A rendering of a new look American Tobacco Campus. Image courtesy of Hines.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will have offices at American Tobacco Campus in Durham, a spokesman said.
“We have some office space located in a building on the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, and it will eventually be home to about 100 enterprise engineers,” Ryan Daniels, Meta’s public affairs manager, state & local, told WRAL TechWire.
The company said last year that it would establish a “significant presence” in the Triangle, and the ATC offices appear to be the first step in that direction.
A quick glance at the Meta careers site shows no positions posted yet for the software engineers who would be based in Durham.
The company laid off about 11,000 employees worldwide last fall, 13 percent of its work force, and the technology sector has been volatile over the past few months as CEOs try to envision an economic future in which inflation, spending and job growth continue, while many workers sit on the sidelines waiting for just the right situation.
While tech job cuts have been in the news, the Triangle has been protected to a degree by the sheer number of employers seeking those skills.
In the past week, Eli Lilly has announced it will add 100 more jobs at an expansion in Research Triangle Park, and a manufacturer of electric vehicle charging stations announced it would bring 300 or more jobs to Durham County at a $41 million facility.
Bull City leaders have expressed interest in the draw of high-paying jobs Meta would create, but are also concerned about increasing gentrification and stratification in the city.
When Meta announced it was looking at Durham last June, North Carolina State University economist Mike Walden said the Triangle work force is a continued lure for technology companies.
“Not surprised. Not surprised at all. This area has so much more room to grow,” said Walden. “For the sector, we have four major universities in the Triangle that turn out graduates in the tech and life sciences every year we have a constant labor supply here.”
Last summer, Durham resident Lily McWilliams told WRAL TechWire, “I think it’s changing the demographic of Durham,. I feel like it’s kind of been known as like a medical and research place, and now it’s getting more tech and big business.
“Of course, the downside is that the prices of everything [are] going to go up, and further gentrification. Pros and cons for sure.”
Thanks to WRAL TechWire and WRAL-TV’s Sarah Krueger & WRAL TechWire’s Jason Parker for this Capcom story.
