Walmart To Open New Tech Hubs In Atlanta, Toronto
The world's largest retailer is planning to open two new technology hubs in Atlanta and Toronto to capture those city's pools of talent.
Walmart announced Tuesday that it plans to hire several hundred new tech workers over the next year in Toronto and 140 full-time employees in data science and software engineering in Atlanta as part of the first phase of a new tech hub.
Walmart will begin with 45 full-time software developers, product managers and technical program managers in Toronto, a city that is home to 26% of Canada's tech workforce, the company said in a release.
Walmart didn't give specific locations for the new hubs; Suresh Kuman, Walmart's executive vice president and chief technology officer, wrote in the press release both teams would “work virtually in the near-term and will eventually transition to our hybrid way of working as we identify physical space for routine collaboration, personal development, networking and culture building.”
“Atlanta is a major location for both Walmart and the cybersecurity industry, with growing strengths in software engineering, AI, machine learning and data science. The city’s talent pool is supported by strong local universities with the highest growth of tech graduates in the U.S.,” Kuman said.
The new tech hubs are part of the expansion of Walmart Global Tech, a division that focuses on cloud computing, data, enterprise architecture, development, infrastructure and cybersecurity with more than 20,000 employees globally. Last year, the division grew by 26%, the company said, and this year, Walmart plans to focus on hiring cybersecurity experts, architects, developers, software engineers, data scientists and engineers, technical program managers and product managers.
Walmart Global Tech operates 16 hubs globally, including in Silicon Valley, its home state of Arkansas, Dallas and India.
Aside from Atlanta's tech talent pool, the region will offer Walmart an opportunity to expand its hiring diversity. Six months ago, Walmart joined a coalition of U.S. employers, vowing to hire 1 million Black workers “into family-sustaining roles over the next 10 years,” the retailer said in the release. The effort includes teaming up with several Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Georgia is home to a number of HBCUs, including Morehouse and Spelman colleges and Clark Atlanta University.
Atlanta's combination of tech talent and a diverse workforce has been a lure for many companies that announced recent expansions into the market, including Microsoft, Google, Airbnb, Cisco and Micron.
“One of the big things too that I think has come on to the radar screen of a lot of companies is the whole ESG component,” CBRE Vice Chairman Will Yowell told Bisnow last week for a story on investor demand for Atlanta office. “It's not just about the office building perspective, but just Atlanta has a whole. It's got so much going for it right now from the standpoint of desirability.”
