Anecdotally, in the Bay Area, I’m seeing middle managers—particularly at the Director level—disproportionately affected by recent layoffs at large tech companies.
The precedent was set by Meta in 2022/23 when Zuckerberg openly questioned the need for multiple organizational layers, arguing they slowed execution. Many of Meta’s layoffs were aimed at flattening teams.
Likewise, Elon Musk and Jensen Huang are known for engaging directly with frontline employees, even interns, to unblock key challenges. Brian Chesky’s “Founder Mode” philosophy echoes this approach, encouraging leaders to dive into details and manage execution at the ground level rather than delegating critical projects to layers of managers.
Now, AI is accelerating this shift. By supercharging individual contributors—turning them into self-sufficient, full-stack execution engines across coding, marketing, and sales—AI is reshaping how Big Tech structures its workforce. As companies prioritize efficiency, the middle management layer may be on the verge of disappearing.
In the last mobile/cloud/SaaS cycle, middle managers served as the bridge between executive leadership’s vision and frontline execution. However, as tech companies swelled due to ZIRP-driven capital excess, Directors and Senior Directors—whether intentionally or not—became bureaucratic bottlenecks.
With AI disrupting these roles, or at the very least redefining their purpose and required skillsets, many professionals in their late 30s to 50s will need to reinvent themselves. This could mean re-skilling or up-skilling to become AI-native knowledge workers, transitioning to different industries, or even leaving core tech altogether to apply their experience elsewhere.
This may sound extreme, but it’s exactly what I’m observing in my circles.
