Uber starts hiring engineers in India – after reports said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is eager to shift engineering innovation to India

• Uber is hiring 140 engineers in India to build products across areas such as rider and driver growth, delivery, marketplace, customer service, digital payments, and more.
• Earlier, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is eager to shift engineering innovation to India as it will be cheaper for the company.
• The company had also announced its plans to let its employees work from home until July next year and also added a $500 allowance to set up a work from home office.

Ride hailing giant Uber is hiring 140 engineers in India to build products across areas such as rider and driver growth, delivery, marketplace, customer service, digital payments, risk and compliance, safety, and finance technology.

The development comes after a report by The Information in July said that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is eager to shift engineering innovation to India as it will be cheaper for the company.

Yesterday, the company had also announced its plans to let its employees work from home until July next year and also added a $500 allowance to set up a work from home office.

“We’re leveraging India’s outstanding product and engineering talent to fuel our next wave of products and services. We’re looking to hire engineers who’re deeply technical and passionate about solving complex problems in the mobility and delivery space. We welcome the country’s top talent and will provide them a very enriching experience,”Jayaram Valliyur, senior director in Uber’s global finance technology team said in a statement. Valliyur was himself hired recently by the firm.

The company said that it has started reaching out to prospective candidates to build new teams and adding to existing ones, including Uber infrastructure, marketplace, Uber for Business (U4B), marketing and advertising platforms.

Earlier, as a part of its massive global layoff of 6,700 employees, Uber India had laid off 600 employees in India. “The impact of Covid-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber IndiaSA with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month,” Pradeep Parameswaran, President, Uber India and South Asia had said during the layoffs in May 2020.

However, Uber’s wish to shift its engineering to India is not something new. During his visit to India in 2019, Khosrowshahi had said that India is going to be a big source of innovation for them. “One example is the Uber Lite app, was designed and built in India and moved to over 30 countries around the world,” he had said.

Manik Gupta who was then the Chief Product Officer of Uber had said that Uber is proud of the engineering and product talent based out of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. “We have a goal to double the headcount in these offices and have 1,000 people to build innovative products out of India,” he had said.


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