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Profiles in Pay: Mirka Cardone

Learn about life as an Amazonian through the eyes of a Business Development Manager for Amazon Pay based in Italy.

How would you describe yourself in 2-4 sentences?

I love, laugh and live with passion and positivity. My favourite things to do include travelling to and discovering new places, staying by the sea with the people I love, and watching movies about time-travelling, distopian futures or romcoms, and eating pizza or seafood!

Can you tell us about career history with Amazon?

I joined Amazon in April 2014, 5 years and a half ago - time flies when you have fun ;) At first I was based out of Ireland and covered the role of Technical Account Manager to support merchants across EU5 (UK, DE, FR, IT, ES) with a number of services offered by Amazon such as marketplace web services, product ads, sponsored products, webstore, brand registry, checkout by amazon and sell on amazon. After 1.5 year I got promoted to an Advisor role and I moved to Luxembourg where in less than 6 months I have had the chance to contribute to the re-branding of Amazon Pay, the launch of a disaster relief campaign in Italy (for the earthquake of centre-Italy in 2016) and the launch of Amazon Pay in France Italy and Spain. I earned a promotion to Business Development Manager (BDM) in 2017 and as a BDM I help many successful brands onboard with Amazon Pay in Italy. A few merchants that come to mind include; Moschino, OVS, Yamamay, KIKO. My work contributed to the opening of new verticals including Travel, Non-profit and Gift Card. In 2018, I exceeded my quota by +600% and was recognised as the Best BDM in EU. Starting from January this year I am leading the Account Management team for France, Italy and Spain expanding and maintaining the relationships with strategically important and large merchants while driving and developing account growth and retention strategies.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I doubt that someone at Amazon can easily answer this question :). I don’t have a ‘typical day’ at Amazon, I’m part of a fast pace environment that requires me to deal with ambiguity on a daily basis. Goals remain the same throughout the year but the business strategy may change. We continuously adapt to deliver results and insist on the highest standards. Part of my job is to work across functions with several internal stakeholders to drive improvements that provide answers to our customer’s needs. In doing so, meetings over the phone or in person are part of my daily routine. One of my goals is to facilitate collaborations with companies using Amazon Pay, managing escalations on an almost daily basis, performing analysis to detect the root cause of issues that arise, and leveraging internal relationships to influence decision makers in other team to prioritize resolution of the matter. I also regularly meet external customers and travel to attend industry events where I can talk about Amazon Pay to a broad audience.

After 5.5 years at Amazon, what do you enjoy about the culture?

What I enjoy the most about Amazon culture is the freedom to fully own my success and the success of my clients. Everybody can be a key contributor and drive changes or innovation. Another thing that I enjoy is the spirit of “earning trust” --it promotes sharing knowledge and encouraging people to always help each other. My colleagues are the best part of working at Amazon!

You mentioned the spirit of earning trust, what is your favourite leadership principle and why?

For long time I thought it was Bias for Action, speed matters in this environment and you need theability to manage ambiguity and deliver results. While those principles still motivate and challenge me, I believe earning trust is the Amazon Leader Principle that I now value the most. I appreciate the intellectual honesty in not assuming what you and your team do is always the best, it enables me to have the courage to question the status quo. Earning trust ultimately means respecting others, being accountable and being trustworthy. , This helps in building a team that has a common long term view and willingness to make history together.

How does Amazon support your career goals?

Amazon supports my career goals by offering unlimited possibilities to learn something new and create my own path. There have been opportunities to connect with many talented people as a mentor or sponsor, as well as chances to grow and develop my own professional career whether it’s in a new location or a new passion. In I believe that within Amazon, if you work hard, nothing is impossible.

What’s the best thing about coming to work each day? Is there a “perk” to your job that might surprise people?

The people make the difference. My colleagues and I always find moments to relax and have fun or celebrate each other. Every Wednesday somebody prepares breakfast for all, every Friday after work we stay longer to have a drink and play foosball or just chit-chat and have a good laugh. We also do a summer camping in Luxembourg and visit Christmas markets or city fair every year.

Learn more about working at Amazon Pay through our career site.