- Alex Dunlap has taken over as Amazon CEO’s shadow advisor. Once known as a technical advisor, the role is almost like an executive internship.
Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has a new buddy tagging along on all his calls—otherwise known as a shadow advisor.
And in this case Alex Dunlap is Jassy’s newly-appointed “shadow,” according to internal org charts as viewed by Business Insider. Much like a trick of light, this job title doesn't last long, with a tenure of 18 to 24 months, per B.I. But that experience might just be enough to get Dunlap all the way to the top of Amazon.
Other former shadows include Jeffer Helbling (currently the VP of Amazon Shipping Business) and Amit Agarwal (SVP of emerging markets, according to his Twitter). Eric Rimling, last held the position before Dunlap, in 2023. Before that, Rimling was the vice president for Global Specialty Fulfillment. And then there's Jassy himself, who was once a shadow advisor to Jeff Bezos.
Amazon declined Fortune’s requests for comment.
What is a shadow advisor?
Once known as a technical advisor, the shadow advisor is one of the top jobs at Amazon and marketed as a way to get ahead—almost like an executive internship.
“For those who may not know, a technical advisor is a unique role at our company,” Adam Selipsky, former CEO of Amazon Web Services, posted on X in 2023 of his own advisor. “TAs shadow the CEO and provide technical advice and support, helping to push the business forward while removing roadblocks.”
The person in this position tends to learn the ins and outs of the company by providing support to someone in an executive role.
Essentially, if an Amazon employee wanted to speak to Bezos, they’d be seeing double—two men. “I participated in all of his meetings, including his one-on-ones,” Jassy said to CRN in 2015. “I learned a massive amount,” he said of his 18 months in the role.
But unfortunately, for anyone wishing to apply to the prized role, applications (and salary information) are usually not public for this position—likely, the CEO themselves plucks up someone within the company to shadow them.
Alex Dunlap’s time in the shade
While recently promoted, Dunlap is a likely familiar face to those within Amazon. He started working at Amazon Web Services back in 2007, holding various management positions, according to his LinkedIn.
Fitting for a shadow, Dunlap doesn’t have much of a digital footprint save for a video of him discussing new job openings in his CloudFront team back in 2012. His previous role was vice president of productivity apps, AWS applications, which he’s held since 2023.
Coming from more of an engineering side of Amazon, he responded to a LinkedIn post about the company's checkout-free technology, saying that “it’s exciting to see the different ways we are delivering for customers and innovating with the power of machine learning, AI, and computer vision.”
