Facebook announced Dec. 2 that it is opening a new software development and engineering office in New York City to augment its current Menlo Park and Palo Alto, Calif., and Seattle-based R&D locations.
The Facebook NYC engineering office will debut in early 2012 and will begin accepting applications immediately, Facebook Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer said.
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, speaking at a press conference with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer, would not be specific about how many new people the company would hire for the new office. However, she did say that the social networking and Web services provider will employ “thousands” of new engineers overall to support the company’s rapid growth.
Up to 800 Million Users
Facebook, which currently has about 3,000 employees-including 100 in its New York City sales and marketing office-now claims more than 800 million regular users. Only 12 months ago, that number was about 500 million.
Facebook, which is expected to launch its initial public offering of stock sometime in the spring of 2012, will join other IT companies with New York City software development offices, including, Microsoft, IBM, Google and several others.
“Facebook is capitalizing on what more and more tech companies are realizing: that New York City is the best place in the world to recruit and retain a talented workforce,” Bloomberg said. “Growth in the tech sector is creating jobs and further diversifying our economy. That’s why we are invested in expanding our engineering workforce by building a new applied sciences school in the city.
“We want to do everything we can to make sure that Facebook can grow here, and that the next Facebook will be founded here.”
Serkan Piantino, a Facebook engineering manager who previously managed the engineering team behind Facebook’s News Feed and built the infrastructure behind Timeline, will run the new office. Piantino currently manages the engineering teams that power Facebook Messages and Chat.
Jay Parikh, who oversees Facebook’s infrastructure team, will serve as the executive sponsor for the new office.
Applicants for the Facebook engineering team in New York may review the first listing of available positions at this site. Others interested in receiving updates on the developments at the office can “like” the Facebook Page for NYC Engineering.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was not present at the New York City press conference.
