Atlassian cuts 500 jobs as tech industry pain intensifies

Technology giant Atlassian has gone from spruiking an Australia-wide hiring drive, replete with a branded campervan, less than six months ago to announcing it would cut 500 jobs globally on Tuesday.

Atlassian confirmed that about 120 of the job cuts were based in Australia, the decision highlighting how quickly the company grew during the pandemic and an industry-wide trend of cutting costs amid a tougher economy.

The redundancies represent 5 per cent of the company’s workforce of more than 10,000 people.

In an internal note to staff on Tuesday that the company also released publicly, Atlassian’s billionaire co-founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, said the company’s talent acquisition, program management and research and insights teams would be most affected.

“To be clear, this decision is not a reflection of Atlassian’s own financial performance, as we will be reinvesting in roles that better support our priorities,” Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar wrote.

Atlassian, which makes workplace software that is industry-standard in the IT sector, is still growing quickly, reporting 27 per cent revenue growth last quarter to $US873 million ($1.3 billion). But it also recorded a net loss of $US205 million and told the market it was seeing slower growth in its cloud products, which are crucial to its future.

Shares in Atlassian are up about 40 per cent this calendar year to $US176, which is still down about 60 per cent from the highs of late 2021, when technology stock prices were inflated by lockdowns, low interest rates and government stimulus spending.

A host of major technology companies, including Google, Microsoft and several lesser-known productivity companies, have announced lay-offs recently as investors pull away from the sector, lowering share prices and putting a renewed focus on profits.

Atlassian had long seemed to defy the hiring downturn, with co-founder Scott Farquhar joining a travelling campervan on stops around the country to advertise its recruiting plans last October. It pledged to hire 1032 staff in research and development roles in Australia and New Zealand within 12 months.