Sr. Specialist, Authorization

Position: Sr. Specialist, Work Authorization
Description

Amazon's Work Authorization (WA) team is looking for a senior HR Specialist to support Work Authorization service optimization and product strategy in the Americas (AMER) region. The Work Authorization team mitigates the risks of legal non-compliance, financial penalty, and reputational damage by ensuring all employees hired into Amazon are legally authorized to work - and remain authorized throughout their employment.

This role sits at the intersection of compliance expertise, customer experience, and technology - serving as the domain expert who translates deep operational knowledge of Work Authorization legal requirements, processes, and customer pain points into scalable, tech-enabled solutions. The AMER region includes the United States and the Form I-9 process, Amazon's highest-risk country and experience for Work Authorization compliance, supporting approximately 1 million employees and 1.1 million hires per year.

A core focus of this role is monitoring, interpreting, and operationalizing U.S. immigration policy changes that impact employee work authorization - ensuring Amazon's compliance posture remains current and defensible in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment.

This is not a purely operational role. While the HR Specialist is embedded in service delivery and serves as a trusted compliance expert to internal customers and stakeholders, the role's strategic value lies in its ability to drive process, policy, and technology optimization - contributing to a roadmap that balances immediate operational needs with long-term program durability.

Key job responsibilities

Serve as the Work Authorization Subject Matter Expert for AMER

You will leverage deep expertise in Work Authorization legal requirements, business processes, and regional compliance obligations to ensure that WA processes, systems, and products are continuously developed in alignment with Amazon's compliance requirements. You will surveil for ongoing regulatory changes and business operational shifts - with particular focus on U.S. immigration policy changes affecting employee work authorization - adjusting experiences, processes, and mechanisms to maintain a compliant program and prevent financial penalties, regulatory risk, and law enforcement activity across AMER countries.

Lead Policy Change Management

You will serve as the subject matter expert for U.S. work authorization policy changes that impact the work authorization status of Amazon's employee population, including changes affecting Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and other non-sponsored work authorization categories. You will assess the scope and employee impact of policy changes, develop and execute response strategies, and communicate complex policy information clearly to internal stakeholders and senior leadership.

You will work cross-functionally with Immigration, Legal, and Risk and Compliance to ensure timely and compliant responses to regulatory developments.

Own Business Requirements for Product and Technology

You will serve as a subject matter expert and co-author business requirements for product and technology initiatives that support the Work Authorization service. Drawing on frontline operational knowledge, customer pain points, and compliance requirements, you will support with writing Business Requirement Documents (BRDs) and Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), define business rules for process workflow automation, and provide actionable input to engineering and analytics teams.

You will contribute to the product roadmap by articulating business value, employee experience improvements, and compliance requirements - ensuring technology solutions work backwards from Work Authorization legal requirements and effectively mitigate compliance risk.

Drive Process Improvement and Operational Excellence

You will contribute to and execute against a Work Authorization optimization roadmap, balancing the prioritization of technical and non-technical solutions to drive continuous defect reduction and service efficiency. You will develop and streamline processes to deliver against legal requirements, customer needs, and operational efficiency targets. You will model best practices in your domain and apply operational excellence frameworks to drive high-quality, scalable improvements across the AMER region.

Manage Projects and Roadmap Execution

You will manage a project roadmap and standard work deliverables to anticipate, prioritize, and deliver process and technology change. You will use project management tools like Asana to own and execute against a roadmap, track progress, identify blockers, and make trade-offs between short- and long-term needs. You will own and conduct regular project updates and business reviews with stakeholders, communicating progress, risks, and impacts across a diversity of partners including EOA leaders, Finance, Capacity Planning, and WA Service leadership.

Navigate Ambiguity with Expertise and Judgment

You will own initiatives and…