(Reuters) - Former Tesla executive Drew Baglino has sold shares worth around $181.5 million in the world's top EV maker, according to a SEC filing on Thursday.

Baglino, a Tesla veteran who began his career as an engineer in 2006 and was one of four members, along with Elon Musk, on the company's leadership team.

He resigned as senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering from the company last week. The departure came amid the EV maker's plan to lay off more than 10% of its global workforce, to help prepare for the "next phase of growth" by reducing costs and improving productivity.

Baglino sold about 1.1 million of his shares as a stock option exercise and listed "an approximate date of sale" as April 25, the SEC filing showed.

He had already exercised his stock options twice this year, selling shares worth about $4 million, the filing showed.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)