Facebook to Open New York Engineering Office in 2012 (VIDEO)
Facebook announced on Friday that it would be opening its first engineering office in New York in early 2012. It would be Facebook’s first such office on the east coast.
COO Sheryl Sandberg made the announcement at Facebook’s current New York office, which employs around 100 people and focuses on advertising sales. Although she didn’t say how many people the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company would hire in New York, she did say that Facebook plans on adding “thousands” of employees in the coming years. In a press release Friday, the company said that it would start taking applications immediately.
Long-time Facebook engineering manager Serkan Piantino will head the office. Piantino built the infrastructure behind Timelines and previously managed Facebook’s News Feed team.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York’s US Senator Charles Schumer were also on hand at the announcement. The politicians toured the 17th floor office on Madison Avenue.
In recent years, Bloomberg has been focusing on tech-recruiting and even announced a plan this past July to make New York “the technology capital of the U.S. – and the world.” However, “Silicon Alley,” as New York is sometimes referred to, has not attracted the amount of engineers that Silicon Valley has, and it’s said that New York startups struggle at times to find qualified candidates for jobs.
Facebook’s East Coast expansion follows in the steps of Google, which opened an office in a former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey building to tap into New York’s media, advertising and finance industries.
Facebook Announce Hiring Spree
