Employees in 2 Amazon units to lose official job titles and to be called ‘builders’

During Amazon’s annual review season now under ‌way, hundreds of employees will see their job titles stripped, Reuters writes.

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

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

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.

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?”