Starbucks $SBUX will eliminate 61 technology positions at its Seattle headquarters, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with Washington state.
A WARN filing attributes the position eliminations to a restructuring within Starbucks' tech division, headquartered at the company's Support Center on Utah Avenue South, according to GeekWire. Separations begin June 20 and are scheduled to conclude by Aug. 28, the filing shows. The company said it notified affected employees in April.
Among the positions being cut are cybersecurity analysts, architects, scrum masters, systems administrators, systems analysts, and technical product managers. The reductions extend to staff at both the director and manager levels. According to the filing, neither relocation nor outsourcing accounts for the job losses.
The cuts are separate from a previously announced plan to move some technology roles to Nashville, Tennessee. Starbucks committed $100 million to open a corporate office in Nashville, with plans to employ up to 2,000 workers there over five years. That office will anchor the company's push to expand retail locations across the Southeast and will also house certain functions previously based in Seattle. Starbucks said Seattle remains its North America and global headquarters.
The reorganization follows a leadership change at the top of Starbucks' tech organization: Anand Varadarajan, who spent 19 years at Amazon $AMZN overseeing technology and supply chain for its global grocery division, came aboard as CTO in December, succeeding Deb Hall Lefevre, who departed in September.
The technology department reorganization is part of CEO Brian Niccol's broader turnaround effort. Under Niccol, the chain has shuttered hundreds of stores deemed underperforming; a September SEC filing also put investors on notice that the company's marketing capabilities, data analytics, and AI tooling required continued investment to prevent erosion of consumer interest and market position. On the product side, Starbucks has rolled out tools such as a voice-enabled AI ordering assistant and software designed to sequence and pace mobile orders more efficiently.
The layoffs add to a series of workforce reductions at Starbucks in recent years. A February 2025 reduction in force removed roughly 1,100 corporate employees from the company's payroll. Store closures tied to a different round of cuts resulted in 369 retail positions being eliminated throughout Washington state, according to the Seattle Times.
The company's most recent earnings report, covering its fiscal second quarter, showed net income climbing 33% to $510.9 million, marking the first quarterly profit increase the chain had posted in over two years. The company raised its full-year global and U.S. comparable store sales target to at least 5% growth. Niccol said in a statement that "our second quarter marked the turn in our turnaround."