Sr. Program Manager - Capital Planning, WWRGD

Amazon; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 116,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon is seeking a Sr. Program Manager in Chicago to join the Capital Planning team within WWRGD.

You will lead budget cycles, CAR processes, and cost stewardship across Real Estate and Construction, partnering with Real Estate, Pre-Construction, Construction, and Finance to ensure disciplined capital stewardship at scale. Role emphasizes data-driven decision making, transformation via automation, and translating strategic guidance into actionable plans for leadership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of program or project management experience.
• Experience using data and metrics to determine and drive improvements.
• Experience owning program strategy, end to end delivery, and communicating results to senior leadership.
• 2+ years of driving process improvements experience.
• Knowledge of general AI tools.
• Experience designing, implementing, and scaling upskilling, apprenticeship, or workforce development programs across large-scale operations or corporate environments, including forecasting workforce needs and leveraging analytics to drive program decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead OP Budget Planning & Guidance cycles end-to-end with timelines, stakeholders, and estimation methodologies.
• Own CAR process end-to-end for Real Estate, Land, Pre-Construction, Construction, Startup, and Lease funding requests.
• Maintain CAR templates and coordinate cross-functional POCs for comprehensive CAR packages.
• Present construction, startup, and lease costs for approval and manage the full approval lifecycle.
• Lead monthly Post-launch CapEx reviews and quarterly deep-dives on spend vs. plan.
• Build repeatable processes leveraging AI/tools to reduce manual effort and standardize practices across banners.

Skills

Program management

Data analysis

Leadership

Stakeholder communication

Education

Master's degree or MBA

Tools

AI tools knowledge

Job description

Amazon's Worldwide Retail Grocery Development (WWRGD) team is seeking a highly skilled and strategic Sr. Program Manager to join our Capital Planning team. This role sits within the WWRGD Capital Planning team supporting Amazon's multi-banner grocery portfolio, partnering across Real Estate, Design, Pre-Construction, Construction, and Finance to ensure disciplined capital stewardship at scale.

Amazon's Worldwide Retail Grocery Development (WWRGD) team is seeking a highly skilled and strategic Sr. Program Manager to join our Capital Planning team. This role sits within the WWRGD Capital Planning team supporting Amazon's multi-banner grocery portfolio, partnering across Real Estate, Design, Pre-Construction, Construction, and Finance to ensure disciplined capital stewardship at scale.

Key job responsibilities

OP Budget Planning & Guidance Cycles

• Lead OP1/OP2 and quarterly guidance cycles end-to-end, including timelines, stakeholder coordination, and estimation methodology.
• Provide analyses and coordinate with key stakeholders on averages, variance bridging, and cost drivers.
• Develop written OP/Guidance narrative documents for leadership review, providing strategic context alongside the numbers.
• Facilitate alignment between business and finance leaders to secure agreement on costs, project lists, and investment priorities.

Capital Appropriation Requests (CARs)

• Own and manage the full CAR process end-to-end for Real Estate, Land, Pre-Construction, Construction, Startup, and Lease funding requests.
• Maintain and continuously improve CAR Funding Templates and standardized white paper formats.
• Engage cross-functional POCs (Real Estate, Pre-Construction, Construction, Finance) and assemble comprehensive CAR packages.
• Present construction, startup, and lease costs prior to lease signatures for approval.
• Lead CAR scheduling, document reviews, leadership presentations, and action item follow-ups.
• Route CARs through Amazon Approvals and manage the full approval lifecycle.

Cost Stewardship & Tracking

• Maintain a macro-level schedule lookahead across the portfolio to inform planning cycles and resource allocation.
• Monitor portfolio-wide cost posture from OP through CAR, ensuring alignment between planned and actual spend.
• Conduct monthly Post-launch CapEx Reviews with quarterly deep-dives to analyze approved vs. actual spending.
• Identify and elevate cost outliers or trends requiring leadership attention.
• Own the capital reporting section of WBR/MBR/QBR cadences, presenting approval metrics, portfolio health, and variance narratives to leadership.
• Establish and support capital accounts under grocery business units, improving speed to capital access.
• Lead initiatives to provide clarity into project spend, ensuring achievable paths to cost reduction measures in our builds or projects.

Tools & Continuous Improvement

• Build repeatable processes to improve CAR creation efficiency, leveraging AI and automation tools (e.g., template generation, data extraction, cost modeling) to reduce manual effort.
• Drive standardization across banners and business units to enable consistent processes and shared best practices.
• Utilize or create automated cost management tools and data analysis to improve capital budgeting accuracy year over year.
• Continuously seek ways to enhance cost forecasting accuracy and process efficiency.

A day in the life

Mornings start with normal catchup work/follow ups needed from your inbox/slack. These request can range from spending to process and come from all business partners for past/current/future projects. Meetings consist of alignment calls - providing financial workback requirements for CAR's and driving the team towards a plan to execute the capital plan. Time will be spent drafting CARs and related follow ups - responding/inputting information into documents for financials and creating leadership narratives around project cost.

About The Team

Within the team there will be 2-3 peers that are doing similar work but for different scopes/programs within the organization. This provides a solid peer group to help troubleshoot and support each other throughout the project lifecycles. Our culture is one of supporting our execution teams success with our financial acumen.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of program or project management experience
• Experience using data and metrics to determine and drive improvements
• Experience owning program strategy, end to end delivery, and communicating results to senior leadership

Preferred Qualifications

• 2+ years of driving process improvements experience
• Master's degree, or MBA in business, operations, human resources, adult education, organizational development, instructional design or related field
• Knowledge of general AI tools
• Experience designing, implementing, and scaling upskilling, apprenticeship, or workforce development programs across large-scale operations or corporate environments, including forecasting workforce needs and leveraging analytics to drive program decisions

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, IL, Chicago - 115,600.00 - 160,000.00 USD annually

USA, TX, AUSTIN - 115,600.00 - 160,000.00 USD annually

USA, WA, Seattle - 115,600.00 - 160,000.00 USD annually

Company

Amazon.com Services LLC

Job ID: A10515678