Microsoft has laid off 830 employees in its home state of Washington, as part of a broader workforce reduction aimed at streamlining operations and reducing internal redundancy, according to documents filed with state employment officials, CNBC reports.
The job cuts, which are part of the 9,000 layoffs the tech giant announced earlier this week, affected a wide range of roles across departments. Positions eliminated include nearly a dozen game design workers, three audio designers, two mechanical engineers, one optical engineer, and a lab technician.
Additional impacted roles include five individual contributors and one manager in the company’s Microsoft Research division, along with 10 legal professionals and six hardware engineers. In sales, Microsoft parted ways with 16 customer success account managers, 28 staff in sales strategy enablement, five employees in sales compensation, and one government affairs worker.
The layoffs also touched the company’s growing cloud business, with 17 roles in cloud solution architecture based in Washington being eliminated. Microsoft’s cloud division, led by its Azure platform, remains a key area of revenue growth, but the company has continued to emphasize operational efficiency.
A person familiar with the decision said the goal of the layoffs was to reduce overlap across teams and help employees shift focus toward higher-impact work, particularly through the adoption of newer technologies. The person spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter.
While Microsoft has not issued a formal statement specific to the Washington layoffs, the broader cuts reflect a company-wide push for cost efficiency. On a recent earnings call in April, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood highlighted efforts to manage costs during the March quarter.
CEO Satya Nadella has not publicly commented on the layoffs. However, many affected employees, including those in video game development and sales, have taken to social media to share their departure from the company.
