Tech Director at Amazon Payment Services | Follow for posts about Leadership Development and Career Growth | Leadership & Career Mentor | Author Of Leadership in 60 Seconds

I ​am a global technology executive with over 20 years of experience. I am currently Director of Software Engineering at Amazon, leading the Access Management Systems space within Amazon Security.

Over my career, I'm honored to have delivered award-winning transformational initiatives that have created competitive advantage, enabled business growth, and exceeded customer expectations.

Known as a forward-thinking problem-solver ― skilled in both business and technology strategy ― I adapt and plan for evolving market needs, delivering initiatives with speed and agility. I am also deeply passionate about building, developing, managing, and leading high-performance teams. A strong communicator and relationship builder, I partner effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and am a trusted advisor within the company.

Ever since I stepped into my first managerial role, more than a decade ago, I quickly realized the profound impact strong leadership has on individuals, teams, and organizations. From that moment, I made it my mission to empower others in their leadership journeys, guiding them to reach new heights in their careers.

In support of this mission, I have developed a community on LinkedIn of over 89K+ like-minded professionals with whom I actively support, engage, and share daily content on leadership, management, and career. I have been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice (Blue Badge) and ranked #1 LinkedIn Arab World Creator in Management and Leadership. 

Outside of work, I am passionate about everything automotive, especially F1 racing (Forza Ferrari!). I enjoy sports in general, both playing and watching. I also have a keen interest in collecting fragrances, working out with a focus on strength training, and all things food—from learning about it and exploring new cuisines to preparing dishes and hosting gatherings. 

Languages: English 🇺🇸 Arabic 🇱🇧 French 🇫🇷

Omar Halabieh

Ehsan Ali 🚀

Top-Ranked Australian Career Coach | Helped 100+ Senior IT Pros Land $200K–$400K+ Roles | 2–4 Level Jumps. 30%–120% Raises. | Take the 3-Min Quiz & Uncover Your Hidden Growth Blockers

For Indian-origin professionals like us, 
career was never just a paycheck.

It’s identity.

Study hard.
Get a good job.
Hustle. Climb fast.
Move abroad. Make everyone proud.

I did all that too.

From the outside, it looked sorted.
Good roles. Good money. Comfortable life.

But inside, I felt it.

I was playing safe.
Staying reliable.
Delivering more. 
But not becoming more.

Then life got heavier.

Mortgage. Kids’ school fees. Lifestyle. Ageing parents.

And work got shakier.

Reorgs. Layoffs. Politics.
Big decisions made fast, without warning.

During Covid, I hit a turning point.

I quit.
And then... two years of no income.

That season humbled me.

It forced me to face a truth most senior pros avoid:

Doing good work keeps you employed.
It does not protect your future.

I wasn’t looking for motivation. 
I needed a method.

So I studied what actually drives senior growth:

• How trust is built at the top.
• How leaders make decisions behind closed doors.
• How hiring really works at senior level.
• Why capable people get overlooked.

Then I applied it—to myself.

Even after two years without a job, I started getting invited into $400K+ interviews.
Doors that once felt locked began to open.

Now I had to choose:

Go back quietly, rebuild the title...
or help others rebuild their power.

I chose the second.

Over the last 4+ years, I’ve turned those hard lessons into playbooks and private sessions that help mid-to-senior IT professionals reclaim direction, self-worth, and income.

Recent wins from the community:

🚀 Tim (Senior Director): 18 months without a role to two $300K+ offers in 10 weeks
🚀 Urvish (S/W Engineer): laid off to Principal Engineer in 10 weeks, then Director in 12 months
🚀 Hesham (Principal Engineer): $200K to $650K+ in 3 months
🚀 Maruf (VP, Analytics & AI): Invisible to Global Top 100 within a year

If you’re feeling that mix of frustration, fear, and quiet exhaustion, don’t wait for things to “settle”. 

They won’t.

Start now:

✅ Take the 2-minute Career Diagnostic Quiz (link in Featured)
✅ Or DM ROUNDTABLE for an invite to my Virtual Career Roundtable
Private. Invite-only.

Podcast Host & Producer

Australia's 1st Business & Career podcast featuring inspiring stories of Indian Expats who either successfully transitioned into entrepreneurship or excelled in their careers beyond the perceived limitations and ceiling

Ehsan Ali

Here’s why smart senior IT people get rejected.
Even when they’re the best person.

Because most hiring decisions aren’t deep.

They’re fast.

8 seconds on your LinkedIn.
A quick gut check.
“Do I feel safe betting on them?”

So a rejection isn’t a verdict.
It’s a price tag from someone who doesn’t know your value yet.

And that’s dangerous if you start believing it.

Because at senior level, hiring runs on:

Trust.
Risk.
Familiarity.

If your value isn’t obvious fast…
you get treated like a “maybe”.

And “maybe” turns into:

❌ ghosted after round 1
❌ “we went with someone else”
❌ roles below your capability

So don’t try to convince everyone.

Do this instead:

✅ Make your value obvious in 10 seconds
Lead with outcomes. Wins. Proof. Risk reduced.

✅ Stop listing tasks. Name the impact
Not: “Led cloud migration.”
More like: “Prevented security and cost disasters during migration.”

✅ Build familiarity before the role exists
Because strangers don’t feel safe to hire.

Don’t let someone who doesn’t know your value…
tell you how much you’re worth.

♻️ Repost this for someone taking rejection personally
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ Senior IT career playbooks

Career Strategist for Indian-Origin Senior IT Professionals | Advancing into $250K–$400K+ next-level roles by turning their existing experience into an unfair advantage

I was the top performer who stayed stuck 5 years. 
The fix? Stop these 7 habits.

Skill gets you hired.
Strategy gets you promoted.

And in 2026, strategy beats skill every time.

You’re still brilliant.

Solving complex problems.
Leading projects.
Delivering results that should speak for themselves.

But they don’t.

Because the rules changed.
And nobody sent the memo.

You’re still playing the technical excellence game…
while your next level demands strategic visibility.

Here’s what that looks like 👇

1️⃣ You Stay in Your Lane

↳ You’ve mastered your domain. But mastery without motion is stagnation.
↳ Leaders don’t just do work. They shape work.

👉 Cross boundaries. Solve problems that aren’t “yours.” That’s how you get noticed.

2️⃣ You Assume Great Work Gets Noticed

↳ It doesn’t.
↳ Silence kills careers faster than failure.

👉 Stop waiting for recognition.
Translate your wins into business impact: time saved, cost reduced, risk avoided.

3️⃣ You’re Seen as Technical, Not Strategic

↳You’re trusted to deliver. Not to decide.
↳ That’s the ceiling.

👉 Speak the language of business, not just systems.
Lead with why it matters, not just how it works.
That’s how you move from executor → strategic voice.

4️⃣ You Dismiss Influence as “Politics”

↳ Let’s call it what it is: fear of visibility.
↳ You think staying neutral keeps you safe. It keeps you small.

👉 Politics isn’t manipulation.
It’s advocacy. Learn to navigate it with integrity.

5️⃣ You Wait for Permission

↳ No one promotes potential that hides behind compliance.

👉 Lead before the title.
Create momentum before someone “allows” you to.

6️⃣ You Network Wrong

↳ You show up when you need something.
↳ Which means people remember you when you do.

👉 Build trust early.
Reputation compounds long before opportunities appear.

7️⃣ You Resist Change or Personal Growth

↳ Comfort is the quiet killer of ambitious people.
↳ The habits that got you here won’t get you there.

👉 Study leadership, not just technology.
Prepare for the role above the one you’re in.

You’re not overlooked because you’re not ready.
You’re overlooked because your readiness isn’t obvious.

The moment you stop hiding behind “doing”
and start owning the room,
everything shifts.

You don’t chase titles.
You attract them.

If you’re brilliant, reliable, and still invisible,
you don’t need more effort, you need the right room.

I’m running a small, private virtual roundtable for mid-senior IT pros to teach this live.

If you want an invite, DM me ROUNDTABLE.
If seats are still open, I’ll send you the link.

♻️ Repost if you know someone brilliant who’s still being overlooked
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ Senior IT career playbooks

7 Career Mistakes That Keep You Stuck at The Same Level

Senior IT people don’t talk about this fear.
But it’s everywhere.

Layoffs. Reorgs. Redundancies.

Not just in the news.
In your Slack.
In the way budgets suddenly tighten.

And that’s when it gets real.
Because it’s not just your job.

You start doing the math:

Mortgage.
School fees.
Parents who need help.
That family holiday everyone keeps asking about.

That’s why "career insurance" matters.
Not later.
Now.

Here’s what doesn’t protect you:

❌ Working the hardest
❌ Being loyal and hoping it pays off
❌ Fixing everything quietly
❌ Being known only inside one team
❌ More certs when the real issue is “no one knows you”
❌ Waiting for job ads (many senior roles never get posted)
❌ “I’ll deal with it after this project”

That’s not insurance.

That’s being one restructure away from panic.

Because when the org chart changes…
Hard work isn’t what saves you.
Being known does.

Here’s what actually protects you:

✅ Get known outside your team

One skip-level chat a month.
One coffee with a peer in another division.
So your name exists beyond one manager.

✅ Be remembered for one expensive problem

Not “cloud guy.”
More like:
“I prevent cloud migrations turning into security and cost disasters.”

✅ Collect proof that travels

Not tasks. Wins.
Before/after. Numbers. Risk reduced.
So your value is obvious in 10 seconds.

✅ Build 3 door-openers

People who can say:
“Talk to them. They’re solid.”
That’s what creates interviews without applying.

Quick self-check:

If you got a restructure email tomorrow…
Do you have 3 people who could open doors in 7 days?

If not, you’re not broken.
You’re just not insured yet.

♻️ Repost this for the quiet high performer who thinks delivery alone protects them.
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ IT Career playbooks.

Hope applying isn’t a strategy.
It’s stress dressed up as effort.

Most mid-senior IT pros aren’t stuck because their resume is bad.

They’re stuck because the market changed.
And they’re still using 2006 methods in 2026.

In 2026:

Job boards are noise.
AI made “good resumes” average.
Senior hiring runs on familiarity and trust.

So if you’re applying more and getting silence:

You’re not broken.
Your strategy is.

I’ve seen this pattern across 2,000+ mid-senior IT pros.

The ones who land next-level roles don’t apply harder.

They do 3 things differently:

1. Make their value obvious fast
 (not “responsibilities”… outcomes + risk reduction)

2. Build familiarity before roles exist
 (trust comes before interviews)

3. Position as a painkiller, not a multivitamin
 (specific problem. specific buyer. clear win)

Quick check:

This month, did you gain:
- recruiter outreach
- warm intros
- hiring manager attention

Or just more “application submitted” confirmations?

Before you give up, learn what works now.

I am hosting a few small private roundtables for mid-senior IT professionals.

I’ll show you:
✅ how to position your value so it’s obvious fast
✅ how to build familiarity and trust before roles exist
✅ how to stop being “reliable” and become the obvious choice

Want an invite?

DM me ROUNDTABLE and I’ll send details (if seats are still open).

♻️ Repost this for someone stuck in job-board limbo
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ career playbooks

$200K to $650K Salary jump in 90 days.

This Principal Engineer rewrote his market value.

No extra certifications.
No new skills.
No luck.

He just changed how he was positioned.

Most senior IT professionals think the next level needs:

More experience.
More certs.
More talent.
Better timing.

So they do what feels logical:

Scroll LinkedIn jobs.
Apply randomly.
Study more.
Add another certification.

And it keeps them stuck.

Because the more you apply like everyone else,
the more you get priced like everyone else.

Here’s what he did instead.

He stopped listing skills.
He got brutally clear on 3 things:

1) The problems he solves better than most

Not “I’m strong in cloud / microservices / DevOps.”

Instead: “I reduce outages, speed up releases, and stabilise platforms under pressure.”

2) The business impact he’s already created

Not responsibilities.

Outcomes. Proof. Before and after.

The kind that makes a leader think: “This lowers my risk.”

3) Where that value would be paid for

He picked companies where those problems are expensive.

Where a Principal Engineer isn’t a nice-to-have.
He’s a painkiller for an expensive problem.


Then he moved differently.
He didn’t spray applications.

He targeted.
He reached out with a clear message.
He built relationships before there was a job ad.

Not “Please consider me.”

Instead:
“I noticed X tends to show up at your scale. I’ve fixed this at <competitor>. Happy to share what worked. Worth a quick chat?”

And when the right conversation opened…
he didn’t negotiate like a desperate job seeker.

He negotiated like an asset with proof.
That’s how $200K becomes $650K.

If you’re a mid to senior IT professional, serious about your next-level move, 

I’m running a small private Career Roundtable where I break down this method step-by-step.

DM me ROUNDTABLE.
If seats are still open, I’ll send the details.

♻️ Repost this for someone who’s capable but unseen.
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ Senior IT career playbooks.

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Omar Halabieh

Ehsan Ali

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The Battle

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Ehsan Ali

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