Walmart is eliminating members of its Global Tech team in an effort to increase efficiency, the company said in a memo to employees on Wednesday.
Roughly 1,500 jobs will be cut as part of the restructuring, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The layoffs will impact corporate employees, not store associates.
The retailer said the cutbacks are intended to “speed up decision-making” and “remove layers and complexity,” according to the email sent to employees by Suresh Kumar, Walmart’s global chief technology officer and chief development officer and John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S.
“In Global Tech, we are evolving teams across the organization, with a focus on simplifying our structure to facilitate speed and innovation,” the memo reads. “The world of technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and reshaping our structure allows us to accelerate how we deliver and adapt to the changing environment around us.”
As part of the restructuring, Walmart said it is eliminating roles while also opening some new ones.
The world’s largest retailer, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, has approximately 1.6 million employees and 4,600 locations in the United States.
Walmart last month said earlier this month that it will raise prices in response to tariffs. Walmart earned $4.4 billion in the quarter ended April 30, down from $5.1 billion in the year-ago period.
