Amazon's builder ratio
An explicit target for proportionally fewer managers, then two rounds of cuts.
Andy Jassy internal message on the manager ratio
September 2024
Beth Galetti employee letter on role reductions
28 October 2025
Reuters and CNBC reporting on subsequent reductions
January 2026
In September 2024 Andy Jassy set an internal goal of raising the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15 percent by the end of the first quarter of 2025, met largely by combining teams. In October 2025 Amazon cut roughly 14,000 corporate roles, framed by senior vice president Beth Galetti as reducing bureaucracy and removing layers, with a further round reported in January 2026.
Included because it is the clearest case of delayering stated as deliberate design rather than as a cost response, which makes it more honest than most and easier to evaluate.
What is the smallest unit that can own a customer outcome end to end?
What synchronizes the work when there is no room and half the team is not a person?