Uber to cut 10% of workforce to flatten management — shares rose nearly 2%
Uber's September 2026 reorg cuts 10% of staff to remove management layers: one-to-two-person teams down by nearly half, staff moved into hubs.
What was changed
On 2 September 2026 Uber announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce to consolidate management layers and trim costs. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees in an email: "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." That includes Uber's previous plan to commit more than $10 billion to autonomous vehicles in the coming years. Uber declined to say how many jobs would go; it had around 34,000 employees at the end of 2025, according to an annual filing.
The reorganization targets structure rather than a blanket percentage. Uber is cutting small teams of one to two reports by nearly half and trimming the number of employees seven steps away from the CEO by 20% — layers Khosrowshahi said the company had outgrown at its current size. It is also combining teams and concentrating more employees in hubs like New York and San Francisco, with only about 1% of staff allowed to continue working remotely.
Uber is among the latest large tech companies to flatten management to speed up decision-making and improve efficiency — Google has made similar moves in recent years. Khosrowshahi notably did not attribute the cuts to artificial intelligence, which has driven a recent wave of tech layoffs. Investors read the move as discipline: shares rose nearly 2% on the day of the announcement.
Why it worked
Layers had outlived their scale: teams of one to two reports and staff seven steps from the CEO accumulated as Uber grew, and the CEO said the company had outgrown these structures.
The cut is framed as buying capacity, not just savings — the email ties it to investing in Uber's future, including the $10bn-plus autonomous-vehicle commitment.
Khosrowshahi framed the move as structural simplification and pointedly did not blame AI, even as AI dominated the tech layoff cycle.
Concentrating employees in New York and San Francisco hubs, with about 1% remote, backs the 'building rather than coordinating' argument with where people actually sit.
What can be applied
When a company outgrows its structure, naming the layers being removed — not just a headcount percentage — turns a layoff announcement into a redesign the market can price on day one.
Aftermath
Uber declined to comment on the number of jobs cut. Shares rose nearly 2% on the day of the announcement. Khosrowshahi's email promised that a leaner organization would mean "clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating"; the plan had just been announced, with no execution results reported yet.