Google Offers Buyouts for Search, Engineering Teams

Google is offering buyouts to some U.S.-based employees on Tuesday, including those working on search, ads, and commerce, as the tech giant attempts to reduce headcount. Google is also mandating that some remote employees return to the office.

Business Insider obtained a memo sent from Google’s senior vice president of core systems, Jen Fitzpatrick, to employees on Tuesday. In the memo, Fitzpatrick wrote that Google would offer a voluntary exit program or buyouts for employees who wish to leave the company of their own accord, with severance pay.

Some Google teams, including the core systems team, are also requiring all remote employees who live within 50 miles of an office to return to the office on a hybrid schedule.

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The voluntary exit program is a good fit for Googlers “who aren’t feeling excited about and aligned” with Google’s mission and goals, or those who “are having difficulty meeting the demands of their role,” Fitzpatrick explained in the memo.

“We need everyone to show up with an unparalleled sense of energy and enthusiasm,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

^{Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images}

The buyouts apply to employees in several Google divisions, including central engineering and marketing, research, and communications. The knowledge and information team, which includes Google’s search, ads, and commerce divisions, also has the option to accept the voluntary exit program.

It isn’t clear how many employees are impacted by the buyouts, though CNBC reports that the knowledge and information team alone has about 20,000 employees. It is also unclear how much the severance packages will be. A mid-level Google employee made $331,894 in 2024.

Related: Here’s How Much a Typical Google Employee Makes in a Year

Google has offered buyouts earlier this year in other units, in some cases before resorting to layoffs. In January, Google gave full-time, U.S.-based Google employees working on the Platform and Devices team, a 25,000-person department that handles Android, Chrome, Pixel devices, and Google Photos, the option to voluntarily exit with a severance package.

A few months later, Google conducted layoffs affecting hundreds of employees in that division.

In February, Google offered buyouts to employees in People Operations, its human resources division. Mid- to senior-level employees in the department received severance pay of up to 14 weeks’ salary, plus one additional week for every year at the company.

Google last made widespread job cuts in January 2023, diminishing its workforce by 12,000 employees or about 6% of its global workforce. The tech giant also conducted additional rounds of layoffs in 2024, affecting its business services and treasury teams.

Google’s global headcount was around 183,000 employees in 2024.

Related: Amazon Intends to Spend Over $100 Billion on AI This Year. Here’s How It Compares to Google, Meta, and Microsoft.