After 30,000 layoffs, Amazon says it will hire 11,000 engineers in 2026

Amazon is cutting jobs and hiring at the same time.

Weeks after eliminating around 30,000 roles across late 2025 and early 2026, the company now plans to bring in 11,000 software developers, interns and engineers this year. The shift, outlined by AWS chief Matt Garman in an interview reported by India Today citing remarks at the AWS What’s Next event, reflects a recalibration rather than a retreat from hiring.

The message is clear. Headcount is being reduced in some areas, but demand for technical capability remains intact.

The reset behind the numbers

The scale of recent workforce changes is significant.

Around 16,000 layoffs in January 2026
Roughly 14,000 job cuts in late 2025
Total reductions of about 30,000 roles

At the same time:

Amazon plans to hire about 11,000 software developers and interns in 2026

The cuts have not been uniform. Reports indicate that even Amazon Web Services, long seen as a growth engine, saw reductions in managerial roles.

Garman framed the move as part of a broader alignment of skills with future demand. “We are hiring just as many software developers as we ever had inside of Amazon,” he said, adding that demand for such talent is “really accelerating.”

AI is changing the job, not removing it

The apparent contradiction between layoffs and hiring sits at the centre of a wider industry shift.

According to Garman, artificial intelligence is not reducing the need for engineers. It is altering what they do.

He pushed back against the idea that AI agents are eliminating roles, calling that narrative overstated. Instead, he described a shift in how work is executed.

Routine coding, debugging and operational tasks are increasingly automated
Engineers are moving towards system design, architecture and problem-solving
Development cycles are compressing significantly with AI assistance

“The jobs will be a little bit different,” Garman said, noting that the importance of understanding how systems integrate is rising.

Inside Amazon, this transition is already visible. He cited examples where teams are resolving issues in minutes rather than weeks, and delivering projects in a fraction of earlier timelines using AI-supported tools.

Demand shifts from scale to capability

The hiring plan also signals a structural change in how Amazon is thinking about talent.

Rather than expanding workforce size across all functions, the company appears to be concentrating on specific capabilities. Software engineers, particularly those able to work with AI systems, remain central to that strategy.

This is consistent with how large technology firms are responding to automation. Headcount alone is no longer the metric. What matters is how effectively teams can deliver outcomes using a combination of human expertise and machine assistance.

Even as layoffs affected multiple teams, including parts of AWS, the continued intake of engineers suggests that core technical roles are being protected and expanded.

A broader industry signal

Amazon’s approach mirrors a wider pattern across the technology sector. Companies are reducing roles tied to traditional structures while continuing to invest in areas linked to AI, cloud and advanced engineering.

The result is a workforce that is not necessarily smaller, but differently composed.

Fewer roles tied to routine execution
Greater demand for specialised and system-level expertise
Increased emphasis on adaptability and continuous learning

Garman’s comments underline this shift. AI, he said, is “exploding across every industry”, evolving faster than expected and reshaping how work gets done.

What comes next

Amazon’s twin moves highlight a transition phase rather than a steady state.

On one side, companies are cutting roles that no longer align with emerging operating models. On the other, they are hiring for capabilities that can unlock productivity in an AI-driven environment.

The net effect is a labour market that looks contradictory on the surface but follows a clear logic underneath.

For employees, the implication is less about job loss and more about job evolution. For employers, it is about building teams that can operate at a different speed and scale.

Amazon’s decision to cut tens of thousands of roles while hiring thousands of engineers captures that shift in real time. The number of jobs may fluctuate. The need for capability is only intensifying.

Strategic HR