Amazon Invests in Vancouver Canada with More Tech Jobs

In what also could be considered a blow to Toronto’s chances of becoming Amazon’s HQ2 location, the company announced it is adding 3,000 more tech jobs to its Vancouver Canada Tech Hub.

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Similar as today’s announcement with Boston, the question is why announce these additions now if some of these type of jobs were supposed to be part of HQ2.

Here is the Press Release from Amazon

Amazon today announced plans to expand its Vancouver Tech Hub and create an additional 3,000 jobs in fields including e-commerce technology, cloud computing, and machine learning.

To mark the company’s latest investment in Canada, Amazon welcomed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to an event with its Vancouver employees, at the site of its future 416,000 square foot Development Centre in Vancouver. Today’s announcement is the latest milestone in the company’s ongoing job creation in Canada, where it already employs over 6,000 people.

“Amazon is excited to create 3,000 more highly-skilled jobs in Vancouver,” said Alexandre Gagnon, Vice President of Amazon Canada and Mexico. “Vancouver is home to an incredibly talented and diverse workforce, and these thousands of new employees will invent on behalf of our customers worldwide. Thank you to Prime Minister Trudeau, Mayor Robertson, and all our partners across Vancouver and Canada for welcoming us and helping to foster a strong local innovation economy.”

“Our vibrant cities, which are home to some of the best talent in the world, are poised to attract premier investment that creates the jobs of tomorrow. Canadians share your passion for invention and your commitment to excellence – and that’s why we are excited to see Amazon grow here in Vancouver,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Amazon’s decision to bring another 3,000 jobs to Vancouver is great news for our city’s booming innovation economy,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “We are home to the fastest growing, most resilient and greenest economy in Canada and Amazon’s major expansion in our city means more long-term jobs for people who want to live, work and build a future in Vancouver.”

Amazon currently employs more than 1,000 researchers and engineers in Vancouver, primarily creating new products and services for the company’s international retail business and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As part of the retail operation, local employees work to enhance the customer experience in areas such as mobile shopping, delivery experience, payment options, and Alexa.

AWS’s teams in the Canadian city directly support local customers including Lululemon, BC Hydro, Vancouver International Airport, Unbounce, and Urthecast. Additionally in Vancouver, the human resources technology team helps build the HR, recruiting and employee management software systems that support Amazon’s global workforce of over 560,000 employees.

Amazon will expand into a brand new location in QuadReal’s The Post redevelopment when the project opens in 2022. With state-of-the-art amenities and an easily accessible location for its employees, Amazon’s new Development Centre will sit above a city landmark.

This is in addition to Amazon’s current Vancouver offices – including its 156,000 square foot location in TELUS Garden which opened to Amazon employees in 2015.

On top of today’s announcement, Amazon also confirmed last November its plans to expand into another downtown site on Dunsmuir Street, which will open in 2020. The company expects to grow to 5,000 corporate employees in Vancouver in the coming years across all of its locations in the city.