Stellantis has frozen new hiring for technical and salaried positions at its North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, just months after adding at least 2,000 engineers. The company confirmed the pause to the Detroit Free Press. The move comes as Stellantis works to control spending while pushing ahead with the product overhaul outlined in its FaSTLAne 2030 plan.
Stellantis pauses Auburn Hills hiring after adding at least 2,000 engineers
The Chrysler Technology Center in Michigan handles everything from vehicle development and testing to research, design and marketing. The hiring freeze therefore affects employees who work directly on future vehicle programs as well as administrative positions. According to the Detroit News, Stellantis had already started scaling back recruitment in the previous weeks. During the latest week reviewed by the newspaper, Auburn Hills showed only 20 new job openings, most of them internships and student programs.
Jodi Tinson, a Stellantis spokesperson, said the company now wants to integrate the employees it hired during the first half of the year into existing teams while also creating more advancement opportunities for current staff. Stellantis links its earlier recruitment push to both its industrial strategy and the Value Creation Program, which aims to reduce costs. After expanding its workforce again in late 2025, the company now wants to make full use of the skills it recently added before resuming broader recruitment.
The pause comes as Stellantis plans to invest more than €60 billion, or about $68.3 billion, between 2026 and 2030, while also targeting €6 billion, or roughly $6.8 billion, in annual cost savings by 2028 compared with its 2025 cost base. The plan directs 60% of brand and product investment to North America and includes 11 all-new vehicles for the region.
Jeep and Ram remain among the brands receiving the greatest investment, while the engineers Stellantis recently hired will help develop the next generation of products. The company also targets a return to positive industrial free cash flow in 2027.
Stellantis has not disclosed how much money it expects to save through the hiring freeze or when external recruitment will resume. The career opportunities the company currently highlights mainly target existing employees, who can pursue new roles through internal programs. Outside candidates interested in working at Auburn Hills will instead have to wait until Stellantis reopens broader hiring.
