Walmart’s new cuts to its staff of Bay Area tech workers go far deeper than they originally appeared.
In late May, when the retail giant filed two of the WARN documents generally required in the event of mass layoffs, California’s Employment Development Department processed them separately. The EDD published the first WARN quickly, revealing a 106-worker cut at Walmart’s San Bruno offices that SFGATE previously covered. The second WARN, processed later but public as of this week, has more brutal news: 405 workers are losing their jobs at Walmart’s Sunnyvale offices.
Similar to those in San Bruno, the Sunnyvale cuts stem from Walmart overhauling its ranks of tech workers. In a May 21 memo from global Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar and U.S. CEO John Furner to staff, the executives wrote, “Walmart is reshaping some teams in our Global Tech and Walmart U.S. organizations where we have identified opportunities to reshift layers and complexity, speed up decision-building, and assist associates innovate rapidly.”
Walmart’s executives tarreceiveed programmers, the new WARN reveals. Among the 405 Sunnyvale layoffs, more than half had some version of “software engineer” in their title — the cuts hit both engineering directors and rank-and-file coders. Employees working in product management, data analysis, design, automation and cybersecurity were also included in the layoffs.
The WARN notice declared the layoffs will be spread across July 25, Aug. 22 and Sept. 5 termination dates and that workers will be eligible for severance pay after a “paid transition period.” The Sunnyvale offices won’t be closing, according to the notice.
Walmart’s cuts come as workers grapple with a tumultuous moment in the tech industest and job market. The push for efficiency that led to sweeping layoffs at companies such as Meta and Microsoft is ongoing, President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have contributed to economic uncertainty, and artificial ininformigence is now writing huge amounts of code.
Kumar and Furner, the Walmart executives, wrote in their May 21 memo, “The world of technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and reshaping our structure allows us to accelerate how we deliver and adapt to the altering environment around us.”
Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
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