Uber cuts 3,400 jobs: Why the ride-hailing giant is restructuring despite strong growth

Uber Technologies is cutting about 10% of its global workforce, or roughly 3,400 jobs, as part of a sweeping organisational overhaul, which the company said is aimed at simplifying its structure, speeding up decision-making and freeing up resources for future growth.

The ride-hailing major's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, in a memo to employees, said the company had grown rapidly over the past five years, with its top line nearly tripling.

He, however, underlined that the expansion had also created additional layers of management, fragmented ownership and greater coordination between teams.

"Today, we're making a number of significant organizational changes across Uber. We are removing layers, simplifying team structures, refining our global location strategy, and focusing our people and investments against the biggest opportunities ahead of us," Khosrowshahi said.

The company said employees whose roles have been affected have already been notified, except in countries where local processes are required.

The job cuts come despite Uber's strong business performance, with Khosrowshahi saying the decision was driven by how the company is organised rather than a deterioration in its business.

"Over the last 5+ years, Uber has grown by orders of magnitude, with our top line nearly tripling," he said, adding that the company had launched new products, expanded into new businesses and reached more consumers and earners.

"But that growth has also brought complexity: more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership, and in some cases structures that made sense when businesses were smaller but no longer serve us well at our current scale," he said.

Fewer layers

One of the key objectives of the restructuring is to reduce management layers and roles primarily focused on coordination.

Khosrowshahi said employee surveys and conversations had shown that too much work involved coordination between teams, debates took too long and decision-making responsibilities were sometimes unclear.

Uber has reduced the number of employees sitting seven or more layers below the CEO by 20% and cut the number of "micro-teams" by nearly half.

The company expects the flatter structure to give employees clearer ownership and allow decisions to be taken faster.

Combining teams and businesses

Uber is also bringing together teams that it believes have become unnecessarily fragmented as its businesses expanded.

The company plans to combine its three existing Delivery Ops teams covering Restaurants, Retail and Direct into single teams at the global, regional and country levels.

Khosrowshahi said the businesses had been run separately when they were smaller, but that structure no longer worked as efficiently at Uber's current scale.

Bringing their profit-and-loss responsibilities under single owners is expected to reduce duplication, clarify accountability and allow general managers to allocate capital more efficiently.

In its technology organisation, Uber is also combining its Core Services Engineering and Science teams.

Fewer locations, more employees in offices

Uber is also changing its global location strategy, with the company seeking to concentrate teams in a smaller number of major hubs.

Global teams will 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.

The company is asking the "vast majority" of remote employees to move to an office and said only around 1% of employees will be remote going forward.

Uber will also continue enforcing its hybrid work policy, which requires employees to work from the office three days a week.

Khosrowshahi said the changes were intended not only to reduce costs but also to create more capacity to invest in growth, innovation and areas such as autonomous driving.

"A leaner organization will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating," he said.

What it means for India

The restructuring will also affect Uber employees in India, although the company said its commitment to the country remains unchanged.

"Globally, we are making organisational changes to remove layers so we can move faster. As part of these changes, we will be saying goodbye to some valued team members in India, whom we will support through this transition," an Uber India spokesperson told PTI.

The company said India would remain a key market and that it plans to strengthen its regional operations in the country.

"Our commitment to India as a key market and our ambition to innovate locally for riders and drivers remain unchanged – in fact, we are expanding India's strategic footprint by strengthening our regional operations here to drive our mobility business across Asia-Pacific," the spokesperson said.

Uber had approximately 34,000 employees globally as of December 31, 2025, according to its annual report.

The company operates in more than 70 countries and over 15,000 cities.

A 10% reduction based on that headcount works out to approximately 3,400 positions.

"We decided it was better to make one big shift rather than multiple small ones," he said, adding that Uber had "tremendous momentum, significant financial capacity" and opportunities ahead that were larger than at any point since he joined the company.

The savings from the restructuring, he said, would be reinvested in growth, innovation and capabilities that Uber believes will matter most in the coming years.