Starbucks cuts 61 tech jobs at Seattle HQ in reorg

Starbucks volition destruct 61 exertion positions astatine its Seattle headquarters, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with Washington state.

A WARN filing attributes the presumption eliminations to a restructuring wrong Starbucks' tech division, headquartered astatine the company's Support Center connected Utah Avenue South. Separations statesman June 20 and are scheduled to reason by Aug. 28, the filing shows. The institution said it notified affected employees successful April.

Among the positions being chopped are cybersecurity analysts, architects, scrum masters, systems administrators, systems analysts, and method merchandise managers. The reductions widen to unit astatine some the manager and manager levels. According to the filing, neither relocation nor outsourcing accounts for the occupation losses.

The cuts are abstracted from a antecedently announced program to determination immoderate exertion roles to Nashville, Tennessee. Starbucks committed $100 cardinal to unfastened a firm bureau successful Nashville, with plans to employment up to 2,000 workers determination implicit 5 years. That bureau volition anchor the company's propulsion to grow retail locations crossed the Southeast and volition besides location definite functions antecedently based successful Seattle. Starbucks said Seattle remains its North America and planetary headquarters.

The reorganization follows a enactment alteration astatine the apical of Starbucks' tech organization: Anand Varadarajan, who spent 19 years astatine Amazon overseeing exertion and proviso concatenation for its planetary market division, came aboard arsenic CTO successful December, succeeding Deb Hall Lefevre, who departed successful September.

The exertion section reorganization is portion of CEO Brian Niccol's broader turnaround effort. Under Niccol, the concatenation has shuttered hundreds of stores deemed underperforming; a September SEC filing besides enactment investors connected announcement that the company's selling capabilities, information analytics, and AI tooling required continued concern to forestall erosion of user involvement and marketplace position. On the merchandise side, Starbucks has rolled retired tools specified arsenic a voice-enabled AI ordering adjunct and bundle designed to series and gait mobile orders much efficiently.

The layoffs adhd to a bid of workforce reductions astatine Starbucks successful caller years. A February 2025 simplification successful unit removed astir 1,100 firm employees from the company's payroll. Store closures tied to a antithetic circular of cuts resulted successful 369 retail positions being eliminated passim Washington state, according to the Seattle Times.

The company's astir caller net report, covering its fiscal 2nd quarter, showed nett income climbing 33% to $510.9 million, marking the archetypal quarterly nett summation the concatenation had posted successful implicit 2 years. The institution raised its full-year planetary and U.S. comparable store income people to astatine slightest 5% growth. Niccol said successful a connection that "our 2nd 4th marked the crook successful our turnaround."