Amazon Is Looking to Hire a Digital Currency Lead

Amazon is seeking to hire a "digital currency and blockchain product lead" as the e-commerce giant progresses with its plans to bring its payments systems into the crypto age.

“We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon," a company spokesperson told CoinDesk. "We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.”

Whoever is hired for the position, which is based in Seattle, will work in Amazon’s payments acceptance and experience group. The company is seeking “an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s digital currency and blockchain strategy and product roadmap,” according to the job posting on the company’s website. 

“You will leverage your domain expertise in blockchain, distributed ledger, central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities, which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities,” the posting says.

There has been chatter about a so-called Amazon Coin, with job postings from back in February hinting that a digital currency was in the offing.

In order to “own the vision and strategy for Amazon’s digital currency,” the successful candidate will require a “deep understanding of the digital/cryptocurrency ecosystem and related technologies,” Amazon said.

UPDATE (July 23, 16:35 UTC): Adds comment from Amazon spokesperson.