Uber Technologies Inc. is reportedly cutting as much as 20% of its workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic as it loses a key executive: Chief Technology Officer Thuan Pham.

The Information reported today that the job cuts have been discussed by Uber executives and, though not finalized, may be announced in stages in the coming weeks. The net total could see 5,400 employees out of work from Uber’s 27,000 global employees. The job cuts involve salaried Uber employees, not its drivers and food delivery people.

Pham (pictured, left) joined Uber in 2013 and is one of the most senior employees at the company. The timing of his departure may not be a coincidence, since he was in charge of the 3,800 Uber engineering group with 800 jobs slated to be lost under the proposed cuts.

“While the work is never done, I feel comfortable hanging up my hat at a time when the Uber Engineering team is at peak productivity,” Pham said. “We have built robust system scale and stability, and are well prepared to face the future. This has been a labor of love for me, and I am so proud of what we have done as a team.”

Pham was born in Vietnam and fled the country as a refugee in 1979. He went on to earn a masters in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining Uber, he worked as an executive at VMware Inc.

Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said that “as the leader of our engineering organization for the last seven years, Thuan has made important contributions that have helped make Uber into the global technology platform it is today.”

The job cuts, should they take place, are not the first time Uber has reduced its employee headcount, though never in such large numbers. Uber laid off a third of its marketing department after its initial public offering in July 2019 before going on to cut more employees from Uber Eats and its self-driving car division in October.

Uber has never been profitable. Whether these new proposed job cuts may assist it to be profitable at some point in the future is yet to be seen.

Photo: Vietnam Times