Amazon Job Posting In D.C. A Potential HQ2 Signal
A new D.C. job posting from Amazon could hint at the company's plan to open its second headquarters in the nation's capital.
Amazon is hiring a D.C.-based economic development manager, a job it has not posted in any other city, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports.
The job posting says Amazon is looking for someone with experience in economic incentives, which will likely play a major factor in its HQ2 project. It says the economic development manager would work directly with "state and community" officials, but makes no mention of the federal government, the focus of much of Amazon's existing D.C. workforce.
The role would involve new corporate initiatives, a site selection process and site expansion plans, the job posting says. It is seeking someone with at least eight years of economic development experience.
The D.C. region has been widely viewed as a front-runner for Amazon HQ2 since the tech giant included three of the area's jurisdictions among its list of 20 finalists in January. D.C. submitted four sites for consideration in NoMa, Shaw, Hill East and along the Anacostia River. Virginia also put forward several sites in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County. Montgomery Country reportedly submitted the White Flint Mall site.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who bought a $23M house in D.C. and owns the Washington Post, is scheduled to speak at an Economic Club of Washington D.C. event Sept. 13, just past a year to the day from when it launched its HQ2 search.
With 50,000 jobs and 8M SF of offices on the line, Amazon-watchers have seized on everything from job postings to public appearances to web traffic to speculate about the company's intentions. In February, local news website ARLnow reported it received a spike in web traffic from an internal Amazon page on a months-old story about Arlington's environmentally friendly buildings. JDLand, a neighborhood blog for D.C.'s Capitol Riverfront, said Monday it received a small bump in traffic from Seattle on its site, and specifically on a page about The Yards' Parcel A, one of the sites included in D.C.'s riverfront bid.
