DJI Palo Alto office: drone maker reduces workforce as part of Long March reforms

Today we learn that DJI is reducing its workforce at its offices in Palo Alto, resulting in more layoffs and transfers of DJI employees. It seems that the DJI ‘Long March' reforms we reported on earlier are not done yet.

DJI Palo Alto office: drone maker reduces workforce

Today we learn from the former Head of US R&D, Arnaud Thiercelin that the world's largest drone maker DJI will be shutting down its offices in Palo Alto, California.

In a post on Linkedin Thiercelin said:

DJI is shutting down their Palo Alto office (I won't comment on that as I know nothing else) so there is great talent up for grabs. Zoe McAtee, Lisa Fedane, Sara Race, Siddharth Utgikar, Christina Miao, Yanhe Chen, Kalyani Nirmal, and more I'm missing but I can add as it goes. Very unique talent that is behind some of the best engineering I've seen.

However, from other sources, we have learned that DJI may not be entirely shutting down the Palo Alto offices but instead is reducing its workforce.

Some of DJI's talent have already found new positions elsewhere. Arjun Sukumar Menon, the Lead Product Manager behind the L1 LiDAR payload has reportedly found a new position.

And, Alain Pimentel, Shane Looker, Cristina Suciu, and Jiuyi Zhang will be leaving or have been laid off as well as a result of the DJI Palo Alto offices closing.

Other DJI employees, such as Michael Oldenburg, Wayne Baker, Romsin Oushana, and possibly the Legal team might be transferred to the DJI offices in Burbank, California.

Separately, we have learned that DJI's Senior Marketing Manager, Denise Hibbard is leaving the drone maker as well.

Mario Rebello, the former DJI VP Enterprise, Marketing, & Government commented:

Sad… it could have been avoided! Yes

We have reached out to DJI for an official response on the workforce reduction at the DJI Palo Alto offices, and this is what they said:

We have made the difficult decision to reduce staffing in our Palo Alto office to reflect the company's evolving needs. We thank the affected employees for their contributions and remain committed to our customers and partners in the U.S. market and around the world as we continue to develop the industry's most advanced Drone Technology.

What do you think the reduction of the workforce at the DJI Palo Alto offices means for DJI in North America? Let us know in the comments below.

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