Katy Hamill refers to herself as a “chaos wrangler”. She works at Amazon as a Senior Program Manager on the AWS Customer Experience Operations (CX Ops) team, where she creates project processes, policies, and structures with clear timelines, goals, roles, and communication. She resolves issues, streamlines workflows, and aligns everyone for efficient work.
Check out her story!
🎤 How do you express yourself at #Amazon?
I co-lead a chapter of the Inclusion Ambassador Program, which empowers Amazonians to champion an inclusive workplace for all. I LOVE people, and am always working to be more open, welcoming, and loving to those around me (and myself). I see inclusion work as an extension of that. I firmly believe diversity of thought is essential for impactful work, and I love that this program gives me a chance to promote that.
🎤 How did you get involved with design?
HA! I have never been one to take a direct route in life; I love the journey more than the destination. I come from a family of creatives and makers going back a few generations. I tried to go to school for an art degree, but couldn’t figure out how to turn what I loved doing (creating, making) into a paying career that would support the life I wanted. After 12 years, 2 community colleges, and 3 universities (for real!), I finally graduated from UT Austin with a degree in International Relations, focusing on media, culture, and the arts, with a minor in Turkish culture and history.
I spent years working in the international cultural exchange industry, running programs for foreign university students to come to the U.S. for temporary summer jobs and internships. I took a COVID break to work at a friend’s furniture restoration shop, where I solved less abstract, more structural problems to bring gorgeous antiques back to life. Then a brief stint at an Austin-based cybersecurity startup, before AWS Design found me, and it all sort of came together: people, inclusion, tech, and creative problem solving.
🎤 Tell us something that isn’t on your LinkedIn profile!
My partner and I are rebuilding a 1993 Harley Sportster, nicknamed Pamela, which will be my first motorcycle. She’s currently a pile of engine and frame parts in the garage, but she'll look completely different when we're done.
🎤What do you do after work?
I enjoy making things, playing with my plants, kayaking, spending time with my teenager, walking in nature, caring for chickens, watching movies, taking road trips, and trying new things. I'm also in my fourth year of crocheting a popcorn garland for our large Christmas tree—had I known the time commitment, I doubt I'd have started! But I also enjoy the tediousness.
🎤 How do your passions align with your job?
I organize everything: refrigerators and cabinets, the garage, neighborhood events, volunteer activities, our gigantic collection of tools, multi-country vacations. I love creating systems for how things work together, which translates well to design operations.