AWS Layoffs Hit Managers, Engineers, Recruiters; CEO Weighs In
CRN reviewed dozens of LinkedIn posts from Amazon Web Services employees who were laid off. Here is where AWS made its cuts.
Recently laid off Amazon Web Services employees—from partner marketing managers and enterprise account executives to engineers and recruiters—took to LinkedIn today to let their social network know they had been let go as part of Amazon’s most recent 9,000 layoff round.
“Unfortunately, today I was impacted by the AWS layoffs,” said Barbara Rivero, global senior partner marketing manager at AWS on LinkedIn, who had been with AWS for over five years.
CRN reviewed dozens of LinkedIn posts from AWS employees who were laid off, many of which appear to be relatively new employees—having joined the company within the past few years. For example, a slew of technical recruiters posted on LinkedIn that they’ve been laid off by AWS, many of whom joined the company within the past 18 months.
[Related: AWS Confirms Layoffs Impacting ‘Single Digit Percentage’ Of Employees]
Employees who were laid off include software development engineers, senior and enterprise account executives, cybersecurity consultants, senior cloud architects, DevOps consultants, senior specialist solutions architects, software development engineers, and data scientist managers.
Data And Partner Leaders Axed
Tanner Pratt, head of data streaming for AWS’ professional global services organization, was let go after two years with the Seattle-based cloud computing leader.
“Today I was laid off from AWS. It was an incredible ride to learn the inner workings of the mothership,” Pratt said. “I was fortunate to get to know many superstars in the industry and help many customers successfully leverage AWS as they modernized their data platforms.”
Some other notable employees who were led go included AWS’ Latin America partner program manager, Robson Balista da Silva; AWS’ global technology and segment leader for Web3 and blockchain, Shai Perednik; and Mallik Mudigonda, senior database consultant for AWS professional services.
“After working for almost 8 years in multiple teams at AWS, am now back on the market. Unfortunately, I am one of those affected by the recent round of 9,000 layoffs,” Mudigonda said on LinkedIn.
Earlier this month, AWS confirmed to CRN that Amazon’s latest 9,000-employee layoff round would impact a “small, single-digit percentage” of AWS employees. The $85 billion cloud market share leader declined to disclose how many people it employs globally.
Adam Selipsky: ‘Tough Day Across’ AWS
In January, Amazon also said it would lay off 18,000 employees. CRN learned at the time that AWS would not be greatly affected by that layoff round. However, Amazon’s newest 9,000 layoff round is impacting at least hundreds, if not a few thousand, employees.
AWS CEO Adam Selipsky sent a memo to employers Wednesday discussing Amazon’s “difficult decision” to eliminate roles within AWS.
“I wanted to let you know that conversations with impacted AWS employees started today, with notification messages sent to all impacted employees in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica,” said Selipsky. “It is a tough day across our organization.”
Selipsky said both the size of AWS’ business and team has “grown significantly over recent years,” driven by customer demand for cloud and the unique value AWS provides.
“Given this rapid growth, as well as the overall business and macroeconomic climate, it is critical that we focus on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities—those things that matter most to customers and that will move the needle for our business,” said Selipsky. “In many cases this means team members are shifting the projects, initiatives or teams on which they work; however, in other cases it has resulted in these role eliminations.”