Susana de Fátima Carvalho Amador was born in the parish of Alagoa in the municipality of Portalegre in the east of Portugal on 25 April 1967.

[1][2] Between 1991 and 1993 Amador worked as a legal adviser to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

In 1995 she became the legal advisor to the parliamentary group of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), retaining that post until 2005.

Between 2013 and 2015 she was president of the Inter-Municipal Development Cooperation Network and a vice-president of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities.

The election resulted in the PS, under the prime minister António Costa, winning an overall majority in the country and being able to form a government without a coalition.