Meta To Reduce VP Positions in Continued Restructuring Effort

Meta Platforms is reportedly making further reductions in its executive ranks, with plans to decrease the number of vice president positions from 300 to approximately 250, per a Seeking Alpha report. This move is part of a broader strategy by the tech giant to streamline its operations and continue cost-cutting measures initiated over the past two years, according to PYMNTS.

In line with these efforts, in May 2024, CEO Mark Zuckerberg established a product advisory council. This council is designed to provide strategic guidance on Meta’s AI and technology initiatives, ensuring that the company remains at the forefront of innovation in these rapidly evolving fields.

The latest reduction in VP positions aligns with Meta’s ongoing efforts to downsize its workforce, which has already seen significant layoffs. In November 2022, Meta announced it would cut 11,000 jobs, which represented 13% of its workforce at the time. This marked the first extensive layoff in the company’s history, driven by the need to adjust to pre-pandemic trends in online activity. Following this, in March 2023, Meta revealed plans for an additional 10,000 job cuts and a hiring freeze for 5,000 open roles.

These workforce reductions were part of a comprehensive restructuring plan aimed at flattening Meta’s organizational structure, canceling lower-priority projects, slowing hiring rates, and reducing the size of the recruiting team. Zuckerberg emphasized that these changes were necessary to strengthen Meta as a technology company, focusing on efficiency and technological advancement.

Zuckerberg also stated at the time of the March job cuts that Meta’s decisions would be driven by principles aimed at enhancing its status as “an even stronger technology company”

The restructuring principles he highlighted included eliminating multiple layers of management, assigning managers up to 10 direct reports, canceling redundant or low-value projects, making every organization within Meta leaner, optimizing the ratio of engineers to other roles, and investing heavily in artificial intelligence and other innovative tools. These principles also aimed to improve the effectiveness of a distributed workforce.

Meta’s financial commitment to technological advancements is substantial. The company projected that its capital expenditures on AI and its metaverse-development division, Reality Labs, would range between $35 billion and $40 billion by the end of 2024. This figure is $5 billion higher than originally anticipated, underscoring Meta’s intensified focus on developing new AI products for a variety of users, including consumers, developers, businesses, and hardware manufacturers.