Uber to bring in Amazon’s Sukumar Rathnam as new CTO

Ride-hailing major Uber is all set to bring Sukumar Rathnam, who is currently a Vice President at Amazon, as its new Chief Technology Officer, as per media reports.

Uber, which has focused on scaling its food delivery business amidst COVID-19 restrictions, made the announcement of Rathnam’s hiring internally as per a report by The Information.

Rathnam, who has been at Amazon for nearly nine years, most recently as a VP in charge of product selection and catalog systems, is likely to assume his new role at Uber staring later this month.

The position of CTO has been lying vacant Uber for more than three months now.  The company’s former CTO Thuan Pham resigned on April 30. Thuan Pham stepped down after seven years as an executive at the company. 

Pham’s resignation came just before Uber let go of more than 6,000 employees, or 25 percent of its workforce to battle the slowdown in its rides business on account of COVID-related restrictions. Uber’s business was hit hard by the coronavirus’s impact on the travel industry, as global transportation and the ride business came to a virtual standstill.