Snap cuts 95 jobs in Washington state as part of broader layoffs, pushing for AI efficiencies

Snap is cutting 95 jobs in Washington state as part of a broader restructuring that will eliminate about 1,000 positions, or 16% of the company’s full-time workforce.

The Snapchat parent company filed a WARN Act notice with Washington’s Employment Security Department on Wednesday, showing layoffs across its offices in Bellevue, Seattle, and Vancouver, Wash. The cuts take effect between April 16 and June 16, according to the filing.

A filing with the state shows that the affected roles are heavily technical: predominantly software engineers, along with machine learning engineers, data scientists, product managers, and recruiting staff. Senior roles including a director of engineering for Snap’s AI platform and a distinguished software engineer are also on the list of people being laid off.

The layoffs come two weeks after Snap acquired assets from Seattle-based Rec Room, the social gaming company that is shutting down after failing to find a path to profitability.

Rec Room employees who joined Snap were slated to work at Specs Inc., its hardware subsidiary focused on augmented reality glasses. It’s unclear whether any of those newly hired employees are among the 95 cut in Washington. 

Snap declined to comment beyond its public filings. The company, based in Santa Monica, Calif., had 5,261 full-time employees as of December. 

In addition to the planned job cuts, CEO Evan Spiegel told employees in a memo Wednesday that Snap is also eliminating more than 300 open roles it had planned to fill, and aims to reduce costs by more than $500 million by the second half of the year.

In the memo, Spiegel framed the cuts partly as an embrace of AI, saying advances in the technology allow smaller teams to do what once required larger organizations. 

In an investor update, Snap described the situation as a “crucible moment,” saying it is “squeezed between giants with enormous resources and nimble startups moving fast.” The company said more than 65% of its new code is now generated by AI, and that AI agents are answering more than 1 million support questions per month.

The restructuring follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which owns about 2.5 percent of Snap and pushed the company last month to cut costs and sharpen its strategy. Irenic also criticized Snap’s $3.5 billion investment in its Specs glasses, which has yet to deliver strong returns.

Snap’s stock closed up nearly 8% in trading Wednesday on the news, though it remains down about 25% since the start of the year. The company expects to incur $95 million to $130 million in restructuring charges, mostly tied to severance.

This is Snap’s fourth major round of layoffs in recent years, following cuts of 10% of staff in 2024, a smaller round in late 2023, and 20% in 2022.

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