| Date | People cut | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 20 | 224 | Bloomberg / KOMO News |
| May 15 | 300 | CNBC / Investing.com / World Coffee Portal |
| May 11 | 61 | GeekWire / Seattle Times / Reuters |
| Total | 585 |
On August 20, 2026, Starbucks filed a WARN notice with Washington state covering 224 workers at its Seattle Support Center and in remote roles across the state. The company eliminated 104 positions, including the team that oversees store design and construction. Another 120 workers are leaving because they declined relocation to the new Nashville office.
Separations begin October 19 and finish by November 1. Workers received 60 days of notice and none are union represented. Starbucks says the filing carries out the restructuring announced in May under its $2 billion cost reduction plan rather than a new round of cuts. The notice brings the company's 2026 corporate cuts to 585.
On May 11, 2026, a WARN filing disclosed that Starbucks is cutting 61 corporate technology jobs at its Seattle Support Center headquarters in the SoDo neighborhood. The reductions come from a reorganization of the technology department and affect roles spanning cybersecurity analysts, technical product managers, systems analysts, systems administrators, scrum masters, and architects.
Workers received notification in April. The first separations are expected on June 20, 2026, with all separations completed by August 28, 2026. The cuts are limited to the Seattle Support Center campus at 2401 Utah Ave S and do not extend to Starbucks retail store partners.
The reorganization is the first major technology workforce action under Chief Technology Officer Anand Varadarajan, who joined from Amazon in December after previous CTO Deb Hall Lefevre departed in September. The move aligns with CEO Brian Niccol's broader turnaround strategy, which leans into AI-driven initiatives including an AI-powered drink-ordering assistant and algorithms for managing mobile order timing.