Ambar S.
IESE MBA'22 | Full Academic Scholarship | Amazon Leader
Studied at IESE Business School
Works at Amazon
Available Sunday at 8:00 AM UTC
Happy to take on clients throughout the year.
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Ambar's Coaching Offerings
Craft Powerful MBA Essays
Craft winning MBA essays through brainstorming, drafting, and editing
Starting at $562.505h+ of coaching
Comprehensive MBA Application Package — Land Your Dream Program
Expert help on your MBA essays, recommendations, resume, and more
Starting at $8,00020h+ of coaching
Nail the MBA Interview
Practice realistic mock MBA interviews with a trained expert
Starting at $337.503h+ of coaching
Custom hourly · $125/hr
Get help with Recommendations, Cover Letters, and .
Ambar’s MBA Qualifications
10+ people coached for MBA
I help candidates navigate the MBA journey end to end because I have personally gone through every stage of it and understand how tightly admissions decisions and post-MBA outcomes are linked. From GMAT strategy and school selection to regional trade-offs, cost-benefit analysis, scholarships, networking, interviews and final admit decisions, I have built and executed this process myself across US, European, and Indian business schools. I did not treat the MBA as a checkbox. I approached it as a strategic investment and designed my application and career plan accordingly. Since 2021, I have coached 18 candidates who have gone on to top-20 business schools. I work with clients to define their long-term career direction, shape a credible narrative and position them as candidates who know why they are pursuing an MBA and what they plan to do with it. This includes supporting professionals looking to change sector, function and region - A transition I successfully made myself during my MBA. Beyond admissions, I help clients prepare for post-MBA recruiting in consulting, leadership programs and big tech by aligning their MBA choices with realistic career outcomes. My goal is not just to help you get in, but to ensure the MBA works for you long after acceptance!
Ambar can help with:
Recommendations
Cover Letters
Resume
General Exploration
Testing & Assessments
School Selection
Essays
Secondary Review
Application Strategy
Financial Aid & Scholarships
Interviews
Editing
Ding Analysis
Networking Strategy
Waitlist Strategy
About Ambar
My career has been defined by intentional pivots. I am a mechanical engineer from India who quickly realized that a traditional engineering path inside a large automotive company was not where I would thrive. Instead I joined an early stage climate tech startup working on solutions for marginalized dairy farmers and brewers across South Asia. That experience taught me how engineering and business intersect when resources are constrained and outcomes matter. Wanting to deepen my commercial skills I moved into engineering consulting with a focus on business development across infrastructure sectors including roads ports aviation and surface transportation. I worked primarily across East Africa and Southeast Asia and had the opportunity to build a smart cities practice from the ground up. I set up the team, led bids, negotiated complex joint ventures and won $5.9M in contracts in the first year. The practice has since scaled into a multi-million dollar vertical. This work led me to the client side where I joined the Government of India as an Entrepreneur in Residence under the national Smart Cities Mission. For eighteen months I worked with central ministries, city governments and global system integrators designing and scaling solutions across 100 cities. I then pursued an MBA to make a global pivot and received admits from top US and international schools (Cornell, Ross, Georgetown, Marshall and ISB) along with a full scholarship from the Narotam Sekhsaria foundation. I chose IESE Business School for its international exposure, academic rigor and global mobility. Post the MBA I made a triple jump across region, sector and function into Amazon's Operations Leadership program (Amazon Pathways) in the UK and later transitioned into Amazon Advertising. Today I coach candidates making similarly complex transitions. MBA applicants choosing between schools and geographies. Post-MBA professionals targeting consulting, big tech or regional pivots. And operators inside big tech who want to change trajectory without burning optionality. I am here because I have made the mistakes, learned the patterns and know how to play the game without losing yourself in it.
Why do I coach?
Coaching matters to me because it has been one of the most consistent forces behind my biggest career decisions. My first real experience with coaching came after I left my first job. My former manager and the company’s co-founder continued to coach me through a period of uncertainty where I weighed my career options - To deepen my engineering skills or to reset and move into commerical roles. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what was happening. Looking back, I see it clearly. When you are inside a problem, especially a career problem, your judgment is distorted by proximity. Personal life, ambition, fear and external pressure all shape decisions whether you acknowledge them or not. A coach creates space. The value came in three forms. First, frameworks. Instead of gut reactions, I learned to build decision models and work backwards from long-term outcomes. Second, perspective. A coach is a voice of reason who understands you well enough to push back when needed. Third, accountability. Coaching is not passive advice. It is an active partnership to move from point A to point B. Over time, many of these coaching relationships evolved into long-term mentorships. Even today, 12 to 15 years into my career and several years post the MBA, I actively seek coaching. I work with one coach to navigate growth and complexity inside large organizations and another to refine my professional judgment and leadership style. I come with specific asks, test ideas and apply what I learn. One concrete example was my transition within Amazon. I worked with a coach for nearly a year while preparing to move from a leadership program into a high-growth area I had never worked in before - Amazon Ads. Together we mapped the skills I needed, designed a plan to build them and made deliberate choices in my current role to position me for the move. Just as importantly, there was accountability on both sides. That transition into Amazon Ads is one of the decisions I am happiest with and it would not have happened the same way without coaching. I coach because I have been in those moments of uncertainty. Since 2021, I have worked with MBA applicants and post-MBA professionals navigating school choices, consulting recruiting, big tech pivots and leadership programs. People come to me when they are standing at a crossroads. I care about this work because I know how much clarity at the right moment can change the trajectory of a career. Coaching helps people choose consciously, not drift into decisions they later regret.
Work Experience
Sr. Program Manager, Business Operations & Strategy Lead (Ads)
Amazon
January 2025 - Present
Interviewer
Lead cross-functional business operations and transformation programmes across Europe, LATAM and Canada for Amazon Ads’ $300M unit. Partnered with Technology, Finance and Commercial teams to drive AI-native automation, operational scalability and revenue growth. - Created and executed an AI strategy across 12 job families, influencing Tech, Finance and Commercial teams tointroduce GenAI agents automating 65 workflows and reducing manual effort by 19 FTEs - Productised 24 managed-service solutions into a scalable GTM model, reducing time-to-market by 85% anddriving $33M incremental revenue across 100 advertisers - Built mechanisms for alignment across VP/Director-level leaders, enabling faster decision cycles - Built decision-support models for cost, revenue and capacity modelling, improving planning accuracy to 98%and generating $125M annual revenue uplift - Redesigned global workflows and governance models, increasing contribution margin by 600bps in threequarters and 80% capacity expansion - Established KPIs frameworks and guided strategic investment into Prime Video Ads, cutting operational costby 20% while maintaining 100% revenue attainment
Pathways Operations Manager
Amazon
September 2022 - January 2025
Hiring Manager
Delivered major network optimisation and cost-reduction programmes across nine EU sites as part of Amazon’s global Pathways leadership track. Managed nine managers and 200 associates within a matrix structure to drive safety, speed and service excellence. - Led cross-functional planning for 450K daily shipments, managing a multi-layer team of managers andassociates; zero critical safety incidents; 0.1% downtime; 2% YoY cost reduction - Architected and deployed five new operational and digital transformation programmes across EMEA’s firstrobotics fulfilment centre, saving $1.2M annually - Launched 62 new SKUs across four robotic fulfilment centres, reducing supply chain disruption by 16% andcutting fulfilment cost per order by 9% - Achieved $2.6M in logistics savings through 3PL and concession optimisation initiatives spanning first, middleand last-mile operations - Partnered with packaging suppliers to design new materials strategy rolled out to 45 fulfilment centres globally - Spearheaded a cost-to-serve review with Finance and Supply Chain, uncovering $1.4M in avoidable transport spend and creating a recurring reporting cadence for leadership - Directed a pan-EU packaging-waste initiative with vendor partners, reducing material waste by 11% and achieving full compliance three months ahead of regulatory deadline
MBA Summer Intern
OnlineSales
May 2021 - August 2021
Strategic Go-to-Market (GTM) and Product Operations MBA internship focused on driving efficiency in the APAC region. Designed a QSR GTM strategy that reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by 25%. Implemented a product feedback scoring system that accelerated feature development lead time by 17%. - Developed an APAC Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy for full-funnel marketing suite targeted at QSR brands such as Jollibee and Chowking by analyzing the sales pipeline and forecasting churn, creating a 15% more efficient sales funnel and reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by 25% - Designed a product feedback scoring system to quantify real-time user complaints and establish resolution benchmarks, accelerating the product iteration rate and decreasing feature development lead time by 17%
Fellow & Entrepreneur in Residence, Smart Cities Mission
Government of india
January 2019 - March 2020
Interviewer
Designed and implemented smart-city programmes across 100 Indian cities, leveraging data, digital engagement and behavioural incentives to drive public adoption and efficiency. - Built a nationwide digital marketplace, influencing federal, state and city stakeholders to match 1M users with 4K employers and enhance access to employment opportunities - Launched India’s first citizen-incentive model for 9M residents, increasing digital utility payments by 65% and reducing energy consumption by 8%, saving $4M annually - Developed a KPI and analytics dashboard tracking 7K projects across 100 cities, integrating 50K+ datasets for real-time decision-making - Collaborated with three ministries and 15 city municipal leaders to create a unified smart-infrastructure governance model, cutting project-approval lead time by 30% - Designed outcome-based KPIs for 20+ state governments, linking central funding release to project-level results; model later adopted nationally - Supported design of India’s first national data-exchange platform linking 40+ cities; enhanced transparency and enabled real-time progress tracking for 2K+ ongoing projects
Sr. Manager, Business Development
Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats
January 2016 - December 2018
Hiring Manager
Established and scaled a Smart Cities consulting practice. Owned international transport and infrastructure projects across India, Kenya and Vietnam. - Directed multi-country project delivery valued at $11M, leading a regional team of project managers and enabling transport infrastructure access for 700K+ people - Founded and grew a Smart Cities consulting division to a $4M annual P&L, securing $5.9M in new contracts with 40% margins - Negotiated three IoT joint ventures across East Africa, creating a $40M partnership portfolio - Built a bid-management framework that increased proposal win-rate from 35% to 58% across transport and smart-city tenders - Introduced project-health dashboards for client leadership teams, improving payment cycles and contract transparency on $10M+ active projects - Mentored eight regional project managers across Africa and Asia, strengthening delivery discipline and establishing a standardised performance-review process - Coordinated donor-funded infrastructure projects across Kenya and Vietnam, aligning reporting standards to meet World Bank audit requirements and securing follow-on multi-million-dollar funding
Consultant
Fishamigo
January 2015 - December 2015
Commercial leader for a high-growth hyperlocal food delivery startup. I drove operational optimization and increased profitability, playing a pivotal role in the company's successful acquisition by India's largest seafood player. - Commercial Strategy | Executed targeted, demand-driven marketing campaigns that acquired 23 new customers and increased daily orders by 140% in six months, generating $37K in new revenue - Operations Management | Increased B2C gross profit margin from 12% to 17% within one financial year by implementing a decentralized warehousing strategy to eliminate supply chain bottlenecks
R&D Engineer
Promethean Power Systems
June 2013 - December 2014
Spearheaded R&D and operations at a CimateTech innovator, addressing critical energy and storage challenges for over 1,000 farmers. Progressed from a hands-on technical role to a business and operations leader, directing a new facility launch (+600% capacity), managing product localization (-40% cost), and securing a $1M contract through on-site crisis resolution for key accounts like Nestlé. - New Facility Launch | Established a new production facility, increasing manufacturing capacity by 600% - Product Localization | Gathered key requirements from 1K+ farmers to engineer a 100% locally manufactured system, reducing costs by 40% - Crisis Management | Resolved an energy crisis threatening milk storage by co-developing an innovative solution with cattle owners, securing a $1M contract - Field Leadership | Led a team of 3 field support engineers, directing installations, servicing, and on-site, product-related crisis resolution for key accounts including Nestlé, Amul, and Hatsun Agro - Customer Support | Managed all post-installation support, service, and customer outreach for 35+ systems spread across 17 locations) Observership at Greentown labs, Boston, MA where I interacted with founders, investors and engineers of nearly 25 startups (in various stages of their life-cycle) and was exposed to the diverse startup environment and opportunities in ClimateTech.
Ambar was also given offers to work at
Monitor Deloitte
Strategy&
Revolut
Education
IESE Business School
Master of Business Administration - MBA, Business Administration and Management, General
2020 - 2022
Activities and societies: • Elected to the Student Council to represent 350 students • VP - Mental Health and Well-Being club • VP - Consulting club • VP - India Business club • Awarded 100% academic scholarship • Podium finish in the AB InBev MBA competition Strategic Thinking and Business Acumen
Manipal University
Bachelor’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering
2009 - 2013
Activities and societies: • Corporate Head of the socio-adventure club Red-X – Raised $14K for the lifelong education of 35 children from underserved communities Analytical Skills, Engineering Management and +1 skill