Amazon's recent wave of layoffs, part of a broader initiative to reduce its corporate workforce by approximately 14,000 roles, has disproportionately affected its engineering staff. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings in New York, California, New Jersey, and Washington reveal that nearly 40% of the 4,700 job cuts in those states targeted engineering positions. This signifies a major shift in the company's operational priorities and impacts a crucial segment of its workforce.
The layoffs, announced in October 2025, represent the largest workforce reduction in Amazon's 31-year history, aligning the company with a broader trend of belt-tightening among tech giants in the post-pandemic era. While the cuts span various segments of Amazon's business, including cloud services, retail, advertising, and groceries, engineering roles have been particularly hard hit. Within the engineering departments, mid-level software engineers (SDE II) have been disproportionately affected. In total, Amazon has eliminated over 1,800 engineering positions.
Amazon's management has attributed the layoffs to organizational changes aimed at creating a leaner, more efficient structure. Beth Galetti, Amazon's Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, emphasized the need for fewer layers and more ownership to accelerate innovation and better serve customers. The rise of artificial intelligence has also been cited as a factor, with the company suggesting that some engineering positions have become redundant due to advancements in technology.
However, some industry experts believe that the layoffs may reflect prior overhiring and misjudged organizational needs during the pandemic-fueled growth period. These experts suggest that the restructuring is a corrective measure to realign the technical workforce with current business performance and anticipated automation advancements. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been pushing to reshape Amazon's culture into what he calls "the world's largest startup,” urging teams to operate leaner and faster by cutting layers of bureaucracy.
Despite the company's emphasis on AI-driven efficiency, Amazon insists that AI was not the primary driver behind the layoffs. Instead, the focus is on reducing bureaucracy and speeding up decision-making processes. While cutting jobs, Amazon is also increasing spending in AI infrastructure and data centers.
The impact of these layoffs extends beyond the affected employees. The reduction in Amazon's engineering workforce could have implications for the company's innovation pipeline and its ability to compete in key areas such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Moreover, the availability of mid-level engineering talent could present opportunities for startups and rival companies to strengthen their own teams. Further job reductions are expected in January 2026.
