Zoom, the video-conferencing software company whose popularity has skyrocketed in the social-distancing age, announced Thursday it will open two new research and development centers, including one in Pittsburgh.
The company is seeking an office location near Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland. It will open another center in the greater Phoenix area near Arizona State University. Zoom’s existing research and development facility is in San Jose, Calif.
“Both Phoenix and Pittsburgh have incredibly well-educated, skilled and diverse talent pools that are well-positioned to help support Zoom’s ongoing growth and continued success,” CEO Eric S. Yuan said in a statement.
Yuan said Zoom will hire up to 500 software engineers in the Pittsburgh and Phoenix locations over the next few years and hopes to draw recent graduates from the nearby universities.
“With our visionary faculty and exceptionally talented students, Carnegie Mellon is catalyzing revolutionary work to accelerate digital transformation across markets and industries, and we look forward to partnering with Zoom to enhance their remarkable momentum in defining the future of virtual interactions,” CMU president Farnam Jahanian said.
Zoom will begin hiring software engineers in Pittsburgh and Phoenix immediately. New employees will work from home until at least the fall or whenever coronavirus-related restrictions are eased.
The company has seen an astronomical rise in demand as businesses have adjusted to work-from-home environments and social gatherings have largely been halted during the pandemic. In April, Zoom said it had about 300 million daily meeting participants, compared to about 10 million in December, according to Reuters.
Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg told Reuters the Pittsburgh and Phoenix locations will be for longer-term projects and development, not for the 90-day plan to improve privacy and security that Zoom is currently about halfway through.
Steckelberg also pointed to the high costs of living in Silicon Valley, which may make prospective engineers leery of moving to work in the San Jose office. The company also has a location in China.
The median home value within the city of San Jose and neighboring Santa Clara is more than $1 million, according to data from real estate tracking website Zillow.
By stark contrast, the median home value in Pittsburgh is about $180,000, and for all of Allegheny County it’s about $170,000. The median home value in Phoenix is $269,000.
“This will be a really great opportunity to extend our talent base across the U.S.,” Steckelberg said.
