Uber has carried out its most aggressive workforce reduction in over six years, slashing a sizable portion of its 34,000-person staff as the company pivots toward a leaner structure.
The ride-hailing giant confirmed the layoffs in a message from CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, though executives declined to reveal the exact headcount affected. Bloomberg first reported on the cuts.
Targeted roles fell heavily within middle management and coordination functions. Khosrowshahi said the restructuring shrinks that layer by 20%, pushing Uber toward what he described as “a simpler org chart geared toward building versus managing.”
“The changes we’re making today are designed to do two things: make Uber simpler and faster, and create more capacity to invest in our future,” he wrote. “A leaner organization will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating.”
Meanwhile, the company has dramatically tightened its remote work policy. Only 1% of remaining positions will stay fully remote. Everyone else must relocate to an office, with most roles concentrated in Uber’s hub cities of New York and San Francisco.
The company had not filed a WARN notice with California officials as of Wednesday afternoon, leaving the local scope unclear. Uber also did not answer questions about which job titles or locations bore the brunt of the cuts.
As a result, affected employees took to LinkedIn to share their departures. Peter Tran, a Toronto-based software engineer, announced the news with characteristic candor. “Today, Uber promoted me to customer,” he wrote. “It’s not the career move I had planned, but here we are.”
The restructuring signals Uber’s broader ambition: strip away organizational bloat and redirect resources toward product development and future bets. Whether that gamble pays off remains to be seen.
