Intel overhauls engineering leadership amid deep factory layoffs
New customer and AI chip heads reflect strategic reset as restructuring reaches Israeli and global plants.
Intel has made three senior engineering hires as part of a broader management overhaul under chief executive Lip-Bu Tan, who is attempting to reposition the chipmaker amid intense competitive and financial pressure.
The appointments, announced on Wednesday, reflect Tan’s efforts to flatten Intel’s organizational structure, tighten strategic focus, and strengthen the company’s execution in key areas such as AI and customer engagement. All three hires - Srinivasan Iyengar, Jean-Didier Allegrucci, and Shailendra Desai - bring deep engineering experience from Cadence, Rain AI, and Google, respectively.
Iyengar will lead a new customer engineering center and report directly to Tan, while Allegrucci and Desai will be tasked with building Intel’s next-generation AI chip technologies, reporting to Chief Technology and AI Officer Sachin Katti.
The moves are part of a broader shift initiated since Tan took the helm in March, including leadership changes, cost reductions, and an increased emphasis on technical accountability. Several core groups now report directly to Tan, including Intel sales veteran Greg Ernst, who was recently appointed chief revenue officer after overseeing U.S. sales and marketing.
The appointments come on the back of the news that Intel is preparing to lay off as much as one-fifth of its global factory workforce. The move threatens to affect hundreds of workers at Intel’s Kiryat Gat plant, which employs around 4,000 people and serves as a critical node in the company’s global manufacturing network. Intel currently employs a total of 9,350 people in Israel.
“These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position,” wrote Naga Chandrasekaran, Vice President of Manufacturing, in an internal memo to employees. “It drives pain to every individual.”
Intel began notifying employees in April of the impending layoffs but had not previously disclosed the extent. The planned reduction - between 15% and 20% of the foundry division - will largely take effect in July and reflect a combination of strategic downsizing, project cancellations, and skill-based reassessments.
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“Greg, Srini, J-D and Shailendra are highly accomplished leaders with strong reputations across our ecosystem, and they will each play important roles as we position our business for the future,” Tan said in a statement.
Intel has also reshaped its board of directors, with three members not standing for reelection at its 2025 annual meeting. The move appears intended to strengthen chip-industry expertise at the board level, reflecting the company’s renewed emphasis on core engineering challenges.
The executive reshuffle comes as Intel continues to pursue a difficult turnaround. In recent years, the company has struggled with execution delays and found itself trailing behind Asian competitors in both manufacturing scale and technological pace. Tan, a longtime investor and former Cadence executive, has signaled a desire to reduce bureaucracy and re-center the company around engineering performance and customer satisfaction.
