technology
LinkedIn Cuts Jobs, Closes Austria Office and Shifts Content/Research Teams to Shared Service Model
LinkedIn said it is laying off employees and scaling back some investments as part of organizational shifts aimed at creating more agile teams. CEO Daniel Shapero and chief people officer Hari Srinivasan outlined changes to product operations, content design, user research and learning content production. The moves mirror similar efforts at parent company Microsoft to remove management layers.
May 13, 3:52 PM·2m read1 source
Audio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
LinkedIn announced layoffs and scaling back of some investments on May 13, 2026. The company is making changes to its Product orgs to create more agile teams, according to an internal memo. Hari Srinivasan, who became chief people officer of the LinkedIn Ecosystem in March 2026, sent the memo outlining three shifts the company is planning.
"Our fastest moving teams are focused, have fewer layers, and leverage AI to move quickly," Srinivasan wrote. " Srinivasan wrote that two shifts are changing operations: tools that let teams ship faster and growing infrastructure costs for intelligent products requiring prioritization.
LinkedIn is evolving its operating model for Content Design and User Research from embedded teams to a shared service model.
In this setup, teams can utilize off-the-shelf UX resources themselves while expert researchers focus on the most complex work. The company is also shifting its learning content model from large-scale original in-house production to a model where instructors produce and monetize their teaching directly on LinkedIn.
" The new instructor model will allow the in-house team to focus on "high-impact, differentiated learning experiences that are best built internally," Srinivasan wrote.
As part of this change, LinkedIn will close its physical office in Graz, Austria. LinkedIn started allowing creators to monetize their content through video in 2025. The latest shift appears to expand revenue opportunities for instructors who can build a voice on the platform across multiple tools and license their teachings directly.
