Amazon, a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, Washington, is the global leader in e-commerce. Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1995. Our mission is to be Earth's most customer-centric company where people can find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online. By giving customers more of what they want - low prices, vast selection, and convenience - Amazon.com continues to grow and evolve as a world-class e-commerce platform and prides itself as a technology company. Amazon's evolution from Web site to e-commerce partner to development platform is driven by the spirit of innovation that is part of the company's DNA. We're making history and the good news is that we've only just begun.
We've revolutionized the online shopping experience, cloud computing and the book... join us and see what's next!
Amazon currently employs more than 51,300 people around the world. Our employees work in corporate offices, fulfillment centers, customer service centers and software development centers across North America, Europe and Asia. Employees in our offices contribute in a variety of functions and jobs, including:
Our engineers tackle some of the most complex challenges in large-scale computing. Software development engineers, technical program managers, test engineers, and user-interface experts work in small teams company-wide to contribute to the e-commerce platform that's used by:
- Over 152 million active Amazon customer accounts
- Over 2.0 million active seller accounts
- Hundreds of thousands of external developers
Our team of product managers, designers, buyers, and merchandisers builds and launches new product categories and stores around the world as it offers customers greater selection, lower prices, more in-stock merchandise, and a best-in-class shopping experience.
Our IT team oversees the company's technology environment. These system, database, and networking experts build and operate highly reliable, scalable distributed systems with terabyte-sized databases and infrastructure that can handle a massive number of transactions.
During the 2010 holiday season, our fulfillment centers shipped to more than 178 countries worldwide. Our operations teams oversee and operate all aspects of supply chain management, fulfillment, transportation, and customer service. People on these teams range from optimization specialists and business analysts to fulfillment and customer-service managers and associates. Regardless of their role, however, they're completely focused on meeting individual customer promises every day, around the globe.
Financial professionals at Amazon operate as business partners within functional teams throughout the company. They have leadership roles in teams such as Retail, Operations, Business Development, and Software Development in addition to more traditional roles in Accounting, Treasury, Investor Relations, etc. Financial professionals help teams evaluate business investments, understand historical performance, and develop forward-looking plans in addition to providing objective perspectives to their business partners.
Our HR function comprises HR Business Partners, Recruiters and Specialists in areas like Learning & Development, HRIS and Compensation & Benefits. The teams engage with our business leaders to deliver our goal of finding, developing and retaining the best and brightest people in the market. By partnering with our businesses leaders and employees we develop long term career paths inline with Amazon's unique culture.
Our legal team advises business leaders on complex legal issues in a dynamic, high-growth environment. They oversee Amazon's intellectual property and patent efforts, drive public policy initiatives, and resolve all litigation.