Cybersecurity company Snyk has made its second round of layoffs this year.
CEO Peter McKay shared in a blog post yesterday that the company was laying off 198 employees, which he said represents 14% of its total workforce. The Boston company previously announced at the tail end of June that it had let go of 30 employees across the global organization over the last quarter.
Snyk has hub offices in Boston, London, Tel Aviv and Ottawa, per the company’s website. The company declined to comment on its plans for successfully moving forward after these layoffs or to say whether the layoffs impacted employees in the Boston office.
When announcing the previous round of layoffs this summer, McKay wrote in a blog post that the company was preparing for “looming economic headwinds.” Snyk cited economic conditions again in this second round of layoffs.
“In June, I shared that we needed to adapt to an evolved mindset balancing continued top line growth with profitability and committed to becoming free cash flow positive in 2024,” McKay wrote. “Our business continues to grow aggressively, more than doubling in size each year with currently over 2,300 customers, but we now must operate even more efficiently in order for Snyk to effectively withstand the continued headwinds facing the global economy.”
Two of the employees leaving Snyk include Aner Mazur, a SVP of market strategy who joined the company in 2017, and Karyn Smith, chief legal officer. Smith joined Snyk in February after serving as general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary of Twilio since 2014.
McKay wrote that the organizational changes would impact the company’s go-to-market organization to “further prioritize, scale and more effectively service the enterprise.” He added that R&D work would be realigned to focus on “developer adoption, a focus on the enterprise and security personas and enhancing its platform depth and capabilities.”
McKay said the company would also be reducing its spending in areas like its global real estate footprint, IT and subscription services and business travel.
The CEO added that Snyk would provide departing employees with support through things like outplacement services, a private LinkedIn support group, and an employee assistance program.
“I was recently reminded of a quote that inspired the work of Dr. Paul Farmer: Beyond mountains there are mountains. As we conquer one challenge, another one inevitably takes its place. We must remember that the developer security market is still in its very early stages and since Snyk was first formed, we have already scaled many mountains,” McKay wrote.
