Cloudflare cuts – Cloudflare eliminated 20% of its workforce earlier this year, yet its engineering headcount climbed from 1,308 engineers in December to 1,894—up 45%—based on data BNP Paribas analysts compiled from LinkedIn. CEO Matthew Prince pointed to a shift in what compan
Cloudflare laid off a chunk of its workforce earlier this year—then kept hiring the people it says matter most for its core product.
The tension is hard to miss. BNP Paribas analysts flagged what they called a contradiction: even after Cloudflare cut 20% of its workforce. the company’s engineering ranks surged. Cloudflare employed 1,308 engineers in December. That number climbed to 1,894, a 45% jump, according to data BNP Paribas crunched from LinkedIn.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince confirmed the trend when the numbers were put to him. His explanation starts with a blunt premise: AI isn’t eliminating tech work so much as it’s reshaping which roles companies lean on—and which ones they can automate away.
Prince’s first takeaway was direct. “AI ain’t killing tech jobs.” He pointed to broader hiring signals—open tech roles posted by tech companies are up 14% so far this year, according to TrueUp, a tech jobs marketplace. Open hardware engineering roles have risen 52%.
The real shift, in Prince’s view, is that AI changes the mix of jobs companies value. He breaks modern companies into three broad groups: builders, sellers, and measurers. Builders create products. Sellers persuade customers to buy them. Measurers track, audit, manage, report on, and coordinate the business.
Builders are the group Prince says remain secure. He said that if Cloudflare’s builders—its engineers—become far more productive with AI, the company would hire even more of them.
Sellers, he argued, still matter because customers want to buy from people they trust—people who understand their problems and can fix them.
Measurers are where the layoffs hit hardest, Prince said. In his framing, AI increasingly takes on these functions constantly and thoroughly, reducing the need for large teams tasked with measuring operations. That is where Cloudflare’s earlier layoffs were concentrated, according to Prince.
Operations shrank into a single group. Finance was consolidated through more automation. Marketing was slashed because, like in many companies, the department was “riddled with measurers,” Prince said.
The outcome is a reshuffling of headcount priorities: fewer people tracking and coordinating, more investment in roles actually doing the core work of building and running the business.
For workers caught in the transition, it doesn’t soften the blow—Prince’s “healthier reset” may still feel cold. But the logic behind it is visible in the numbers: a workforce cut paired with an engineering climb. and a company betting that AI will remove some jobs while increasing the value of others.
Cloudflare Matthew Prince AI engineering hiring layoffs workforce reduction BNP Paribas LinkedIn TrueUp tech jobs automation finance consolidation marketing layoffs
So they laid people off but somehow got more engineers. Sounds like they just swapped titles or moved jobs around.
AI isn’t killing tech jobs?? lol tell that to my cousin who got canned by a “restructuring” last month. They always say the same thing while cutting folks.
I’m confused because it says they cut 20% workforce then engineering is up like 45%. Maybe LinkedIn data is wrong or they hired contractors not full employees? Also “builders vs sellers vs measurers” sounds like CEO word salad.
Cloudflare: “AI ain’t killing tech jobs” meanwhile HR is literally doing the opposite. It’s probably just they fired support/measurers and kept the people who can code faster with ChatGPT or whatever. Either way, workers get squeezed and CEO math says it’s fine.