave of absence last year, as it had promoted some of his top lieutenants to Bezos's direct reports, as Insider previously reported. 

In fact, Amazon's spokesperson told Insider the company won't be filling this position, which means the respective leaders for its video streaming, advertising, and M&A units will likely continue to report straight to the CEO.

AWS also needs a new finance chief, after losing two executives in the role this past year. Sean Boyle, who was AWS CFO for nearly five years, left in early 2020. His replacement, Luis Visoso, also moved on just seven months into his job, taking the top finance job at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks in June.

REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

Even before Dave Clark's promotion to CEO of worldwide consumer this year, he was already overseeing the bulk of Amazon's retail business in his role as SVP of worldwide operations. His responsibilities in that role included Amazon's massive delivery and warehouse network, as well as the Prime membership and marketing teams. It's unclear whether Amazon will promote someone to this position or if it will split the job with a number of other executives.

Steve Kessel, former SVP of physical stores, was one of the most powerful executives at Amazon before his abrupt departure last year. This position managed both the Whole Foods grocery chain and Amazon's growing footprint of brick-and-mortar businesses, including bookstores, grocery stores, and the cashierless Go stores.

But Amazon's spokesperson told Insider the company has no plans to fill this position. It already has "a strong bench of existing leaders," including VP of F3 (fresh, food, fast) Stephanie Landry and VP of physical stores Dilip Kumar, who both report to Clark, the spokesperson said.

Amazon lost Jae Park, its head of design for the devices team, last year. In his position, Park reported to SVP of devices Dave Limp and oversaw the user experience of Amazon's array of personal devices, such as the Echo voice assistant and Kindle e-reader. Park is now at Google.

Jon Witham, a 22-year company veteran, is expected to retire later this year, leaving the VP of hardlines position he has held for the last 14 years empty. The hardlines category is the largest revenue generator for Amazon's retail business and includes the most frequently shopped-for products like electronics, toys, and furniture. 

Amazon's spokesperson told Insider there will not be a direct replacement for Witham's role once he retires. His division may continue to report to Doug Herrington, who leads all of marketplace, or be divided among other executives.

Amazon

The VP of robotics position is a key part of Amazon's logistics arm, overseeing the automation technology used across its warehouse and delivery network, including the Kiva robots. Brad Porter, who had been VP of robotics since 2017, left last year for a hot startup called Scale AI, in part due to his compensation, as Insider previously reported.

Maria Renz spent over 20 years at Amazon in various roles, including Bezos's "shadow" advisor position. Most recently, she was Amazon's VP of delivery experience, a growing, important part of the business as Amazon aims to expand one-day delivery to its Prime members. Renz left last year to become executive VP at wealth management firm SoFi.

Greg Hart, who spent over 23 years at Amazon, was the VP of worldwide video before he took the CTO position at Compass last year. At Amazon, Hart had led its global Prime Video service, including the business and engineering aspects, and was part of the "D-team," Amazon's senior digital leadership team, according to his Linkedin profile.

Amazon's spokesperson told Insider that the company has no plans to fill this position, as Hart's direct reports have moved under Mike Hopkins, SVP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios.

Marc Whitten, who was Amazon's VP of entertainment devices and services for nearly five years, resigned this month to join game development company Unity Technologies. This role is responsible for the business, product, and engineering of the Fire TV, Fire Tablet, and Kindle. It's also in charge of Amazon's game streaming service Luna, which could grow in importance under incoming CEO Jassy. Whitten was previously the chief product officer of Sonos. Amazon's spokesperson said this position is no longer open. 

Amazon's head of global diversity, equity, and inclusion position is also expected to become more important this year; Jassy has said workplace diversity is a top priority of his. Elizabeth Nieto, who had held the position for the last two years, unexpectedly announced her resignation last month for a new job at Spotify, as Geekwire first reported.

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See Also:

• Amazon opens on-site COVID-19 testing for Lab126 hardware engineers after employees file internal safety complaints
• Sequoia's Michael Moritz and Kleiner's John Doerr are co-leading an investment for the first time since helping to fund Google in 1999
• Jeff Blackburn, one of Jeff Bezos' top advisors, is leaving Amazon

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