Cognizant weighs up to 15,000 job cuts, most in India

Cognizant is considering laying off 12,000 to 15,000 employees globally, with most of the job cuts expected in India, according to sources cited by Moneycontrol.

The move follows the company’s recent announcement of Project Leap, which will see Cognizant record estimated severance costs between $230m and $320m in the second quarter of 2026.

While the IT services firm did not specify the number of job losses in its initial disclosure, it confirmed that most of these costs are expected within the 2026 financial year.

Cognizant, which is listed on the Nasdaq, currently has more than 357,000 employees globally, with over 250,000 based in India.

For Project Leap, the company anticipates $200m to $270m in employee severance and other personnel-related expenses, on top of approximately $30m to $50m in other restructuring charges.

Cognizant has indicated in regulatory filings that the final figures are subject to various factors, including local legal requirements and unplanned developments during implementation.

Calculations from industry observers, based on common severance and salary benchmarks, suggest that most affected employees may be in India. Here, the average annual salary is estimated at around Rs1.5m ($15,784), and severance is typically half a year’s pay, the publication reported.

Applying these averages to the restructuring budget, sources predict about 12,000 to 13,000 employees in India might lose their jobs as part of the process.

In higher-wage geographies such as the US, where annual salaries are typically about $100,000, the severance provision per head is about $50,000, which translates into fewer job cuts when compared to India. These calculations are based on generalised data and the actual number of impacted employees may vary depending on how the company executes the restructure, the publication said.

Industry executives pointed to a trend among clients who increasingly prefer alternatives to traditional staffing models that rely on hiring large numbers of entry-level employees.

Current market conditions have prompted IT firms to explore more flexible and less hierarchical workforce structures, which in turn has influenced restructuring initiatives such as Project Leap.

Project Leap follows an earlier cost optimisation programme, NextGen, in 2023–24, which led to approximately 3,500 redundancies and a reduction of 11 million ft² of office space for the company.

Cognizant, recently, reported a first-quarter 2026 revenue of $5.4bn, up 5.8% year-over-year, with operating margin at 15.6%, representing a decline of 110 basis points. Adjusted operating margin rose by 10 basis points over the previous year.

The company’s trailing 12-month bookings reached $29.6bn, marking an 11% annual increase. As of March 2026, total headcount stood at 357,600, up 6,000 from the previous quarter and an increase of 21,300 year-on-year.

Additionally, Cognizant recently signed an agreement to acquire Astreya, a San Jose-based IT managed services and solutions supplier with operations in more than 35 countries. The firm plans to use the acquisition to expand its managed services capabilities focused on AI.