Amazon’s sweeping job cuts, totaling more than 14,000 roles announced last month, have hit engineering positions harder than any other category. WARN filings across New York, California, New Jersey and Washington show that close to 40 percent of more than 4,700 reported cuts in those states were engineering roles. The disclosures cover only part of the total reductions due to differences in reporting requirements, but they highlight where the company is tightening most aggressively.
The layoffs come during a broader contraction across the tech industry. More than 113,000 jobs have been eliminated at 231 companies so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi, extending the trend that began in 2022 as businesses recalibrated after the pandemic. For Amazon, the reductions are part of CEO Andy Jassy’s long-running effort to make the company operate with the speed and discipline of a startup by removing layers of bureaucracy and scaling down teams.
Engineering and Product Roles Take the Biggest Hit
The filings show that software engineering cuts affected a range of seniority levels, with SDE II employees accounting for a large share of the reductions. Engineering-heavy teams across devices, cloud services, retail, and advertising were included. More than 500 product and program managers were also eliminated, representing over 10 percent of recorded cuts.
Amazon executives have emphasized that the changes are organizational rather than technology-driven. In her memo to staff, human resources chief Beth Galetti said the company must become leaner to innovate more quickly, especially as new AI tools accelerate development cycles. She called this “the most transformative technology” since the early internet.
At the same time, Amazon is investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Jassy has said that AI will reduce corporate headcount over time by improving efficiency. That mirrors a larger trend in the software industry, where coding assistants and automated development platforms from OpenAI, Cursor and Cognition are reshaping engineering workflows. Amazon recently launched its own tool, Kiro.
Gaming, Advertising and AI Shopping Teams Affected
The layoffs extended into creative and consumer-facing divisions. In California, Amazon’s gaming studios in Irvine and San Diego saw reductions across design, production and art teams. The company is pausing much of its work on large-scale game development, including MMO projects.
Amazon also downsized its visual search and shopping teams, which built AI tools such as Amazon Lens and Lens Live for real-time product discovery. WARN filings indicate cuts across software engineers, applied scientists and quality assurance roles in Palo Alto.
The online advertising organization, one of Amazon’s most profitable units, reduced more than 140 sales and marketing positions in New York. The move comes as major platforms, including Amazon and OpenAI, explore how new AI-driven ad formats will evolve. In our earlier coverage of ChatGPT’s emerging ads functionality, we noted how OpenAI is testing monetization tools alongside new user features. Amazon’s downsizing in its ads division suggests a parallel reassessment of priorities as AI-driven automation changes how campaigns are sold and managed.
Amazon is expected to pursue more reductions in early 2026, continuing a shift toward a leaner structure as the company doubles down on artificial intelligence and long-term profitability.
