Google plans to move engineering, finance jobs to Mexico after layoffs

Goodbye Silicon Valley, Hello Mexico City.

Google’s workforce in the Mexican capital looks set to grow as the tech company is planning to move some engineering and finance roles to Mexico, according to reporting by CNBC.

The news media outlet reported Wednesday that Google had laid off at least 200 employees from its “Core” teams prior to its positive earnings report on April 25. CNBC said that the layoffs were part of a “reorganization that will include moving some roles to India and Mexico.”

Citing filings, the news outlet said that at least 50 of the positions eliminated were engineering roles at the company’s offices in Sunnyvale, one of the cities located in the California high-tech hub known as Silicon Valley.

Many Core teams — which include developers and computer engineers — “will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India,” CNBC said, citing internal documents it saw.

Google’s Mexico office is located in Mexico City, so at least some engineering roles to be shifted to Mexico will likely move there. The company is currently advertising for six Mexico-based engineering and technology positions, four of which list Mexico City as the location and two of which are “remote eligible.”

It was unclear whether any of those positions were meant to replace ones eliminated in Sunnyvale.

The news that Google plans to shift some engineering jobs to Mexico — a growing data center hub — comes two weeks after Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat announced that the company was restructuring its finance department and that some positions would be moved to Mexico City and Bangalore.

“The tech sector is in the midst of a tremendous platform shift with Al,” Porat said in a memo to employees obtained by CNBC.

“As a company, this means we have the opportunity to make more helpful products for billions of users and provide faster solutions to our customers, but it also means we collectively have to make tough decisions, including how and where we work to align with our highest priority areas,” Porat’s memo said.

Porat also said that Google “would create ‘hubs’ for more centralized operations, including in Bangalore, Mexico City, Dublin, Chicago and Atlanta,” CNBC reported.

Google’s Mexico City headquarters are located in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, east of the historic center. The “seven-story vibrant building” already “serves as a hub for several teams, including Sales, Cloud Engineering, Marketing, and more,” according to Google.

The plan to shift jobs to Mexico comes at a time when Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is significantly reducing its workforce.

“Alphabet has been slashing headcount since early last year, when the company announced plans to eliminate about 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, following a downturn in the online ad market,” CNBC said Wednesday.

“Even with digital advertising rebounding recently, Alphabet has continued downsizing, with layoffs across multiple organizations this year.”

With reports from CNBC