Changing levels with Amazon negotiations

I negotiated up a level. It is possible, but it's rare and hard to do. So, you'll be interviewed at a target level. At the interview debrief, after discussing feedback, the hiring manager and bar raiser will discuss levelling. Sometimes that's done with all interviewers, sometimes between the bar raiser and hiring manager. The bar raiser's job is to maintain bar calibration across Amazon and make sure the team isn't compromising over hiring standards for a team need or short term need. Hiring manager and bar raiser will set level and send back to recruiter to negotiate. So, a couple things: recruiter basically doesn't have power to change the level. If you do want to make a case about levelling, you need to get both hiring manager and bar raiser to go back on a prior decision. If you want to try to make this case, you should ask to speak to the hiring manager and plea your case with the hiring manager. You need to make a case based on Amazon's hiring bar, not your current level or your experience. And at amazon, the higher level roles basically have more to do with leadership principals than technical capabilities. You need to have demonstrates leadership across the leadership principals. So I would ask where the loop thought you were weak (which may or may not be divulged) and try to demonstrate how they got it wrong. Another thing which could be very helpful is someone internal at or above the target level that can vouch for you. Especially a prior manager. Anyways, it's an uphill battle, but it's possible to do in certain circumstances.