Citing too much “bureaucracy,” Blue Origin to cut 10 percent of its workforce

A little less than a month after the successful debut of its New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin's workforce will be trimmed by 10 percent. The cuts were announced during an all-hands meeting on Thursday morning led by the rocket company's chief executive, Dave Limp. During the gathering, Limp cited "business strategy" as the rationale for making the cuts to a workforce of more than 10,000 people. Blue Origin was founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, and he continues to provide an estimated $2 billion in funding annually to support its operations. In a follow-up email to employees on Thursday morning under the subject "Difficult Org News," Limp said the decision was the result of the company's planning for 2025 and need for sustainable growth. Blue's primary goal for the coming year is to scale up its manufacturing output and launch cadence of the New Glenn rocket. Limp cited the scramble to complete the development of New Glenn and get the rocket into orbit as rationale for the cuts. "We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

Making difficult decisions

With the cuts, Blue Origin will seek to trim its management ranks. Of the cuts, Limp said, "This resulted in eliminating some positions in engineering, R&D, and program/project management and thinning out our layers of management." He added that these difficult decisions will set Blue Origin on course for success this year and beyond. "This year alone, we will land on the Moon, deliver a record number of incredible engines, and fly New Glenn and New Shepard on a regular cadence," he wrote. Even before Thursday's announcement, Blue Origin had been seeking to control costs. According to sources, the company has had a hiring freeze in place for the last six months. And in January, it let the majority of its contractors go. The cuts appear to be an effort by Bezos, who hired Limp a little more than a year ago, to put Blue Origin on a more financially sound footing. Although Bezos could continue to fund Blue Origin indefinitely with the wealth he has acquired from Amazon, he has been pushing programs to become, at worst, revenue-neutral. In addition to the New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin is working on developing large uncrewed and crewed lunar landers, a human spacecraft for the rocket, and an Orbital Reef space station. The impacts to these programs were not immediately clear.