Technology and AI
Uber removes layers and about a tenth of its staff, and ends remote work for nearly everyone
By Staff Writer | 4 September 2026
The chief executive told employees on 2 September that the company is cutting its headcount by about 10 per cent, collapsing management layers and micro-teams, merging its delivery operations and its core engineering and science teams, and concentrating staff in a small number of hubs. Only about 1 per cent of employees will remain remote.
The message from Dara Khosrowshahi was published on the company's newsroom on 2 September 2026 under the heading of building a simpler, faster Uber. It says the company is removing layers, simplifying team structures, refining its global location strategy and focusing people and investment on what it calls the biggest opportunities ahead, and that as a result the team will be reduced by about 10 per cent. Everyone affected had already been told, except in countries where a local process must be followed first. Reports put the number at about 3,300 people.
The message is explicit that the business is performing well, and answers the question of why now. Over the last five years and more the company's top line has nearly tripled and it has entered new businesses, but that growth, it says, brought more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership and structures that no longer serve the company at its current scale.
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.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive, Uber
What is being cut
Three things are described. On organisational health, the message says internal surveys found too much work needing cross-team coordination, debates taking too long and decision rights unclear, so roles focused mainly on coordination have been reduced and the remaining ones given clearer remits. Management layers have been cut by broadening manager scopes, especially where managers had micro-teams of one or two reports. The company says it has reduced the number of employees who sit seven or more layers from the chief executive by 20 per cent and the number of micro-teams by nearly 50 per cent.
On team simplification, the three delivery operations teams, covering restaurants, retail and direct, are being combined into single teams at global, regional and country level, bringing their profit and loss accounts under single owners. In the technology organisation, the core services engineering and science teams are being merged, mirroring the structure already used in mobility and delivery.
On location, global teams are to be concentrated in New York and San Francisco, regional teams in designated regional hubs, local teams in country hubs and technology teams in technology hubs, with managers co-located with their teams wherever possible. The vast majority of remote employees are being asked to move to an office; going forward only about 1 per cent will be remote, and the existing three day a week hybrid policy will be enforced.
Where the money goes
The savings are to be reinvested in growth, innovation and, in the message's words, the autonomous future. A company that made its name by putting drivers in cars is reshaping itself around the day it does not need them.
Mr Khosrowshahi said the company decided to make one large change rather than several small ones, acknowledged that reorganisations are distracting, and said the decisions made were final. He described the company as having tremendous momentum, substantial financial capacity and larger opportunities than at any point since he joined. The message does not give a figure for the savings or say when the reinvestment will show in the accounts. The first place to look will be the next quarterly report.