Leaked audio reveals deeper cuts at Robinhood as its engineering boss exits

• Robinhood’s head of engineering Surabhi Gupta is leaving the company, Insider has learned.
• Robinhood last month laid off 150 full-time employees but leaked meeting audio reveals wider cuts.
• The company has also made cuts through “reorgs,” among teams like recruiting, engineering, and data science.

Robinhood’s head of engineering is leaving the company, Insider has learned, the latest tech leader to depart amid deeper-than-reported cuts to its workforce, according to internal memos and audio of an all-hands meeting.

Surabhi Gupta, senior vice president of engineering since May 2022, announced her departure on Wednesday. Gupta’s departure follows the resignations of other tech leaders like Jesper Johansson, security and IT tech lead, a person familiar with the matter said. Johansson confirmed his departure via LinkedIn. 

“Our GM structure has increased accountability and efficiency and we’re continuing to lean into that design,” a Robinhood spokesperson said. “We have a strong leadership team and are confident in our roadmap. We thank Surabhi for all of her contributions to the engineering organization and wish her the best on this next chapter.”

Robinhood last month laid off 150 full-time employees in three organizations, according to an internal memo viewed by Insider: customer experience and platform shared services, customer trust and safety, and safety and productivity. The layoff was widely reported, but audio of an all-hands meeting reviewed by Insider show ongoing cuts have been deeper.

“We’re seeing more and more hoodies being quietly laid off due to their positions being eliminated,” one employee asked in the meeting, which happened before the 150 layoffs. “Could we get some transparency here? How many hoodies have been eliminated, how many more will be and how much longer will this go on.”

Jason Warnick, the company’s chief financial officer who has taken on the role of chief people officer, disclosed the company has made cuts through “reorgs,” including in teams like recruiting, engineering, and data science.

“I do think that this is an important reminder for us that, as we build and grow our teams, that we do it with an eye toward running lean and running efficient because the more we grow responsible the less we will have to do periodically to adjust the team size or structure,” Warnick said.

The layoffs have left Robinhood with a security team less than half of the size it was in November 2021, when a data breach exposed 7 million customers’ data, a person familiar with the team size said. A Robinhood spokesperson disputed this statement but did not provide information about the size of the team.