Apple could cut management layers to put engineers closer to senior leadership

Apple could eliminate some middle-management positions as new CEO John Ternus looks to reduce the number of layers separating the company’s engineers from its senior leadership.

The proposed changes are part of a wider effort to make Apple faster and more engineering-focused under Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook at the beginning of September.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is considering reducing management layers in parts of the company so engineers developing its products can work more directly with senior decision-makers.

The move could represent a significant cultural change at a company that has grown enormously in size and complexity during the past decade.

Apple now operates a sprawling collection of hardware, software and services businesses, ranging from the iPhone and Mac to streaming, financial services, artificial intelligence and the Vision platform.

As those businesses have expanded, so has the organizational structure required to manage them.

Ternus reportedly wants to simplify some of that structure and speed up the process of turning engineering work into decisions and finished products.

The approach reflects his own background inside Apple.

Ternus joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and spent much of his career in hardware engineering, becoming vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013 before joining Apple’s executive team as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2021.

Apple says Ternus has overseen engineering work across the iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch and played an important role in the introduction of products including the iPad and AirPods.

His elevation to CEO therefore marked a shift from Cook’s operations-focused background toward a leader whose career has been centered on engineering and product development.

Bloomberg reports that Ternus now wants engineering to play a greater role in how Apple operates.

The management changes are also connected to a broader push to control costs. Apple is reportedly looking to become leaner while simultaneously increasing the speed and number of products it develops.

Reducing management positions could contribute to those savings, although Apple hasn’t announced a company-wide restructuring or detailed how many jobs could ultimately be affected.

The company is also reportedly exploring new sources of revenue and ways of generating more money from products and services it already offers.

The restructuring comes at a particularly important time for Apple’s engineering teams.

The company is simultaneously developing smart glasses, camera-equipped AirPods, smart home devices and future Vision hardware while continuing annual development of the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and other established products.

Apple is also attempting to accelerate its work in artificial intelligence, an area that has required increasingly close coordination between hardware, software and machine-learning teams.

A flatter management structure could theoretically make some of those decisions faster, although it remains to be seen how extensively Ternus will reshape the organization.

Apple hasn’t commented on Bloomberg’s report.

The changes form part of a wider overhaul reportedly underway at Apple, with Ternus also considering a less rigid product launch calendar and encouraging the company to experiment with more new products.

Less than a month into his tenure, the early changes point toward an Apple that puts engineering closer to the center of its decision-making process.