Amazon to hire 11,000 developers

Amazon is cutting and hiring at the same time. That sounds contradictory, but it mostly isn’t. The company has shed about 30,000 roles across late 2025 and early 2026, then said it still plans to bring in roughly 11,000 software developers, engineers, and interns this year. The point is not that Amazon changed its mind about efficiency. The point is that it wants a different mix of people now. ### Why hire after that many layoffs? Because the cuts and the hiring are aimed at different parts of the company. The layoffs were tied to a broad push to flatten management layers, trim corporate overhead, and automate routine work. The new hiring is concentrated in technical roles — especially software development and internships — where Amazon thinks AI is actually increasing output and creating more product work, not less. That hiring target was discussed publicly this week by AWS chief Matt Garman. (msn.com) ### What changed inside Amazon? The short version is that Amazon’s AI business is moving from promise to real usage. In its April 29, 2026 first-quarter results, Amazon said Bedrock processed more tokens in Q1 than in all previous years combined. It also said Bedrock customer spend rose 170% quarter over quarter. That is not a vague “AI is growing” talking point — that is a platform suddenly getting used at much larger scale. (ir.aboutamazon.com) ### What does that mean for jobs? It means the company still wants engineers, but not in the same proportions and not always for the same tasks. Amazon also said the number of developers using Kiro more than doubled quarter over quarter, and enterprise usage rose nearly tenfold. Basically, AI c(ir.aboutamazon.com)rdination-heavy roles and keep paying for builders. (ir.aboutamazon.com) ### So is AI replacing coders or creating demand? Both — but in different layers. AI can absolutely squeeze junior, repetitive, or maintenance-heavy work. But when a company believes AI lets one team build more products, it often wants more strong engineers to define systems, review outputs, ha(ir.aboutamazon.com)azon’s current behavior better than the simple “AI kills jobs” story. (msn.com) ### Why include interns in that 11,000? Because Amazon is not just filling immediate openings. It is protecting its future pipeline. Intern hiring tells you the company still expects to need technical talent beyond the next quarter. That matters because internship classes are easy to shrink if leadership thinks demand is rolling over. Amazon didn’t do that here. (msn.com) ### Is Amazon alone in this? Not really. Infosys said this week that it does not plan layoffs tied to AI and will still hire about 20,000 fresh graduates in 2026. But the company also said AI is reshaping the old talent pyramid toward more specialized skills. That is the broader pattern — fewer generic seats, more targeted technical ones, plus a lot more reskilling pressure on everyone already inside. (indiatoday.in) ### What’s the real takeaway? Amazon is not sending a “jobs are back” signal. It is sending a “these are the jobs we still value” signal. The company cut broad headcount, then kept leaning into AI infrastructure, developer tools, and engineering intake because those are (indiatoday.in).