Transformation cost. How much has the transformation cost so far, and how many roles have moved to shared services and Indians offshore locations? We're told every quarter that headcount is tight, yet the work doesn't disappear. It just lands somewhere else, and the people left behind absorb the extra load. If the savings are real, show the net number after severance, transition costs, and consulting fees.
Relocation vs. visa spend. Relocation support was shut down on the grounds of cost control, but there's apparently still budget for hundreds of Indians H1B filings and the fees that come with them. I'm not asking who should or shouldn't be hired. I'm asking how the company decides which talent costs are worth paying for and which aren't. Either talent acquisition is a priority and it's funded consistently, or it isn't.
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There is actually some public data that adds context to the second question.
H1BHQ has 68 PepsiCo LCA salary records in its DOL sample. The average offered base wage across the annual-wage records is $154,148.
More interesting is what shows up in 2025 and 2026:
2026:
- Software Engineering Manager, Plano: $156,998-$245,000
- Data Engineering Associate Principal Engineer, Plano: $156,998-$177,400
- Enterprise Data Operations Sr Analyst, Plano: $141,400-$190,000
- BI & Reporting Principal, Plano: $149,531-$245,000
- Software Engineering Sr Analyst, Plano: $134,971-$190,000
- Data Science Associate Principal Scientist, Plano: $141,773-$225,000
- Program/Project Management Sr Manager, Plano: $189,030-$255,000
- Data Management & Operations Associate Manager, Plano: $135,907-$225,000
2025:
- Enterprise Data Operations Manager, Plano: $143,666-$195,200
- Software Engineering Sr Manager, Plano: $149,781-$217,900
- Info Security Sr Manager, Plano: $144,789-$217,900
- Data Governance & Stewardship Manager, Plano: $175,700
- Data Governance & Stewardship Manager, Chicago: $138,715-$195,200
So I think the original question is fair, but I would frame it differently.
The question isn't whether "Indians" are being hired. The public data doesn't establish nationality, and an LCA doesn't prove that an H-1B petition was ultimately approved or that anyone was actually hired.
The more useful question is: if PepsiCo is reducing headcount, restricting relocation and moving work to shared services/offshore locations in the name of transformation and cost reduction, what is the complete labor-cost strategy?
How much work moved offshore? How much moved to shared services? How many US positions disappeared? How many H-1B/LCA positions were filed for at the same time? What are the consulting and transition costs? What is the actual net savings after all of that?
The filings are particularly interesting because many aren't obscure specialty jobs. They include software engineering, enterprise data operations, data governance, information security, BI/reporting, data science, product management and project management.
Nobody outside the company can calculate the transformation savings from these filings alone. But employees are being asked to accept the cost-cutting argument without being shown the other side of the ledger.
If transformation is producing substantial savings, publish the numbers. That would answer a lot of these questions.
Source:
https://h1bhq.com/search?employerSlug=pepsico-inc-2&pageSize=25