Dive Brief:

• Snap Inc. CFO Derek Andersen will step down from his seat effective May 8 to pursue another professional opportunity, the technology company said in a Monday securities filing.  
• The Santa Monica, California-based Snapchat parent plans to appoint Doug Hott, its VP of finance, strategy and corporate development, to succeed Andersen as CFO following his departure, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• The CFO announcement comes after Snap’s recent decision to lay off 16% of its global workforce as it focuses further on investments in artificial intelligence. The layoffs will impact 1,000 full-time team members, and the company will also be closing 300 open roles, CEO Evan Spiegel said in an April 15 memo.

Dive Insight:

Andersen is departing Snap after a seven year span as its CFO, having joined from ecommerce giant Amazon where he served as VP of finance, according to his LinkedIn profile.

His successor Hott, a fellow Amazon alum, joined Snap in 2019 as its VP of finance, and has served in his current role since July 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously served a four-year span at Amazon’s Prime Video, serving in roles including as its director of finance, strategy and business development for Amazon Studios.

His past roles also include serving in several executive positions during an eight-year tenure at Proctor & Gamble, including as its finance group manager, global business services, and as its finance group manager, global fabric care.

Hott will assume Snap’s top financial seat as the technology company — which also offers Bitmoji AR development tools and Spectacle augmented reality glasses alongside Snapchot — looks to accelerate its investments in AI. The increased focus on AI agents and tools is prompted by both a renewed push to profitability and pressure from activist investors to catch up to competitors including Facebook owner Meta.   

On March 31, investor Irenic Capital Management issued a public letter to Snap leadership, urging the company to undertake several actions aimed at bolstering the company’s value — which should be higher than its current $7.2 billion valuation, according to the letter.

Among other actions, Irenic — which owns 2.5% of class A shares in Snap — advised the company to “rationalize its cost structure,” noting the business’s headcount swelled from 3,000 employees to 5,200 during the pandemic.

“Like many of your peers, you over-hired. Unlike your peers, you haven’t course-corrected,” the investor states in the letter. Irenic also advised Snap to shut down its “Specs” unit, citing high costs, and to utilize AI further for both ads and to help monetize its image and video datasets.

“Snap should not continue doing what it has been doing. It’s not working. And we’re not telling you anything you don’t know already. In fact, almost eight months ago, you said Snap was at a ‘crucible moment,’” Irenic wrote, referencing multiple comments by Spiegel throughout its Q4 and full-year earnings call in February.

In outlining its planned headcount reduction, Spiegel noted the move is expected to reduce Snap’s annualized cost base by more than $500 million in the latter half of this year.

The layoffs will also help set Snap on a “clearer path” to net-income profitability, he said. For the full-year 2025, Snap narrowed its net loss to $460 million, compared to $698 million for the prior year period, according to its earnings results published Feb. 4.

“While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers,” Spiegel said of the layoffs in the April 15 letter.  

In an investor update included with the April 15 filing, Snap noted AI now generates 65% of new code, while its support AI agent has answered more than 1 million questions per month. The company also offers a “MyAI” chatbot for Snapchat users.

The Snapchat parent also updated its full-year 2026 cost structure guidance, expecting restructuring costs of between $95 million to $130 million for its full-year 2026 with the bulk of those costs expected to occur in Q2 of this year, per the update.

Snap is expected to report its first quarter 2026 results on May 6, according to a company announcement.