Amazon is set to lose one of its top executives just days after unveiling its latest wave of hardware products. Rob Williams, vice president of device software and services and a member of CEO Andy Jassy’s elite S-team, has announced his departure, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters.
Williams, who has been with Amazon for 12 years and joined the 29-member senior leadership team in late 2022, will step down at the end of 2025 after serving in an advisory capacity for the remainder of the year. His decision comes immediately following Amazon’s high-profile devices and services showcase in New York, where the company debuted new Echo smart speakers, color Kindles, and upgraded Fire TV models.
In the memo, Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, praised Williams for his influence on “the software and experiences of nearly all the products we’ve created and shipped.” Panay added that Williams had decided to “retire from Amazon,” though his future plans remain undisclosed.
Panay also announced a reorganization within the devices division, including the integration of the Alexa Smart Vehicle team into the main Alexa group and the promotion of Tapas Roy—previously head of Fire TV engineering—to succeed Williams as VP of device software and services.
Williams confirmed his exit in a LinkedIn post, saying he had been planning his departure for much of the year but stayed on to see through the recent product launches. “No one else has anything like it,” he wrote, referring to Vega, Amazon’s new proprietary operating system for Fire TV devices that aims to replace Google’s Android software with faster performance and lower costs.
The departure of an S-team member is considered highly unusual inside Amazon. The group serves as Jassy’s closest circle of advisers and is often viewed as the inner sanctum of corporate leadership within the company.
Williams leaves amid continued turmoil in Amazon’s devices division, which has struggled to find profitability. The unit has undergone multiple layoffs and has been slow to roll out its revamped Alexa voice assistant featuring generative AI capabilities. Despite these challenges, Amazon remains committed to expanding its devices ecosystem, including the launch of Fire tablets running Android and the rollout of Vega OS-powered hardware later this year.
Amazon confirmed Williams’s departure but declined to comment further.
His exit marks a significant leadership shake-up within Amazon’s long-term effort to reinvent its hardware strategy around AI and custom software—a mission that remains critical as competition from Google, Apple, and Samsung intensifies.
