Snapchat Parent Company To Lay Off About 120 Engineers In The Coming Days

Snapchat will lay off about 120 of its employees in the coming weeks according to according to Business news site Cheddar. Snapchat parent company Snap according to reports intends to report the cuts in the following couple days although internally, according to individuals with a knowledge of the plan and expect to remain anonymous. The cutbacks will number 120 workers which translates to about 10 percent of its engineering department.

Snap SVP of Engineering Jerry Hunter messaged workers to affirm the cutbacks after Cheddar initially announced the news on Wednesday.

Hunter said in an email that;

“Having high-performing, technically excellent, and appropriately aligned teams will be critical to building both a compelling product and a compelling culture for engineers, we want to unleash speed and productivity in our organization, while keeping a high technical bar.”

On the organisation’s latest earnings call with investors, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel confirmed that his company had employed over 2,400 people in the last two years.

This layoff that affects many of its engineering staff is not Snap’s biggest till date. According to Cheddar, “The company laid off a couple dozen across its hardware and recruiting divisions last year followed by roughly two dozen more cuts in January. Snap slowed its hiring rate by roughly 60% last quarter and reported having 3,069 employees at the end of 2017.”

Here’s a copy of the email sent to Snap staff;

“Team –

Over the last few weeks I’ve worked closely with our key leaders to create a plan for restructuring our team to make it stronger. We kept a few important goals in mind: 1) We will unify the entire engineering organization as a single, powerful and diverse team that is highly productive, extremely innovative, and technically excellent. 2) We will organize around our key priorities, specifically, addressing the technical debt that we have accrued over the years so that we can develop a product that engages customers and drives Snap forward. 3) We will deploy an organizational structure that aligns top talent with the most critical priorities, creates clarity around our mission, drives accountability, and rewards technical excellence in product development.

Having high-performing, technically excellent, and appropriately aligned teams will be critical to building both a compelling product and a compelling culture for engineers. We want to unleash speed and productivity in our organisation, while keeping a high technical bar. That required us to think carefully about the shape of the organisation, and where each member of our team fits. As part of this, we have made the exceptionally difficult decision to exit just over 120 members of our team from the company. We are doing this after a thoughtful and respectful review of each team member and with appreciation for the many contributions they have made to Snap. All impacted employees will be eligible for a transition package that includes resources to help them with the next step in their career.

Over the next few days all of you will learn more about your role in the organisation. We will also have an All Hands on March 14 to cover the new organisation in detail, talk about the mission of each new team, and address your questions face-to-face. We have important and challenging opportunities ahead of us and you have our commitment that we are investing in top talent and key priorities as a result of this action.

Thank you for your trust, patience, and flexibility. I know this is a challenging moment, but I am convinced that this is an important step to help us build the future of Snap. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.

Jerry”