The parent company of QuickBooks and Mailchimp has confirmed cuts to 1800 roles across the business globally, including its Australian-based engineering team.

Mi3 understands marketing roles globally have also been impacted by the cuts.

Intuit did not confirm the number of roles that have been impacted in the local market nor the total number of employees it has on the ground. As of July 31, 2023, it is understood that the company had 18,200 employees globally.

In a note sent to Intuit employees on Wednesday, CEO Sasan Goodarzi said the layoffs were not about cutting costs, but rather enabling the business to “to allocate additional investments to our most critical areas to support our customers and drive growth” and in particular to accelerate AI uptake and delivery.

“This includes reinvesting in the necessary skills and capabilities to support these areas, and, as such, we will hire approximately 1,800 new people primarily in engineering, product, and customer facing roles such as sales, customer success, and marketing,” said Goodarzi.

Goodarzi outlined that the business had “raised the bar” in employee performance, and thus 1050 of those leaving the company are employees “who are not meeting expectations and who we believe will be more successful outside of Intuit.”.

In addition, Intuit is reducing its executive roles by around 10%, consolidating 80 technology roles into centralised bases and closing two US offices where 250 staff are currently located, with some to relocate and others to leave the company. An additional 300 roles will be eliminated to “streamline work and reallocate resources toward key growth areas”.

It is understood that the Australia-based engineering team is also impacted by the cuts, with the capability and related product and design work to be transitioned from Sydney to offices in Mountain View and New York, with a view to more efficiently service US and UK-based customers. The company will continue to have a presence in the market and is actively hiring for other roles outside of those capabilities.

Goodarzi outlined that Intuit would be supported impacted employees with a minimum of 16 weeks of pay for US staff and an additional two weeks for every year of service, with the redundancies coming into effect from September 9. Employees outside the US will receive similar supports, “taking into account local requirements”, she said. 

Intuit would also provide six months of health insurance coverage, and career transition and job placement services to impacted talent, as well as immigration support for those on visas. 

“With the strength of our people, culture, and mission, we are positioned to take advantage of this AI revolution and revolutionize our customers’ experiences to deliver undisputed benefits in ways that we could never imagine. Today is “Day 1”. Together, we will focus on the future and all the possibilities to power prosperity around the world,” said Goodarzi.