One in ten employees at SUSE are facing the chop due to "automation and AI," according to a memo dispatched by management at the privately owned open source software biz. In an email to the 1,900 strong workforce on Monday – seen by The Register – CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, the former Red Hat exec who joined SUSE in March 2023, confirmed the "difficult news." "We are announcing a reduction of SUSE’s global workforce of approximately 10 percent," he said. "These decisions are painful for our people, our culture, and our open source community, but they are necessary for us to adapt and build a sustainable, resilient SUSE for the long term." Van Leeuwen says the business, bought by Swedish private equity provider EQT, decided to cut jobs after scrutinizing its "future strategy, required capabilities, and team structures." The rest of the organization will get a look at the fiscal year 2027 strategy on November 16. He said in the message to staff: "What is clear is that automation and AI are fundamentally shifting how software companies operate. AI capabilities are advancing exponentially, forcing us to radically reimagine our work. We have seen this trend already both inside our sector and in the wider economy. This means that the organizational design and cost base that SUSE is built on today will not carry us forward successfully. "We are adapting. Across SUSE, modern tooling is already changing our daily workflows, enabling teams to move faster with less operational overhead and flatter reporting lines. The requirement for some existing roles has greatly diminished. Other roles will evolve over the next few years…
