My partner is also a consultant and one client was Google. I’m also confused about the exact reason why they didn’t just hire someone.

"You see we leased this back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account."

~ Monty Python, Meaning of Line (1983), on The Machine that Goes Ping.

No that’s not what I meant at all. Amazon Professional Services are made up of full time “blue badge” employees who get the same type of base + bonus + RSUs that all other blue badge employees get.