Walmart tech workers in Austin can choose layoffs or Dallas

Employees will have to work in office at least two days a week

Walmart's Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)

TRD Staff

Feb 17, 2023, 6:09 PM

Certain Austin tech employees can keep their jobs … if they move to Dallas.

Walmart employees left without jobs after the retail giant closed its Austin tech hub have the chance to keep their jobs if they relocate and come back to the office.

Walmart is closing three tech hubs — in Austin, Carlsbad, California and Portland, Oregon, the Dallas Morning News reported. Austin employees can transfer to a downtown Dallas innovation lab operated by Walmart’s sister company Sam’s Club.

All of the other employees who worked in the closing hubs can accept a severance package or move to Walmart’s hometown, Bentonville, Arkansas. That’s where the company is building a new corporate campus that will take up several city blocks. Walmart will pay its workers’ relocation costs.

The company hopes to relocate most of the workers, and some will be allowed to work remotely full time, a Walmart spokesperson said. MosT will also be required to report to their assigned office at least two days a week, as opposed to the Bentonville location’s required five days a week.

New tech hubs planned in Atlanta and Toronto, which were announced last year, could create thousands of jobs, Walmart’s global chief technology officer Suresh Kumar has said.

Before the most recent closures, Walmart had 11 tech hubs in the U.S. and six others across the globe.

The shutdowns follow news that Walmart is also closing three stores in the Chicago suburbs. The retailer is closing one pickup and delivery-only store in Lincolnwood and two others in Plainfield and Homewood.

The retailer said the decision to close the stores came after a “thorough review process” found the stores weren’t performing as well as others. The Walmart stores in Skokie, about a mile from the Lincolnwood store, and six other Walmart Supercenters in a 10-mile radius will remain open, and employees for the closing locations will be able to transfer to other stores.

— Victoria Pruitt