Q&A with Romil Mittal Director, Under the Roof Technology, Last Mile Delivery

What is your favorite Amazon memory??

Since I joined Amazon in 2017, I have been a part of the last mile technology organization. During this tenure, there have been multiple favorite memories. If I have to choose from them, I would like to mention two of them here. The first one was when I visited a last mile hub, also known as a delivery station, for the first time. It was in Germany and I was awestruck the moment I entered the building. While I knew about the magnanimity and scale of delivery stations based on all the videos that I had seen prior to the visit and the details I had, I didn’t imagine it to be so huge and realized the meaning of scale. It was a hub of activity with thousands of packages getting processed by hundreds of happy associates, and everything working so smoothly. Since then I have visited multiple stations across the globe including the ones that deploy large scale automation and robotic technologies, but I always cherish that memory of my first station visit.

The second memory is from the pandemic period. When it all started early last year, everybody around the world was caught off guard. To support our customers around the world who were relying on Amazon for their essential needs, I was humbled to see how our operations and technology teams went above and beyond to make it safe for our associates and drivers on the ground. We incorporated various social distancing and safety measures, and quickly built numerous optimizations to help us build the capacity needed to meet the increased demands. I will never forget how Amazon transportation and our partners contributed to changing the lives for the better when billions of people across the globe were stuck at home.

What accomplishment at Amazon are you most proud of??

I have been extremely fortunate to partner with some of the smartest and driven individuals and teams at Amazon who helped us move multiple big rocks over the past 4 years. We launched an entire suite of guided and automated workflows which not only helped improve the quality of our operations but also significantly improved the experience of our associates and operators worldwide. We built technology to enable 4 hour deliveries, in-garage and in-home deliveries for our customers. We also expanded our operations to multiple new countries including Japan, Middle East, Canada, Australia and scaling up our systems and learning about region specific customer needs has always been fascinating. Overall, what makes me most proud of is the humungous scale at which we operate and how the teams at Amazon take ownership to make the magic happen.

What brings you passion and excitement to your role and team??

Despite the large scale of business, every team in last mile organization works like a start-up. What I get pumped up with is the customer obsession demonstrated by my team and our operations partners. They are always trying to do more for our customers. I learn so much from them on a daily basis, and their energy rubs on to my shoulders as well. The other big reason that excites me about my role is the positive impact that my team is able to create on improving the experience and safety of hundreds of thousands of associates working in delivery stations. Our technology also plays a crucial role in ensuring that the packages ordered by our customers are dispatched and delivered to them on time. There is nothing more satisfying than being a part of something that has real and tangible positive impact on people’s lives. My father, who is not somebody who gets impressed easily, can’t stop himself from bringing up this at times, “Hey, I order this in the morning and got it delivered in just a few hours. How is it even possible? How do you guys make it happen?”. And that’s what I call as ‘the moment of pride’. :)

How do you foster diversity and inclusion on your team??

The key strength of my team is diversity. We have employees from 6 different countries, their industry experience ranging from 1 month to 20+ years, majoring in fields including chemical engineering, philology, mechanical engineering, business, and computer science, and female leaders constituting a large part of the organization. This diverse nature of the team acts as a forcing function for us to build mechanisms to be more inclusive in our day to day execution. For instance, last mile teams span across at least nine time zones but we make sure that we are respectful of everybody’s work hours by building the right mechanism to collaborate effectively. The document culture at Amazon helps in ensuring that employees get opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas without requiring strong presentation skills. The data-driven culture enables anyone to ask questions resulting in the decision making to be healthy and inclusive.

What do you do for fun/ work-life balance?

Most of my non-work time goes with my kid. He is an avid Minecraft player and you will hear terms such as Armor, Mod, Pickaxe, Biome, Nether, etc. for more than 90% of the time that the two of us talk. We love solving Rubik’s cube, with him trending at 40 seconds, while I am still hovering at more than 5 minutes :). I am a huge movie buff and try to keep a tab at the new releases on Prime Video and Netflix over the weekends. I also do make sure to spend at least 45 mins daily either playing a game of squash or doing a work out.?

What is your favorite leadership principle and why?

It’s the toughest question for any Amazonian to choose a leadership principle as the favorite. If I still have to, I would go with Deep Dive. Most of the tough looking problems become simple if you are able to dive deep into them well, and also result in better decisions. Last mile logistics is one of the most complex pieces in the overall supply chain management, with thousands of workflows that together constitute the journey of a package till the customer’s doorstep. To be able to take fast decisions, it is important for the leaders, which includes both engineers and managers (at Amazon, everybody is a leader), to understand the ecosystem deeply and point out the right areas to focus on and decide the path forward.

Which is your favorite place from the ones you have ever travelled?

If I have to choose one from all the places that I have travelled, Kashmir valley would stand out without a doubt. It is known as heaven of earth for all the right reasons. It has got a timeless beauty, with a variety of terrains ranging from lakes, snow-capped mountains, wild untouched terrain, fields of saffron and orchards of apples. And the most beautiful wonder of Kashmir is Dal Lake, which is a large lake with snow-capped mountains surrounding three of its sides, signature Kashmiri style houseboats and colorful shikaras that afloat the lake and the stunning Mughal gardens and orchards lined on its banks.?

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