This Charlotte Amazon warehouse manager works to get your packages delivered on time

Juan Colorado’s job has taken him from Colombia to the Carolinas in pursuit of a job he loves.

Colorado is a process assistant manager at the Amazon robotics fulfillment center in Charlotte. He oversees the packaging process and makes sure each machine is working properly to get every package out within 1.5 hours.

Colorado, who is referred to as CJ at work, says his typical day starts at 5 a.m.

Once he clocks in, he meets with other Amazon leaders at 6:45 a.m. before checking on the facility stations to ensure all tools that create and apply labels to packages for delivery are squared away for associates.

By 7:30 a.m., those associates start filing in. In his role, Colorado oversees associates packing single items.

“Let’s say you order something on Amazon. It gets picked, sent over here to this department, and the packer will be in charge of packing each item in the proper box,” Colorado explained. “It’s a very friendly system and very easy to use.”

Each associate has their own workstation where they scan and pack items ordered off Amazon’s website. The packing system used in the facility makes it easy for each worker to get orders, like books, household items and electronics, packed quickly.

From showing which boxes to place items in to transporting each package, every order gets packed and shipped within minutes. Colorado’s main role is to make sure that the packing process on his floor goes smoothly.

Coming to Charlotte

Amazon opened its first robotics fulfillment center in North Carolina near Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2019, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. The facility covers 855,000 square feet — roughly the size of 15 football fields. Thousands of employees work to get over 350,000 packages to customers within 90 minutes every day.

Originally from Medellín, Colombia, Colorado moved to the United States with his parents when he was 3 years old. He lived in Clemmons, North Carolina, through grade school until he moved briefly back to Colombia as a freshman in high school because he and his family were undocumented.



That’s where he got his start in industrial engineering.

A few years after he moved back to Colombia, he reconnected with an old classmate, Astrid Carballo. Indirectly, that’s what led to his job at Amazon.

The two met when they were kids at church in Clemmons. When Carballo was 20, she traveled to Colombia in 2018 to see her old friend CJ. That’s when their love story began.

“We ended up liking each other and were like, ‘OK, let’s try it out. Long distance,’ but it worked,” Carballo said. “We were together for two years, and within that two-year span we got married.”

All of this happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Colorado got on the last flight to the U.S. from Colombia the day that the border shut down, they said.

Once they were both settled, they started to look for jobs during the pandemic.

“I found out that I could not continue my career … so I wanted to go into a company that I knew I could continue to grow from the bottom,” Colorado said. “I’d studied five years to be in operations and that’s why I chose Amazon.”

‘The rise of Amazon’

Colorado and Carballo started working part-time at the Amazon center in 2021. They were making the 78-mile commute from Clemmons to Charlotte every weekend to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday shifts.

In their early days working with Amazon, Colorado said he remembers how busy and divided he felt working at the warehouse because of the pandemic. Not only were there safety precautions in place for the staff, but they also saw a boom in orders as more people isolated at home.

“As we noticed during the pandemic, I think that was the rise of Amazon,” Colorado said. “You needed something; you didn’t have to go outside. You’d just order it, and it’d get to your house the next day, which changed the way of living for everyone.”

But a few months later, he and his wife moved to Charlotte for good to work at Amazon full-time.

“We saw the opportunities we had here to grow. Once we started realizing the operation and that we can advance here, that’s when we started making connections and getting ourselves out there,” Carballo said.

Now, Colorado and his wife are both managing different departments at the fulfillment center.

“The moment I walked into the fulfillment center, I knew I wanted to be more than an associate,” Colorado said. “Ever since then (there have been) a lot of opportunities.”

Connecting with others

Another big part of his role at work is connecting with other Hispanic/Latinx employees within the company’s Latino affinity group.

More than 30 members of the group are focused on building a community centered on hiring, retaining, and developing talent within the company. They also have an internal mentorship program, an advisory board for business projects and host social, cultural and fundraising events.

“It’s just really good to know that all of us are getting together and we’re able to help the community out … not just inside Amazon but outside,” he said.

While Colorado says the sky’s the limit at Amazon, he has bigger dreams.

“My goal at Amazon is to keep pushing myself to new heights and strive for success,” he said. “However, if I’m being truthful, I envision myself in a couple years holding the position of a general manager at a robotic fulfillment center.

“No matter who you are or where you’re from, dream and dream big. Remember that everything big started small,” Colorado said. “That’s something I always carry with me.”