What's it like to be a technical account manager at AWS in Israel?

Tell us about your career journey to AWS?

• Technical guidance – help customers with designing and reviewing their architecture
• Cost Optimization – customer workloads
• Reaching operational excellence – help customers resolve issues faster
  

What technical and/or soft skills do you need to succeed in your role?
I need to have wide knowledge around the core services (S3, EC2, EBS, VPC). In addition, I need to have knowledge that are related to the services my customers are using. Other than that, talking/presenting to customers, managing meetings with C-level executives, and building my skills through demos and workshops.

At work, are you involved in any activities outside of your role?
I joined the Cloud Operations expert group where I answer requests from customers globally when they need guidance and or troubleshooting help with Cloud Intelligent Dashboards. Cloud Intelligent is an open-source framework that gives customers the power to get high-level and granular insight into their cost and usage data.

I also joined AWS GetIT education program designed to encourage young students, especially girls aged 12-14, to consider a career in technology. I also support TAMs from my team with business review preparations and how to find cost optimization opportunities.

What advice would you give people joining AWS?
Invest time in learning—you will need it to close the knowledge gap and also to be up to date with all the technological changes.

What do you love to do outside work?
I love swimming and skiing.

Tell us about your career journey to AWS.
I started my career as a developer 20 years ago. I was lucky to learn software development from amazing people. Like our applications, I did the full lifecycle: started as a Java developer working with J2EE applications, later re-architected the applications to microservices, adopted Docker and Kubernetes and finally started my journey to cloud. The AWS TAM role provided me an opportunity to work in a challenging environment where I could explore the endless possibilities of the cloud and improve my technical and customer-facing skills.
 
Please explain your role, who your customers are, and how you help them.
My role as a technical account manager is to support AWS’s customers on their journey to the cloud. My role requires a combination of technical activities (like dive deep sessions with customers, workshops, solution designs, demos, and automations), financial management (cost optimization, cost management), and government activities (strategic and management business review) in order to accelerate the customer’s cloud adoption.
 
Have you had to learn any specific new skills (technical or soft) for your role?
At AWS, it is always is Day One. The Learn and Be Curious Leadership Principle is critical in my role. To understand customer needs, I am learning and adjusting my skills on a daily basis including public certifications—AWS solutions architect, AWS certified DevOps engineer, AWS certified data analytics—and internal certifications such as AWS public speaker and Gameday operator).
 
How does your work with customers help to make a positive impact on society?
Israel is a start-up nation. At AWS, we are helping people and companies to innovate and concentrate on their business needs, to be successful and deliver results faster.

At work, are you involved in any activities outside of your role?
Yes! I am an onboarding buddy to new hires, taking part of technologies sessions in the Israel AWS technology community. I find a very rewarding experience to share my knowledge with other TAMs.
 
What’s the most exciting part of your job?
I enjoy helping customers build cloud strategy,  and impact their progress and achievements.
As an owner, I am free to shape a very large part of what the job looks like. I build my own plan, develop my strategy, and get all the support I need.

What advice would you give people joining AWS?
To acknowledge that no one can know everything—enjoy the ride and never stop learning!
 
What do you love to do outside work?
I love traveling, morning runs and cooking.

Tell us about your career journey to AWS?
My journey began in the military service at the Intelligence Corps as system administrator,. My first role in the tech industry was during my studies in information systems engineering. A few years later, I decided I want to work with the latest technologies in a more challenging role, and what better place to do so than AWS?

Please explain your role, who your customers are, and how you help them.
TAM is the “go-to person” for the customers, and my job is to assist them in leveraging the AWS Cloud in the most efficient ways following AWS best practices. I’m also the voice of the customer inside AWS—my knowledge of the customers' business and technologies allows me to reflect their interests internally.

What technical and/or soft skills do you need to succeed in your role?
I believe the baseline for the job is good learning skills and communication skills. A significant part of being a TAM is building relationships with our customers. Sometimes you’ll have to prove yourself technically, and other times personally.

What advice would you give people joining AWS?
Give yourself time to learn, dive deep, and never be afraid to go to your teammates with questions.
 
Do you have any needs or commitment that require flexibility in your role?
I’m learning to my Master of Science at Tel Aviv University. It's not easy, but I’m owning my schedule so it’s up to me to get things done and allow myself time to learn.  
 
What do you love to do outside work?
I love to start my mornings with Pilates—it helps me stays focused during the day. I’m also working toward my Master degree in data sciences. In my spare time, I enjoy meeting my friends and try the good food Tel Aviv has to offer.
 
Is there anything else you would like to add about your personal journey?
Be confident, take your time to learn and share your ideas—they have more value than you might think.

Tell us about your career journey to AWS?
I have started my journey as a PC technician, but was always driven to learn more. I was approached by AWS while working in SysOps. I took the opportunity to apply at such a forward-thinking company after reading about the role of TAM. It resonated with me and here I am now.

Please explain your role, who your customers are, and how you help them.
As a TAM, I am the advocate for my customers inside AWS and it is my duty to make sure they have everything they need to take advantage of everything AWS can offer—and do it in the most correct and cost-efficient way possible.

Have you had to learn any specific new skills (technical or soft) for your role?
As a TAM you never stop learning, from the deepest understanding of specific services to how to have conversations with C-level executives or speak in front of thousands of people.

Tell us about your career journey to AWS?
I started my career working as support at an Israel internet service provider company around nine years ago. Since then, I have held different support positions with various vendors. My last role before joining AWS as TAM was managing a group of professional services on-site engineers and TAMs in the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) region for Radware.

Please explain your role and who your customers are.
The TAM role at AWS is part of the Enterprise Support organization and we have a very short list of customers that each of us works with. Customers can come from different industries or phases of their development. My customers range from very small startups at the beginning of their cloud journey to Enterprise and very well-established companies.

What technical and/or soft skills do you need to succeed in your role?
AWS has hundreds of services and a TAM needs broad understanding of technologies across various domains. Regarding soft skills, the most important part is to be customer-centric, or as we say it at AWS, customer-obsessed. Interpersonal skills are very helpful since TAMs interact with various internal teams, plus an ability to make fast and smart decisions in high-impact situations.

Have you had to learn any specific new skills (technical or soft) for your role?
Yes, I had to learn about artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and analytics domains since my customers are heavily using those services on AWS. There are plenty of ramp-up/enablement possibilities and training programs inside AWS for internal teams.

How does your work with customers help to make a positive impact on society?
One of my first customers moved from an on-premise data center to AWS—this decreases carbon footprints and has a positive impact on the environment.

What’s the most exciting part of your job?
Working with the customers and solving their issues/architectural challenges.

What three words would you use to describe workdays at AWS?
Rewarding, challenging, meaningful.