jobs

Open Amazon Jobs in Arlington Passes 300

By ARLnow.com

Amazon is now listing more than 300 open positions in Arlington on its jobs website.

After hovering in the double digits for much of the year since hiring began in April, the number has been quickly increasing, though it includes both jobs at Amazon’s new, temporary HQ2 in Crystal City and at an existing office in Ballston.

The top job categories listed are mostly technical in nature, including:

  • Software development (113 jobs)
  • Sales, advertising and account management (54 jobs)
  • Systems, quality and security engineering (28 jobs)
  • Project/program/product management-technical (22 jobs)
  • Solutions architect (22 jobs)

Amazon has repeatedly said it is hoping to hire 400 people to work at its new headquarters by the end of the year. There seems to be no shortage of interest — thousands attended an Amazon job fair in September and a poll found that three-quarters of IT workers in the region would consider jumping ship to Amazon.

The Amazon jobs website says the tech giant is “looking to foster a sense of place for our teams and community residents” at HQ2. The website encourages applicants to “come build the future with us.”

Amazon selected Arlington, Virginia as the location for its second headquarters. Amazon will invest $2.5 billion dollars, occupy 4 million square feet of energy efficient office space, and create at least 25,000 new full-time jobs. Our employees and the neighboring community will also benefit from the associated investments from the Commonwealth including infrastructure updates, public transportation improvements, and new access to Reagan National Airport.

By working together on behalf of our customers, we are building the future one innovative product, service, and idea at a time. Are you ready to embrace the challenge? Come build the future with us.

UPDATE: Line Stretches for Blocks at Amazon Job Fair in Crystal City

By Airey
1/13

(Updated at 5:25 p.m) Amazon drew an overflow crowd to its Crystal City career fair this morning as people vied for the 30,000 jobs Amazon recently announced it’s hiring nationwide, including at its new HQ2 in Arlington.

At last minute, the company tacked on extra hours to the event, which was one of six job fairs Amazon held as it looks to fill 30,000 jobs nationally — including 1,600 jobs in Virginia and 400 in Arlington. The fair was held at The Grounds at S. Eads Street and 12th Street S. today (Tuesday), leading applicants toting resumes to line up along 12th Street almost to the Route 1 overpass.

“I would say that we are incredibly pleased, and humbled, by the response from the community, ” said Amazon’s Vice President of People Operations, Ardine Williams. “I’m not sure what we expected but it’s what we hoped for. This is just amazing.”

Around noon Williams offered tips about interviewing for the company’s jobs (show leadership), writing resumes (be specific), and what the company culture was like (permits failure) in an on-stage conversation with Linda Thomas, a former Seattle journalist who now leads in-house content creation for Amazon.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about what we’re doing to ensure that there is a pipeline of talent. We came to Arlington because of the talent,” Williams said.

The head of hiring noted that the D.C. area’s universities were a big part of that pool and the company’s strategy for thinking of the 25,000 people it plans to hire for its new headquarters over the course of the next 10 years.

Thomas touted promotional videos throughout the event, which showcased Amazon’s decision to raise its minimum hourly wage to $15 last year for all workers, after facing criticism for the conditions in its warehouses.

Some job seekers at the Crystal City fair today wore fitted suits with ties knotted four in hand, while others chose more casual attire — with one job seeker wearing cargo shorts and a Nirvana t-shirt.

(more…)

Amazon Holding ‘Career Day’ in Crystal City

By ARLnow.com

Arlington is one of six locations where Amazon is holding an “Amazon Career Day” next week.

The tech and retail giant is seeking to fill some 30,000 open positions — including around 75 at Amazon’s growing second headquarters in Arlington.

The company noted on the page for its Arlington jobs event that it already had a sizable presence in the Commonwealth prior to HQ2.

“In Virginia, Amazon has created more than 10,000 full-time jobs and we’re excited to create even more,” the page says. “Arlington is the new home of our second headquarters and we have plans to create 25,000 new jobs here over the next 12 years. We also have over two dozen customer fulfillment facilities, wind farms and retail locations throughout the state, and tens of thousands of authors, small and medium sized businesses, and developers growing their businesses using Amazon products and services.”

Previously, a company spokesperson said Amazon was on track to hire 400 HQ2 employees by the end of the year.

The career fair is scheduled to take place at The Grounds in Crystal City, at 1102 S. Eads Street, from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17. It will include talks from Amazon leaders and information about working at the company.

Any interested member of the public is invited to attend. Amazon says recruiters will be on hand but they will not be conducting interviews or taking applications at the event.

More from a press release, after the jump.

(more…)

Amazon On Track to Hire 400 By The End of 2019

By Airey

Amazon is on track to meet its hiring goals for 2019, according to a spokesperson.

This spring, the tech and retail giant said it would hire 400 people for its new headquarters in Arlington by the end of the year, and that remains the company’s target. A spokesperson told ARLnow this week that Amazon had hired a “small handful” of people since starting the process in April, but declined to share exactly how many.

The spokesperson did point to Amazon’s public HQ2 job listings, which currently number around 50.

“We plan to hire people who live here to reduce the impact on the region,” said the spokesperson. “We will continue to share our growth plans with the County so they can work to ensure inclusive growth within the community.”

So far employees have been hired for roles working with Amazon’s consumer teams, its Amazon Web Services cloud platform, and its Alexa virtual assistant.

County officials previously said Amazon’s hiring process is designed to not overwhelm the county with its eventual goal of ushering 25,000 employees into offices in Crystal City and Pentagon City.

“This is not going to feel like a tsunami of new people on our streets or kids in our schools,” Board member Katie Cristol said at the time.

When asked, the spokesperson said Amazon does not provide recommendations on where new employees can find housing in the D.C. area. The company also does not provide housing recommendations in Seattle.

“Access to housing is a concern in communities throughout the U.S., including Arlington,” said the spokesperson, alluding to the county’s struggle with affordable housing. “One of the things that drew us to this location was the plans the County and the Commonwealth have in place to address this issue.”

Also this week, Amazon unveiled colorful details for its planned 2.1 million-square-foot permanent HQ2 in Pentagon City.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

VDOT Repaving Planned This Month — “Upcoming @VaDOTNOVA night paving into August: Glebe Road, Spout Run Parkway, Washington Boulevard, Route 1 aka Richmond Highway aka the roadway formerly known as Jefferson Davis. Dates tentative, subject to change.” [Twitter]

ACPD Still Not Meeting Staffing Goal — The Arlington County Police Department has, on net, added a few new officers over the past year. But staffing challenges remain, echoing challenges for police departments across the region: ACPD currently has 352 officers despite a staffing goal of 374 officers. [NBC 4]

Arlington Hiring Public Safety Positions — Arlington County is currently hiring school crossing guards and 911 dispatchers.

Lee Highway Apartment Complex Sold — “A 50-year-old apartment complex along Route 29 in Arlington County has traded hands for the first time in 20 years. Connecticut-based Westport Capital Partners, through the entity WM MF Horizons Property LLC, acquired the Horizons Apartments from an entity connected to Dweck Properties to in a deal that closed June 26 for $71M, Arlington County property records show.” [Bisnow]

Rosslyn-Based Firm Buys Clyde’s — “It’s official: Clyde’s Restaurant Group, a 56-year-old institution in Greater Washington’s restaurant scene, is now a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Co. Graham, which is led by members of the Graham family that formerly owned The Washington Post, did not disclose a sale price.” [Washington Business Journal]

Nearby: More People Biking in Alexandria — “More than halfway through this summer’s Blue and Yellow Line shutdown… bicycle volume [has] almost doubled on the Metro Linear Trail, a smaller, along-rail trail which connects the King Street and Braddock Road stations.” [DCist]

Flickr pool photo by Lisa Novak

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Talento Selected as School Board Chair — “The Arlington School Board held its annual organizational meeting for the 2019-20 school year and elected Tannia Talento as Chair and Monique O’Grady as Vice Chair. The terms for the new Chair and Vice Chair begin immediately and will continue until June 30, 2020.” [Arlington Public Schools]

Which Amazon Units Are Coming to HQ2 — “We’re still a pretty long way from knowing what the estimated 25,000 workers at Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters will do, but a top company executive has named three units that will be represented in Arlington: Alexa, Amazon Web Services and Amazon’s consumer division.” [Washington Business Journal]

Private Sector Job Growth in Arlington — Arlington County’s private employment grew by nearly 20,000 jobs, or about 17%, between 2010 and 2018, according to the D.C. Policy Center. [Twitter]

Arlington Winners at the RAMMYs — Ambar in Clarendon captured the Service Program of the Year award at the 2019 RAMMYs over the weekend. The distinction of Chef of the Year at the D.C. area restaurant industry award show, meanwhile, went to Kyle Bailey of The Salt Line, which is opening a location in Ballston. [Washington Business Journal]

APS Testing New Visitor System — “Summertime will bring a security pilot program to a number of Arlington’s public schools, with a full roll-out of the initiative slated throughout the system in the fall. The new visitor-management system to be tested at five sites during the summer will require visitors, volunteers and contractors to provide specific photo identification, and their identities will then be checked against state and federal sex-offender registries.” [InsideNova]

ACFD Holds ‘Camp Heat’ — “Camp Heat, put on by the Arlington County Fire Department, concluded Friday night. During this week-long immersion into firefighting, campers learned everything from running hoses to breaking down doors to working on water rescue techniques. All the campers are young women, 15 to 18 years old.” [WJLA]

Flickr pool photo by Erinn Shirley

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Overturned Vehicle on GW Parkway — “The northbound George Washington Parkway was closed [past Key Bridge] during Tuesday morning’s rush hour after a vehicle overturned, authorities said… The southbound side of the parkway was also affected.” [Washington Post]

Transgender Policy Discussion at School Board Meeting — “Students, parents and advocates packed the [Arlington school] board meeting to loudly back [a transgender non-discrimination] plan, waving miniature LGBT and transgender pride flags to signal agreement with the nearly three dozen speakers who proclaimed support… Supporters on Tuesday vastly outnumbered those who turned out to protest the plans.” [Washington Post]

Good Samaritan Murder Trial — “The Good Samaritan who intervened to try to stop a sexual assault in Arlington last fall was beaten so badly it was impossible to tell what killed him, a medical examiner testified Monday.” [Washington Post]

Feds Giving Grant to DCA — “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International both will see millions in funding from the FAA for improvements. DCA is slated to get $4,921,500 in funding.” [WUSA 9, Press Release]

ACFD Chief Battalion Honored — “Chief Wesley was recognized at the event for being the #first #AfricanAmericanWoman Battalion Chief not only in @ArlingtonVA but also the entire Northern Virginia region.” [Twitter]

Amazon HQ2 Jobs Update — There are currently 63 positions listed on Amazon’s HQ2 jobs page, many of them technical. Recently listed job titles include “Region Build Technical Program Manager,” “Full Stack Software Development Engineer” and “Systems Development Manager, Cloud Computing Operations.” [Amazon]

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Goldstein Fends Off Challenger — “Incumbent School Board Chair Reid Goldstein emerged as the victor Saturday night in the Arlington County Democratic Committee’s [School Board endorsement] caucus… Goldstein received 1,231 votes out of 1,999 ballots counted, or 61.6%… Challenger David Priddy received 763 votes.” [Arlington Democrats]

Car Runs Off Glebe Road Into Ditch — “At 1:54pm Sunday, units were called for a car off the road in 4500 blk of N Glebe Rd. Crews were able to walk 1 patient out with minor injuries. Patient was transported to local hospital while Hazmat team worked to contain leaking fluids. Please watch your speed on the wet roads.” [Twitter]

Del. Hope Not a PAC Man — Del. Patrick Hope (D) has joined a group of Democratic state Senators in announcing “their intention to introduce legislation in the 2020 General Assembly legislative session to limit excessive campaign contributions from influencing Virginia elections.” The proposed bill is in response to a PAC contributing nearly $1 million to the commonwealth’s attorney primaries in Arlington and Fairfax. [Blue Virginia]

New Additions to Amazon HQ2 Job Page — There are now 47 open jobs listed on Amazon’s HQ2 jobs page. Among the positions Amazon is hiring for in Arlington are hardware, system and software development engineers; recruiters; and numerous Alexa-related technical positions. [Amazon]

Middle School Project Running Behind — “It might be a little cramped for the first few months as students settle in at Arlington’s Dorothy Hamm Middle School… County school officials have known for months that the expansion of the school won’t be ready for occupancy when classes begin in September… On its website, the school system now pegs completion of the expansion at next March.” [InsideNova]

Wardian Places Third in Horse Race — “Mike Wardian, 45, of Arlington, Va. did not succeed at outrunning all the horses at the 40th anniversary of Whole Earth Man v. Horse Marathon in Wales yesterday, but he did pretty well nonetheless, placing third among the humans and finishing in 2:34:03.” [Trail Running]

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
1/4

Kaine Event at Federico’s — Updated at 8:55 a.m. — “On Monday, May 13, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine will hold a roundtable in Arlington with fair housing advocates to discuss the work ahead to ensure equal access to housing for all Americans and address discrimination that LGBTQ Americans continue to face as they search for homes.” The event is now being held at 9 a.m. at Federico’s Ristorante Italiano (519 23rd Street S.) in Crystal City, per an updated media advisory.

Amazon Hiring for Alexa Job in Arlington — Among other open job positions for Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington, the company is now hiring a “Principal Product Manager” for its Alexa Experience team. [Amazon]

Puppy Recovering from Pike Crash — “Earlier this week Yoda ran into oncoming traffic after escaping his leash. I ran after him in attempt to save him, which resulted in both of us getting hit by a car. I am okay but Yoda was not so lucky. He has two major fractures in his back leg which lead him into surgery. He is resting but having a difficult time.” [GoFundMe]

Satisfaction with Metro Rebounds — “Metro’s reputation in the region has improved dramatically in the past two years and has almost reached the positive levels it enjoyed before a fatal smoke incident in 2015, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll… A 68 percent majority of Washington-area residents rate Metrorail positively, up from 42 percent in 2017. In 2013, 71 percent had positive ratings of the subway system.” [Washington Post]

Post Endorses Tafti — The Washington Post has endorsed challenger Parisa Dehghani-Tafti over incumbent Theo Stamos in the Democratic Commonwealth’s Attorney primary. [Washington Post]

SoberRide Record for Cinco de Mayo — “Nearly 800 (792) persons in the Washington-metropolitan area used the free safe ride service, SoberRide, this Cinco de Mayo as opposed to possibly driving home drunk.” [WRAP]

Flickr pool photos by John Sonderman and GM and MB

JUST IN: Amazon Has Started Hiring in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

Amazon is starting the hiring process for its HQ2 in Arlington and expects the first employees to move into temporary office space in June.

That’s according to a corporate blog post today:

Last November, we announced that Arlington, Virginia would be the home of our second headquarters. We’ve enjoyed a warm welcome from the community and the strong support from state and local government has allowed us to make significant progress towards establishing our presence here. We are ahead of schedule and on pace to create 400 new jobs this year and a total of 25,000 over the next decade plus.

Today marks an important step in the process as we lease office space and begin hiring. We will welcome our new employees to our temporary office space on Crystal Drive in June while we work toward opening our first building this fall.

The post was penned by Ardine Williams, the Vice President for Workforce Development, HQ2 at Amazon. Williams moved to the D.C. area from Seattle, starting her new HQ2 role in January, according to a LinkedIn profile.

So far, five jobs and three job titles are listed on Amazon’s “Arlington HQ” jobs page:

  • Global Category Manager
  • Sr. Financial Analyst – Procurement
  • HR Specialist

“This role will sit in our new headquarters in Northern Virginia, where Amazon will invest $2.5 billion dollars, occupy 4 million square feet of energy efficient office space,” says one of the job descriptions. “Our employees and the neighboring community will also benefit from the associated investments from the Commonwealth including infrastructure updates, public transportation improvements, and new access to Reagan National Airport.”

More from the blog post:

We posted our first few job listings this morning. While the number is small, these employees will help build the foundation of our workforce and workplace. The human resources leaders will help us recruit diverse and customer-obsessed teams and the finance, sourcing and facilities professionals will support the development of our new sites with the goal of building a unique, sustainable, and urban campus for our employees and the local community.

Amazon recently leased additional office space in Crystal City, while other temporary leased space is under construction. Ultimately, the company plans to move to an office campus in Pentagon City that it will develop and own.

In the blog post, Williams says Amazon plans to invest in training programs and education to “increase the talent available in this region to make Virginia an even more attractive destination for innovators large and small.”

We have a unique opportunity to build programs that both support the skills development necessary to create a pipeline for jobs at Amazon, and also increase the talent pool in the DMV.

We recently announced that we will support funding for intro and AP computer science classes in 27 schools across Virginia as part of our Amazon Future Engineer program – a childhood-to-career program to inspire, educate and propel children and young adults from underserved and underrepresented communities to pursue careers in computer science. Similarly, we are also funding literacy programs, robotics clubs, and STEM labs in more than 50 schools across the Commonwealth.

We have called Virginia home since 2010 and have already invested more than $34 billion in the Commonwealth, including infrastructure and compensation to our employees, and will be investing billions more in the coming years. We hope our continued investments will create more opportunity for the region’s skilled workforce and underrepresented communities.

“Keep checking back for updates,” Williams writes in conclusion. “We plan to post more roles soon.”

Governor: Technology Company Pledges 1,000 Jobs in Arlington

By Airey

(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) An Arlington-based tech company is relocating its headquarters in Crystal City and pledging to add 1,000 new jobs in Arlington.

Incentive Technology Group, LLC (iTG) is investing $5.1 million in a 50,000 square-foot headquarters at the Presidential Tower office building at 2511 Jefferson Davis Highway, where it expects to hire for 128 positions this year.

The new headquarters, and the 1,000 jobs iTG pledged to add over the next three years, was announced by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam earlier today.

Virginia and Georgia both vied for iTG’s new headquarters, but Amazon appears to have helped tip the scales in Arlington’s favor.

“Arlington County’s recent influx of technical talent, as well as its ability to attract leading-edge companies to the area, such as Amazon, are the key reasons for iTG’s decision to stay in the region,” said iTG’s Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fehretdinov.

iTG consults with Amazon Web Services, per its website. Its customers include the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Communications Commission, National Cancer Institute, Bank of America, the General Services Administration, Vanguard, and United Healthcare.

Governor Northam described the company as a “homegrown small business” and said iTG’s choice to stay Arlington is “another example of how the region’s world-renowned tech talent and higher education system attracts and retains leading IT businesses of all sizes.

In the press release, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball, state Sen. Adam Ebbin and Del. Rip Sullivan lauded the move as evidence of the county’s growing economic power.

Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said he was “excited” that iTG planned to stay in the county.

“iTG has seen great success here, and in its new space is well-positioned to continue its growth in the field of information technology,” Dorsey said in a statement. “We look forward to continue working with iTG as a valued partner in our business community.”

iTG was founded in 2008 and is currently located at 2121 Crystal Drive. It currently has “in excess of 200 Arlington employees,” Fehretdinov told ARLnow.

File photo

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