Just weeks before its annual I/O developer conference, Google has laid off staff across several key tech teams, including those working on the Flutter app development framework, the Dart programming language, and Python tooling and runtimes. The cuts, while not company-wide, have rippled through engineering groups vital to Google‘s open-source efforts and internal infrastructure.

According to the company’s own statements and accounts shared by impacted employees on social media, the layoffs spanned teams like Flutter, Dart, Python and more as part of what a Google spokesperson described as moves to “remove layers” and realign resources with top priorities. The underlying theme: “Simplifying structures” for efficiency.

“Throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers, and align their resources to their biggest product priorities,” said Google spokesperson Alex García-Kummert. He stressed the goal was giving “employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and layers.”

Among those caught up in the pruning were teams responsible for internal Python runtimes, toolchains, and integration with open-source Python – a crucial piece of infrastructure undergirding Google’s AI ambitions. “Multiple current and former core devs and steering council members” were impacted, according to one observer.

For some ex-Googlers, the cuts capped years of uphill battles and “technical debt” from past priorities. A former member of the embattled Python crew recounted early efforts “paying down internal technical debt accumulated from not having a strong Python strategy” despite being severely understaffed. Another lamented that for years, critical work was done by fewer than 10 people, even as Python’s importance within Google steadily grew.

“Python was one of the very first languages used widely at Google. It was the last major backend language to get a language team,” they shared on Hacker News under the username gpshead.

The layoffs also swept through one of Google’s highest-profile open-source projects – the Flutter cross-platform app toolkit. In a post to Flutter’s Reddit community, PM Kevin Moore confirmed “a LOT of teams” had been affected, losing “lots of great projects” and people.

However, Moore sought to reassure developers that the turbulence wouldn’t derail Flutter’s momentum. “We’re sad, but still cranking hard on I/O and beyond,” he wrote, asserting that Flutter and companion language Dart weren’t disproportionately hit. “You’re betting on Flutter and Dart. So am I. So is Google.”

Despite the rhetoric of “realignment,” details remain scant on exactly how many roles were eliminated across Google’s “Core” engineering cohort in the sweep – though the layoffs may have numbered around 200 based on some reports.

Meanwhile, the handling of the Python team reorg sparked particular frustration. According to one insider account, the entire existing Python group in Munich was unceremoniously cut, only to have their roles immediately re-staffed with replacements from other countries at lower costs.

“It’s a tough day when everyone you work with directly, including your manager, is laid off — excuse me, ‘had their roles reduced,’ and you’re asked to onboard their replacements,” recounted Python Steering Council member Thomas Wouters.

For all the disruption, Google maintains the realignment is simply part of “the normal course of business,” not an existential blow to key open-source projects and offerings. Impacted staffers will have opportunities to apply for internal openings, and the company vows it “will support all affected employees” with severance, job placement services, and search time.

Still, the cuts in Google’s own tech ranks cast a pall on this month’s I/O conference, where the company will aim to rally its global developer community around its latest innovations – even as it scales back the very teams responsible for creating and nurturing many of those platforms.

This article was originally published on May 1, 2024, at 2:30 pm ET.