Washington: According to a company statement quoted by PTI, Varadarajan will assume his new role on January 19. He will join Starbucks’ Executive Leadership Team and report directly to Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol.
Varadarajan succeeds Deb Hall Lefevre, who retired in September this year. Following her departure, Ningyu Chen had been serving as interim CTO while the company conducted a global search for a permanent replacement.
Announcing the appointment, Starbucks said Varadarajan brings deep expertise in building secure and reliable systems, as well as scaling technology to drive operational excellence with a strong focus on customer experience. With him at the helm, the company is expected to further invest in digital tools and backend systems to streamline workflows, support employees, and enhance the in-store experience, areas where he played a key role during his tenure at Amazon.
Varadarajan spent close to 19 years at Amazon, working on large-scale, customer-centric technology platforms. Most recently, he oversaw technology and supply chain operations for the company’s Worldwide Grocery Stores business under Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
An accomplished academic, Varadarajan is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He also holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington.
Before joining Amazon, Varadarajan worked as a software engineer at Oracle and with several startups, giving him experience across diverse technology environments.