You can see the tractor tread tracks leading into the parking lot. Then, sitting just a stone's throw off South Congress Avenue, you find a hulking John Deere tractor equipped with technology to help it navigate through rows of crops with minimal human intervention.
That tractor won't be there for long, but the teams inside the adjacent building are already working on the data technology that will help farmers get notifications about what their tractors and automated equipment may need next — more fuel, more fertilizer, a maintenance check-up and so on.
So far, only about 10 employees have been working at John Deere's new tech hub in Austin. But, as the company this week opened its 10,000-square-foot office, Andrez Carberry, global head of human resources, said it plans to have roughly 50 employees in the next year and could grow to around 75 at its local office.
The office has a modern and open design, with hints of Austin and the broader Southwest. It will house data scientists, embedded software developers, systems engineers and software developers. They'll be providing the tech backbone to help farmers understand in real time the density of their crops, field conditions and loads of data from the machines themselves.
On April 12, Illinois-based Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) opened the doors to community leaders, job candidates and media.
Go inside John Deere's Austin tech hub
Carberry said that, despite strong competition for talent, Deere tends to attract great candidates because many of them are looking to work on something where they can see their impact. At Deere, that can include reducing cost and waste in farming, as well as making farms more productive to feed more people.
"We're a tech company that happens to build phenomenal machines and equipment," he said. "We want to make sure people know we're here, understand what we're interested in and understand how their talents can help us address the global needs of feeding the world and an increasing global population. And how the things they're working on contribute to our ecosystem."
Deere is connecting with local colleges and universities, including the University of Texas, to develop a diverse talent pipeline.
"You want to bring great talent and diverse talent together," Carberry said. "So Austin is an incredible place for us to do all of that — startups, innovation and talent."
Many blue chip corporations have set up tech hubs or innovation offices in Austin, from General Motors to The Home Depot to Amazon, looking to tap into the high-quality local workforce.
Lane Arthur, Deere's vice president for data, applications and analytics, said it has been collaborating with agricultural tech companies for about four years. The company sometimes acquires startups, including three last year: Bear Flag Robotics, AgriSync and Kriesel Electric.
"Innovation is one of our core values, so we like to see what's out there," Arthur said. "We don't have to do it all. But we like to help some of those smaller companies get going."
Deere also operates tech hubs in San Francisco, Illinois, Germany, Brazil and India. The company expects Austin to become one of its largest and most impactful development hubs. While the Austin teams will be focused on data science and notifications, it will collaborate across the company's offices and teams on other projects.
"If you look at farming, innovation is core to what you do," Carberry said. "You want to be the ones that, quite frankly, are disrupting. That's something that's really cool about Deere. We're not just sitting back on our laurels. We continue to innovate."
