E-commerce giant Amazon is planning a major expansion in Austin.
Amazon says it will create more than 2,000 corporate and tech jobs in Austin over the next few years.
The new roles will support teams in operations technology, retail, business and web services. Positions will include senior data engineers, senior technical program managers, user experience designers and financial analysts.
To accommodate the growth, Amazon has leased 330,000 square feet of space at a new building being developed by Cousins Properties at the Domain in North Austin. The new office space is planned to open in early 2024.
Amazon's Austin Tech Hub has over 3,000 employees
Amazon currently has more than 3,000 tech and corporate employees at its Austin Tech Hub in three locations at the Domain.
"Our continued investment in Austin is a testament to the amazing talent and amenities that this city has to offer," said Doug Gray, site lead for Amazon's Austin Tech Hub. "With more than 3,000 jobs already created and more than 1,000 corporate and technology roles currently available, we're looking forward to continue offering exciting career opportunities to local residents."
To attract workers, the company has created a program called Amazon Returnship, which it says aims to help professionals get back to work after they lost or left their jobs — including people displaced by the coronavirus pandemic. The 16-week paid initiative is available to people who have been without a job or underemployed for at least a year.
During the program, employees work on a specific project and, after four months, have the possibility to move into full-time positions at Amazon.
The Austin expansion is part of the company's national growth plan. Amazon says it plans to create 3,000 jobs across Austin, Chicago and Phoenix. In the past 18 months, Amazon has announced 150 new jobs in Houston and 600 new jobs in Dallas.
Last year, Amazon announced it would open a sorting center in Kyle with more than 200 jobs to the city south of Austin. The company said that since 2010 it has created more than 70,000 full- and part-time jobs in Texas. Amazon also owns Austin-based Whole Foods Market, which it bought in 2017 in a $13 billion deal.
Amazon's latest plans for Austin come as a number of tech companies are expanding in Central Texas.
In October, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the electric automaker — one of the world's best-known and most valuable companies — would move its corporate headquarters from California to Austin. That came little more than a year after Tesla began building a $1.1 billion manufacturing facility in southeast Travis County.
Last December, software giant Oracle announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters from California to Austin.
Meanwhile, Samsung recently announced plans for a $17 billion chip manufacturing facility in Taylor, and a number of other global technology players — including Apple, Facebook and Google — have expanded their operations in Central Texas in the past two years.
