Amazon has launched an active campaign to bring back former employees, including those it previously laid off, with recruiters at the tech giant offering them open positions in its cloud computing (AWS) and artificial intelligence divisions.
Amazon has launched an active campaign to bring back former employees, including those it previously laid off, with recruiters at the tech giant offering them open positions in its cloud computing (AWS) and artificial intelligence divisions.
The recruitment of Amazon graduates is part of the fight for AI specialists against giants such as Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic, Business Insider writes .
According to letters received by the publication, Amazon is trying to attract verified staff in several ways.
Amazon's AI development organization, led by AWS Vice President Swami Sivasubramanian, has been recruiting AI and machine learning specialists through a program that recruiters call "Swami's Boomerang Reengagement Initiative."
In one case, a recruiter from the AWS Finance division offered a former employee with a positive reputation a shortened interview with a quick offer.
In the correspondence, recruiters asked whether the layoffs were due to the company's strict return to office (RTO) policy. Company representatives noted that this would help them better match vacancies with remote work preferences.
“A lot has changed since you were fired, and there are really exciting things happening in the AI/ML space,” one of the recruiter’s letters reads.
The massive hiring comes as Amazon has cut more than 30,000 employees in several waves of layoffs over the past year, one of the largest layoffs in the company's history.
Amazon spokeswoman Haley Silva, in a comment to Business Insider, noted that "hiring boomerangs" is a standard long-standing practice of the company, and not some new or limited program to the field of AI.
“We are always interested in attracting talented people — both new candidates and former Amazonians. Rehiring former employees is a normal and traditional part of our recruiting, and our interview practices are consistent across the company,” Silva assured.
At the same time, the company emphasized that although laid-off employees also have the right to re-employment, Amazon does not specifically target those who left due to the office mandate, and the requirements for mandatory office work themselves remain unchanged.
Previously, dev.ua reported that in 2025, about 20% of AI engineers hired by Google had already worked for the company before . The share of so-called boomerang employees has increased compared to previous years.
