# Squarespace Cut 300: Search Dublin and Aveiro First, Not 'Acuity'

_Squarespace cut 300, mostly product and engineering, with no 8-K to read. Where its 261 indexed profiles sit, how to find Acuity's team, and when to reach out._

- Canonical URL: https://www.refolk.ai/blog/squarespace-layoffs-2026-acuity-aveiro-engineers
- Published: 2026-11-02
- Reading time: 9 min
- Keywords: Squarespace layoffs 2026, hire laid off Squarespace engineers, Acuity Scheduling engineers, Squarespace Aveiro Portugal engineering, Squarespace engineers laid off

If you want to hire laid-off Squarespace engineers, the usual playbook of reading the filing and then working through the WARN list doesn't apply. Squarespace is cutting about 300 of its roughly 1,800 employees, mostly in product and engineering, and as a Permira-owned private company it has no 8-K to file. No WARN notice has shown up yet either. What you can use is a map of where its engineers sit and what they call themselves, and the second part is not what most people would guess.

## What did Squarespace announce in its 2026 layoffs?

Squarespace is cutting about 19% of its staff, roughly 300 of 1,800 people, mostly in product and engineering. Departing employees get at least 16 weeks of base pay and healthcare through May 2027.

Here's what is on the record:

- **Scale:** about 300 roles, roughly 19% of about 1,800 employees.
- **Who:** mostly product and engineering, according to founder and CEO Anthony Casalena's memo, published by Business Insider.
- **Severance:** at least 16 weeks of base pay, with healthcare through May 2027.
- **Stated rationale:** spokesperson Jeff Seedman said the goal is to "simplify how we operate, sharpen our priorities and enable the company to move faster."
- **What it denied:** Squarespace said the cuts are not "linked to plans to increase investment in AI infrastructure."

The news first spread on Blind, where posters blamed AI-infrastructure spending, and The Verge reported it first. The AI story will shape how candidates read your outreach. There's more on that below.

The severance terms matter even more. Sixteen weeks of pay plus healthcare into May 2027 means these engineers can take their time. You won't win them with speed. You'll win them with a better role on a timeline that suits them.

## Why is there no public list of who was cut?

There's no 8-K because Permira took Squarespace private in a deal worth about $7.2B that closed in October 2024. As of this writing, there's also no New York WARN notice.

The WARN Act is the US law that makes employers give advance notice of mass layoffs. New York's version is stricter than the federal one. It covers employers with 50 or more staff and requires 90 days' notice, compared with 60 under federal law. I found no Squarespace filing in New York, and the public trackers I checked only run to early October.

A filing wouldn't solve much anyway. A New York notice tells you nothing about Dublin or Aveiro. That leaves the company's own structure as the best public clue:

- **NYC HQ** at 225 Varick St
- **Dublin**, with listed engineering teams
- **Aveiro, Portugal**, also with listed engineering teams
- **Acuity Scheduling**, a product sold separately with its own product roles

Company policy is hybrid, with 3 office days a week.

## Where are Squarespace's engineers in Refolk's index?

Refolk's index of professional profiles holds 261 profiles across the US, Ireland, and Portugal whose headline mentions Squarespace and whose title is SWE, Senior, Staff, EM, or PM. Of those, 209 are in the US, mostly in New York, and 52 are in Ireland and Portugal.

| Segment | Matching profiles | Senior SWE share | Staff SWE share | Main hub |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 209 | 44% | 20% | NYC metro (80%) |
| Ireland + Portugal | 52 | 64% | 8% | Dublin area (76%), Aveiro area (24%) |
| Total, US + IE + PT | 261 | n/a | n/a | US is 80% of matches |
| "Acuity Scheduling" keyword, all countries | 1 | n/a | n/a | Kansas City |

*Source: Refolk's index, matched on headline keyword plus title. The share figures come from a 25-profile sample per segment. Counts are lower bounds.*

> **14.5%** Share of Squarespace's reported headcount that turns up as product and engineering profiles in Refolk's index
>
> 261 matching profiles against roughly 1,800 employees, so treat every count here as a floor.

There are two ways to read the table. First, the US pool is large and concentrated: 20 of the 25 sampled US profiles are in the NYC metro. Second, Staff titles cluster in the US, at 20% of the sample against 8% in Europe. If you're filling a Staff role, start in New York. If you need strong senior builders, look at Europe.

If your role is in New York, it's already in the city where most of them live.

> **Engineering roles open in New York** - [see the open roles](https://www.refolk.ai/jobs/search?family=engineering&location=new-york)
>
> Live engineering postings in the metro where 80% of sampled US Squarespace engineers are based.

## Why does searching "Acuity Scheduling" return only one profile?

Because Acuity's engineers list Squarespace as their employer. In Refolk's index, a search for "Acuity Scheduling" with the same titles returns exactly one profile, a Senior SWE in Kansas City.

> **1** Engineering profiles in Refolk's index that name "Acuity Scheduling" in their headline
>
> The entire Acuity team joined Squarespace in 2019, so almost all of them say "Squarespace" instead.

The history explains it. Squarespace acquired Acuity in April 2019. The whole team moved over, and founder Gavin Zuchlinski became VP of Acuity. Squarespace later dropped the "Squarespace Scheduling" name and put everything back under the Acuity brand. Today Acuity is sold as a separate add-on that isn't included in Squarespace plans.

So the product carries one name and the employer field carries another. A keyword search on "Acuity" checks the headline and misses nearly everyone.

One caveat. Acuity behaves like its own product line, sold separately and with its own PM roles in Aveiro, but I found no public org chart confirming that it runs as a fully separate engineering org. Treat it as a strong signal, not a fact.

To find Acuity Scheduling engineers, search Squarespace profiles for the work itself:

1. **Scheduling vocabulary:** calendar, booking, appointments, reminders.
2. **Payments integrations.**
3. **Team names from Aveiro job ads:** "Communications" and "Channels." Squarespace's Aveiro listings have included "Product Manager, Acuity Scheduling, Communications" and Software Engineering Team Manager roles in both teams.
4. **Description text, not headlines:** "Acuity" in a role summary is a far better hit than "Acuity" in a title.

Doing this by hand means combining four keyword families with an employer filter across several sites, and that's where most sourcers give up. [Refolk](/) is built for exactly this: you describe the person in plain English and it matches on the work they did, not the name in their employer field.

> **Example search:** "Senior backend engineers at Squarespace in Dublin or Aveiro who worked on Acuity Scheduling, booking, calendar, or appointment reminders" - [run it on Refolk](https://www.refolk.ai/s/9c8q5vtgf0)
>
> A ranked shortlist of matching profiles, matched on the work they describe rather than the employer name.

## Why should you search Dublin and Aveiro first?

Because the European pool is smaller and more senior. Senior SWE is 64% of the Ireland and Portugal sample, compared with 44% in the US, and the total is just 52 profiles.

A reasonable explanation is that Dublin and Aveiro were built as engineering hubs and staffed with mid-to-senior hires. Whatever the cause, the practical effect is clear. Fifty-two people is few enough to contact one by one, with a message written for each of them. You can't do that with 209.

Within the sample, 19 of 25 profiles were in Dublin or elsewhere in Ireland and 6 were in Aveiro or elsewhere in Portugal.

### Aveiro is a small, isolated market

At roughly 6 in every 25 international profiles, Aveiro is a few dozen people at most. They also live in a city with few comparable local employers. That gives you leverage:

- **Remote roles stand out**, because few local alternatives exist at this level.
- **A Porto or Lisbon base is a real offer**, not a relocation burden.
- **Hybrid isn't a hard sell.** These engineers already worked 3 office days a week, so they're used to commuting.

Aveiro has also been staffing Acuity work. If your role touches scheduling, messaging, or notification channels, this is where to look first. If you're mapping reporting lines, The Org lists Luís Teixeira as Senior Director of Engineering in Aveiro. Check that he's still there before you mention him in outreach.

### How to assess them without repeating their loop

Use Squarespace's own bar as your starting point. According to a Glassdoor review, the Aveiro interview loop covers algorithms, code analysis, system design, and behavioral rounds, each about an hour, over roughly 3 weeks.

Anyone hired through that loop has already passed a general screen. Skip the duplicate algorithms round and spend the time on what's specific to your role: your domain, your scale, your codebase. Checking GitHub activity and the scope of work described in a profile takes minutes.

## When should you reach out to laid-off Squarespace engineers?

Now, and pitch a 2027 start date. Don't wait for a WARN filing. By the time it appears, it will only confirm what you already know.

My reasoning goes like this. NY WARN requires 90 days' notice, and the 16-week severance runs about as long. Many NYC engineers may stay on the payroll until around February. During that time most won't mark themselves open to work, so they won't show up in job-seeker filters. That February estimate is my inference, so check it against the actual notice when one is filed.

What it means in practice:

- **Weeks 1 to 4:** first contact, low pressure, about the work.
- **Through January:** conversations and loops, scheduled around their notice period.
- **February onward:** start dates line up with severance ending.

The difficulty is that this is slow work done blind. There's no list of names. The employer field hides the Acuity team, and every one of the 261 profiles needs checking against a cut nobody has itemized by person. If your open role can't wait until February while you rebuild the org chart from headlines, the sourcing time is what really costs you.

## How should you pitch them?

Match the company's stated reason for the cuts, not Blind's. Squarespace denied any link to AI-infrastructure spending, so a message that says or hints "they replaced you with AI" contradicts what the candidate's own employer told them, and it reads as either badly informed or cruel.

> Nobody wants to hear they were replaced by a model, least of all when their own employer says they weren't.

Mistakes to avoid:

1. **The AI framing.** It contradicts the official rationale and puts people on the defensive.
2. **Exploding offers.** With healthcare running through May 2027, pressure tactics push people away.
3. **Leading with "Acuity" when they say "Squarespace."** Use the name they use. Mention Acuity only once you've confirmed it from their profile.
4. **Generic "saw the layoffs" openers.** They tell the candidate you know nothing about their work.

What works is echoing the stated rationale, that the org was flattened to move faster, and then offering a role where they'd own more, not less. A short version:

> Saw Squarespace is simplifying its org. Your work on booking reminders on Acuity is close to the notifications work on my team. No rush given timing; would a conversation about a Q1 2027 start be useful?

It's specific, it doesn't speculate about why they were cut, and it respects their severance runway.

## FAQ

### How many Squarespace engineers were laid off in 2026?

Squarespace cut about 300 people, roughly 19% of about 1,800 employees, and said the cuts fall mostly on product and engineering. It hasn't published a breakdown by function or office, and as a Permira-owned private company it had no 8-K to file. Refolk's index holds at least 261 product and engineering profiles across the US, Ireland, and Portugal, which is the pool the affected people come from.

### Is there a WARN notice for the Squarespace layoffs?

Not yet, as far as I can find. New York's WARN rules cover employers with 50 or more staff and require 90 days' notice, and the public trackers I checked only run to early October. Even a filing would cover New York only, so it won't help you find Dublin or Aveiro engineers.

### How do I find Acuity Scheduling engineers?

Search Squarespace profiles for the work, not the brand. Searching "Acuity Scheduling" as an employer returns just one profile in Refolk's index, because the team that joined in April 2019 lists Squarespace as its employer. Use terms like calendar, booking, appointments, reminders, and payments integrations, plus the "Communications" and "Channels" team names from Squarespace's Aveiro job ads.

### Does Squarespace have an engineering office in Portugal?

Yes. Squarespace runs engineering teams in Aveiro, Portugal, alongside Dublin and its New York HQ at 225 Varick St. Aveiro listings have included backend SWE roles, Software Engineering Team Manager roles, and a Product Manager role for Acuity Scheduling. It's a small pool, roughly a quarter of the Ireland and Portugal profiles in Refolk's sample, and those engineers have few comparable local employers.

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_From the Refolk blog. More posts: https://www.refolk.ai/blog/index.md_