Who I Am
Enterprise leader. Transformation driver. People champion.
From frontline post person at Royal Mail to Director at Amazon International Stores, my career has been shaped by operational discipline, large-scale transformation and a deep belief that the best ideas often come from the teams closest to the customer.
Today I help complex organisations simplify, scale and improve, combining executive-level strategy with the kind of operational instinct you can only build by leading at every level of the business.
Read My Story
Stephen Lumsden
Director, Customer Experience & Operations
COO-Level
Transformation
Global Ops
Amazon
Edinburgh
2022–2025Amazon Director
2002–2011Royal Mail
Multi-countryGlobal reach
Media TrainedBar Raiser
Available for COO, Director & VP roles, based in Scotland
My Story
From Frontline to Executive Leadership
Starting my career in Royal Mail as a frontline post person, I was fortunate to be selected for its leadership training programme early in my career. That experience gave me strong operational foundations and the opportunity to lead teams within an organisation shaped by generations of history, structure and operational discipline, while also developing leadership experience in highly unionised environments across Scotland.
Wanting to broaden my experience further, I joined Amazon in 2011 as an Operations Manager within Europe's largest fulfilment centre. During a period of rapid growth and automation, I played a key role in scaling operational capability, implementing new technologies and supporting major infrastructure transformation programmes designed to improve both customer experience and operational efficiency.
As my responsibilities expanded into senior operational leadership, I became increasingly focused not only on operational performance, but on how large organisations simplify complexity, scale effectively and create better outcomes for both customers and employees. This led to opportunities to help shape broader operational and fulfilment strategies across the UK business.
In 2016, I transitioned into Customer Service leadership, taking responsibility for the Edinburgh site and joining the UK Customer Service executive leadership team. Although new to the function at the time, the role fundamentally shaped my thinking around customer experience and organisational effectiveness. It reinforced the importance of solving problems at source, simplifying processes and designing systems that reduce friction for both customers and frontline employees.
Over the following years, I joined a number of international and executive leadership teams across Amazon, supporting new market launches, large-scale transformation initiatives and enterprise-wide customer improvement programmes. My experience evolved beyond operational leadership into broader organisational transformation, governance, strategic execution and leading through complexity at scale.
In my most recent Director role, I worked across multiple parts of the organisation to improve customer and operational experience across complex global environments. This included partnering with senior executives and their teams to improve customer journeys, develop technology-enabled and self-service solutions, strengthen operational resilience and respond to high-risk or business-critical events requiring rapid executive alignment and decision making.
Having had the privilege to progress from frontline operations to executive leadership, I believe it has given me a balanced perspective on leadership and organisational culture. Some of the most valuable insights and improvement opportunities come from frontline teams closest to customers and day-to-day operations. Equally, building trusted relationships with senior leaders is essential to driving meaningful change, aligning organisations and delivering long-term improvement at scale.
Today, my interests are particularly focused on enterprise transformation, operational effectiveness, AI-enabled experience improvement, organisational simplification and helping complex organisations build stronger, more resilient and scalable operating environments.
