Uber CEO Wants to Shift More Engineering Jobs to India, Sparking Internal Debate

Since Dara Khosrowshahi became CEO of Uber in 2017, he has been steadily pushing his engineering team to move jobs to India as a way of saving money. Despite some resistance from his top technology executive, Khosrowshahi made progress: about 15% of Uber’s engineering team, or about 600 people, is now in India. That’s up from 80 engineers in 2017. 

Now Khosrowshahi, looking to control costs amid the Covid crisis, is taking steps to move a bigger portion of Uber’s engineering work to India. That has sparked an internal debate about the pros and cons of having so many of these jobs in India. It comes as similar conversations are occurring at other companies with lots of engineers in high-cost locations such as the San Francisco Bay Area, as businesses hit hard by the pandemic look to save money.