Uber Hiring in India: Hundreds of Engineering Roles to Reduce Costs

Uber announced on Thursday its intention to recruit 225 engineers within India, bolstering its technology workforce in this important international region following a period of global workforce reductions.

The ride-sharing company, a competitor to Ola in the Indian market, revealed today the appointment of Manikandan Thangarathnam, formerly a director of engineering at Amazon for almost 13 years, to oversee the company’s rider and platform engineering divisions in Bangalore. (Uber previously stated last month its plans to onboard 140 engineers in India, and today confirmed it is currently seeking an additional 85 engineers.)

This development occurs as a number of prominent engineers have departed from Uber India in recent months, accepting positions at companies such as Google and Amazon. A leading engineer who recently resigned from Uber communicated to TechCrunch that numerous colleagues had expressed diminished faith in Uber’s long-term success within the nation.

Uber stated that its expansion of technology operations in India aligns with its objective to enhance the accessibility of mobility and delivery services and to establish itself as a fundamental component of transportation networks in numerous cities worldwide.

The company has also recently brought on board Jayaram Valliyur as a senior director to manage its global finance technology team. Like Thangarathnam, Jayaram previously held a position at Amazon, where he worked for 14 years.

In July, The Information reported that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s strategy of relocating engineering positions to India was motivated by cost reduction. The article indicated that this plan generated discussion internally within the company.

Thuan Pham, Uber’s former chief technology officer who left the company earlier this year, reportedly expressed concerns that rapidly increasing the number of engineers in India would “necessitate accepting candidates with lower qualifications.”

Both Uber and Ola assert their position as the leading ride-hailing service in India. However, Rajeev Misra, head of SoftBank Vision Fund – a shared investor in both companies – indicated last month that Ola currently holds a “slight advantage” over Uber in the Indian market.