Amazon Web Services (AWS) is cutting hundreds of tech, sales, and marketing jobs in its cloud computing division, after its sales growth has slowed in recent quarters.
“We do not take these decisions lightly, and I know change can be difficult,” Matt Garman, AWS senior vice president, said in an internal email to employees Wednesday, according to GeekWire. “We operate in an incredibly fast-moving industry, and it is important that we stay agile as an organization.”
The layoffs are impacting employees on AWS’s sales, marketing, and global services (SMGS) team, and those on its physical stores technology team. Most of the cuts on its SMGS team are due to “business changes” with training and certification and sales operations, the company said. Cuts for its physical stores technology employees are due to “a broader strategic shift in the use of some applications in Amazon’s owned as well as in third-party stores,” according to AWS.
“We’ve identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact,” an AWS spokesperson said in a statement shared with Quartz. “We didn’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting the employees throughout their transition to new roles in and outside of Amazon. These decisions are difficult but necessary as we continue to invest, hire, and optimize resources to deliver innovation for our customers.”
AWS is working with laid off employees to find internal opportunities, as the company is hiring for priorities in other parts of the business, it said.
Amazon said Tuesday it was ditching its “Just Walk Out” technology in its checkout-less grocery stores. The technology used cameras and sensors to track items customers left its stores with, but actually relied on over 1,000 workers in India who watched and labeled videos to check for accuracy.