Apple's new CEO John Ternus has dismissed roughly half a dozen director-level engineering program managers (EPMs) from the hardware division, signaling a shift towards faster product releases. The cuts represent a departure from Tim Cook's management style and a bet on engineers self-coordinating more directly under senior leadership.
TL;DR
- Apple's new CEO John Ternus has dismissed roughly half a dozen director-level EPMs from the hardware division.
- The cuts represent a shift towards faster product releases and a departure from Tim Cook's management style.
- Ternus aims to accelerate Apple's product development cycle, moving away from the traditional spring and fall launch events.
What happened
Just one month into his role as CEO, John Ternus has begun reshaping Apple's engineering structure by dismissing a number of engineering program managers (EPMs) from the hardware division. According to Bloomberg reporting by Mark Gurman, the cuts reached the director level, affecting roughly half a dozen directors, one of the company's most senior employee ranks. Those employees were given weeks to find alternative roles within Apple, with layoffs expected later this year if no internal placement is found.
The EPM role is crucial for managing timelines and coordinating work across engineering teams, ensuring that complex products like the iPhone are delivered on schedule. Eliminating EPMs, particularly at the director level, indicates Apple's bet that engineers can self-coordinate more directly under senior leadership, potentially accelerating decision-making but also placing more coordination burden on individual contributors.
Why it matters
Ternus's moves signal a departure from Tim Cook's coordination-heavy management model, which relied on multiple layers of management to track the complexity of Apple's products. Ternus, an engineer by training, prefers direct accountability over process coordination, aiming for a leaner organization that can accomplish more with fewer employees.
The cuts to the EPM layer are the most visible sign of a broader restructuring that began before Ternus officially took office. Apple has also cut more than 200 positions across teams working on the Vision Pro headset, Siri, and software engineering, framing the changes as a rebalancing of the business to deliver the best experiences for users.
Ternus is also pushing for a structural change to Apple's product calendar, moving towards a more distributed model where products launch across the full calendar year. This shift could create a more experimental Apple, releasing more products faster and less beholden to traditional launch windows. However, it also presents challenges for developers, carriers, and retailers who currently plan around Apple's predictable release cycles.
Key facts
- Apple's new CEO John Ternus has dismissed roughly half a dozen director-level EPMs from the hardware division.
- The cuts represent a shift towards faster product releases and a departure from Tim Cook's management style.
- Ternus aims to accelerate Apple's product development cycle, moving away from the traditional spring and fall launch events.
- Apple has cut more than 200 positions across teams working on the Vision Pro headset, Siri, and software engineering.
- Ternus is working with Apple's services chief Eddy Cue and CFO Kevan Parekh on growing services revenue and launching new offerings.
- Apple's services division crossed $100 billion annually for the first time in fiscal year 2025.
- Crunchbase's Tech Layoff Tracker recorded at least 94,046 US tech layoffs between January and August 2026.
- Apple's total layoffs in 2026 remain modest by industry standards, with fewer than 500 confirmed positions out of a workforce of approximately 166,000.
Context
Ternus's moves at Apple are happening against an industry backdrop of significant workforce reduction, driven in large part by companies shifting investment toward AI and restructuring operations accordingly. AI was cited as a contributing factor in 33% of tech layoff events in 2026, up from just 1% in 2024, according to the Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker.
Apple's own total across all 2026 rounds remains modest by industry standards, with fewer than 500 confirmed positions out of a workforce of approximately 166,000. However, the significance of Apple restructuring is outsized because Apple has historically avoided the kind of mass layoffs common at Meta, Google, and Microsoft.
Ternus's management philosophy differs from Tim Cook's in that he prefers direct accountability over process coordination. This is reflected in his internal arguments for a leaner organization and his explicit statement that Apple should be accomplishing more with fewer employees.