- Atlassian is laying off 1,600 employees — roughly 10% of its workforce — to fund AI development and enterprise sales.
- CTO Rajeev Rajan steps down by March 31, replaced by two executives: Taroon Mandhana and Vikram Rao.
- North America absorbs 40% of the cuts (~640 roles), Australia 30% (~480), and India 16% (~250).
- Over 900 eliminated positions were in software research and development.
- Atlassian shares are down more than 50% since the start of 2026.
1,600 Roles Gone as Cannon-Brookes Bets on AI
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes told employees Wednesday that the company is eliminating about 10% of its 13,800-person workforce. The cuts span every major geography: 640 employees in North America, 480 in Australia, 250 in India, and the remainder across Japan, the Philippines, Europe, and the Middle East.
“This is primarily about adaptation,” Cannon-Brookes wrote in an internal memo. “We are reshaping our skill mix and changing how we work to build for the future.” He added that it would be “disingenuous” to pretend AI doesn’t change the number of roles needed in certain areas — while insisting the approach is not “AI replaces people.” More than 900 of the affected positions sat in software R&D, roughly half the company’s headcount.
A CTO Exit, a Union Fight, and a 50% Stock Collapse
The restructure comes with a leadership shakeup at the top of engineering. CTO Rajeev Rajan, a former VP of engineering at Meta who spent over two decades at Microsoft, will leave by March 31. Atlassian is splitting the role between Taroon Mandhana as CTO of Teamwork and Vikram Rao as CTO of Enterprise and Chief Trust Officer.
The financial pressure behind the move is stark. Atlassian stock has lost more than half its value in 2026 as investors question whether AI tools will render the company’s collaboration software obsolete. The share price decline has wiped more than half the net worth of co-founders Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.
Meanwhile, Professionals Australia, the union representing Atlassian workers, is pushing back hard. The union says employees were told about redundancies without prior consultation and has requested an urgent meeting to discuss the direct connection between AI adoption and job eliminations. Affected employees have until March 19 for consultation, with final terminations expected April 2. Atlassian declined to comment on the union’s request.
Departing employees receive a minimum of 16 weeks’ pay, extended healthcare, early pro-rata bonuses, and a $1,000 technology payment. Cannon-Brookes said the company kept Slack open six hours longer than usual so staff could say goodbye.
Atlassian joins a growing list of tech giants — including WiseTech, Block, and Amazon — that have slashed thousands of roles in 2026 while citing AI as the catalyst for workforce restructuring.
