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Stephanie Lozano

Software development

Stephanie Lozano(she/her)

Senior Program Mgr · Amazon

BA Consumer Sciences Cal State Sacramento

Stephanie Lozano is a Senior Program Manager at Amazon, where she leads large-scale initiatives focused on sustainability and operational excellence — work that combines data, teamwork, and strategic thinking to create real, measurable impact. A graduate of California State University, Sacramento, she built her career through curiosity, problem-solving, and a genuine commitment to using business as a force for good. Her journey shows that with perseverance and a willingness to keep learning, doors to leadership in tech, business, and sustainability are absolutely within reach.

Their story

Business Analytics....Working at Amazon.

17 min

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Key quotes

“It's okay to not know what you're doing. Nobody does. I started off in fashion and now I'm trying to be a BI in Amazon. So everything's shifted a lot for me.”

Stephanie Lozano

“I work with mostly Ivy League grads, MBAs from Harvard and I went to Sac State and I don't have a master's, I don't have an MBA. And we are peers and we make the same money and we have equal amounts of respect.”

Stephanie Lozano

“I'm in sales. I don't know anything about SQL. I taught myself SQL.”

Stephanie Lozano

“I basically wrote myself out of a job. Part of my job was also in business development... I designed a program that allowed them to basically set themselves up as a seller and launch and sell their product on Amazon all on their own.”

Stephanie Lozano

“Try different career paths when you can because you have a limited amount of time that you can do that. So figure out what you like.”

Stephanie Lozano

Career highlights

It's okay to change direction — multiple times.

Stephanie went from fashion school to retail to snowboarding industry jobs before landing at Amazon. She says: 'It's okay to not know what you're doing. Nobody does.'

You don't need an MBA to reach MBA-level roles — just prove yourself.

Stephanie started in a lower-level position at Amazon and worked her way up to a role that typically requires an MBA, without ever getting one.

Teach yourself technical skills — don't wait for someone to hand them to you.

Stephanie didn't know SQL when she started in her role, so she taught it to herself to do her job better and help her team.

Big companies like Amazon can be a playground for exploring different careers.

Stephanie moved from Amazon Art to Amazon Home Services without ever leaving the company, and she's already eyeing a move into product management and business intelligence.

Internships at the right company can turn into full-time jobs — take them seriously.

Stephanie describes Amazon's internship program as one where interns are treated like real employees, and Amazon actively tries to hire them full-time after graduation.

Knowing your audience and treating people with respect is a real professional skill.

Stephanie talks about working with contractors who've been doing their trade for 30 years — she learned their world so she could speak to them as equals, not talk down to them.

Student summary
Stephanie Lozano works at Amazon in business development and analytics for Amazon Home Services — a platform that connects customers with local contractors and service pros. She grew up with a passion for snowboarding and fashion, earned a bachelor's degree in apparel marketing and design from Sacramento State, and worked retail jobs at Nordstrom, Tory Burch, and Quicksilver before landing at Amazon. Her path was anything but a straight line, and that's exactly what makes her story so real and relatable. At Amazon, Stephanie started in a brand-new category called Amazon Art, where she actually built a self-service tool that eventually automated her own role. Instead of seeing that as a loss, she pivoted into Amazon Home Services, where she now does outreach to contractors like HVAC specialists, plumbers, and electricians to bring them onto the platform. She also taught herself SQL — a data coding skill — entirely on her own, proving that you don't need a fancy degree to develop technical skills on the job. One of the most powerful parts of Stephanie's story is that she works alongside Ivy League MBAs without having one herself. She had to fight to be taken seriously in a sales role, but she did it by delivering results and making herself indispensable. She's a first-gen type success story: no MBA, a state school degree, and she's earning a competitive salary with valuable Amazon stock — all because she worked hard and stayed curious. For students of color who may not have gone to a prestigious school or aren't sure what career they want, Stephanie's message is direct: it's okay not to have it figured out. Try things. Pivot when something isn't working. Amazon has internships that treat you like real employees, and the company offers career flexibility that lets you explore different industries without leaving. If you're open to learning and not afraid of a challenge, there's a path for you. Stephanie's story is especially meaningful for Latine and first-gen students who might feel like the tech or business world isn't built for them. She shows that grit, self-teaching, and being good with people can take you just as far as a graduate degree — sometimes further.