SEATTLE (Realist English). As part of its latest global restructuring, Microsoft has cut 830 jobs in Washington state, affecting staff across game design, research, engineering, and sales, according to filings submitted to state employment officials.
The layoffs — part of a broader 9,000-job reduction announced this week — underscore the tech giant’s shift toward streamlining operations and encouraging adoption of artificial intelligence tools to boost productivity. The company has not issued a public statement on the cuts.
Among the affected employees were nearly a dozen game design professionals, three audio designers, two mechanical engineers, an optical engineer, and a lab technician, the document shows. Cuts also included 10 attorneys, six hardware engineers, and several employees from the Microsoft Research division, including five individual contributors and one research manager.
In the sales and customer operations divisions, Microsoft laid off 16 customer success managers, 28 sales strategy staff, five compensation experts, and 17 cloud solution architects — a notable move given that Azure and cloud services remain the company’s fastest-growing revenue segment.
Additionally, one government affairs specialist based in Washington was dismissed.
The cuts come amid mixed performance in key units. In April, Microsoft reported an 8% year-over-year increase in Xbox content and services revenue, falling short of the company’s 13% overall growth. Since the announcement, dozens of employees from the gaming and sales departments have posted public farewell messages across professional networks.
On Microsoft’s April earnings call, CFO Amy Hood emphasized a corporate push for “cost efficiencies,” but CEO Satya Nadella has not publicly addressed the latest layoffs.
The company has gone through several waves of job cuts since early 2023, part of what observers see as a broader realignment across the tech sector — with cloud, AI, and enterprise services taking priority over legacy divisions and overlapping roles.
