I have a python3.6 script that uses sqlalchemy, pandas and numpy. To get this working on AWS Lambda, I took the following steps.
- Created a new, clean directory
 - Create a new virtualenv
 - Create a holding directory (
mkdir dist) - Install packages 
pip install sqlalchemy numpy pandas - Navigate to packages 
cd env/lib/python3.6/site-packages - Zip packages to holding directory 
zip -r path/dist/Transfer.zip . - Navigate to root
 - Zip python file 
zip -g dist/Transfer.zip my_python.py - Upload to S3
 - Direct Lambda > Configuration > Code entry type > Upload a file from S3 > path to my file
 - Set Handler to my_python.lambda_handler
 - Save and test
 
I always get the error
{ "errorMessage": "Unable to import module 'my_python'" }
With the logs as
Unable to import module 'heap_consolidation_lambda': Missing required dependencies ['numpy']
Why can it not see numpy? Fwiw, numpy is the third import, so apparently it has no issues with sqlalchemy and pandas.