Mamar Gelaye’s journey from management consulting to tech leadership exemplifies her commitment to making a difference in the tech world.
With over 20 years of experience, Gelaye now serves as Amazon’s Vice President of Operations Technology Solutions, where she leads the company’s cutting-edge fulfillment technology and robotics division.
However, her story is about more than just her professional achievements—it’s about breaking barriers and paving the way for diversity in technology.
Redefining Tech Leadership with a Vision for Diversity
Gelaye’s leadership comes from a place of understanding the value that diverse perspectives bring to the tech world.
As a Black woman in a predominantly white, male-dominated industry, her mission is to inspire and attract people of color and women into tech roles.
She credits her early academic experiences—like her mechanical engineering degree from the University of Tennessee and work on hybrid electric vehicles—for shaping her vision for a more inclusive tech sector.
“What I realized is that a lot of the foundational experience I had came from undergrad and just novel experiences,” she shared during Amazon’s Delivering the Future event.
Her insight led her to focus on making tech accessible to underrepresented communities, with a vision to make opportunities in tech more generalizable.
From Management Consulting to Pioneering Robotics at Amazon
Before joining Amazon, Gelaye’s career spanned industries, including energy, healthcare, and aerospace at companies like General Electric (GE) and Raytheon Technologies.
Her pivot from consulting at Accenture to industrial roles marked a critical shift where she saw how technology could revolutionize industries.
Now, as the leader of Amazon’s robotics division, Gelaye is part of some of the company’s most significant innovations, such as Proteus, Amazon’s first fully autonomous mobile robot.
The robot, which helps move packages weighing up to 800 pounds, represents just a fraction of the technological advances her team is responsible for in Amazon’s global supply chain.
Pushing for Diversity Through Action
Gelaye’s leadership is not just about advancing technology—it’s about making sure the workforce behind these innovations reflects the diversity of the world. Her initiatives aim to ensure that future engineers and tech professionals from all backgrounds see themselves in roles that once seemed out of reach.
Her belief that “software is going to control the machine” has been a driving force behind her successful tech career, but equally important is her belief that this transformation needs to include a variety of voices.
As she continues her work at Amazon, her influence on diversifying the tech space grows.
