Facebook opened its new downtown Austin office at 3rd and Nueces on Wednesday, giving tech and community leaders their first glimpse at the tech giant's expanded presence.
The new offices span 11 floors in the new Third + Shoal building and are designed to accommodate up to 1,550 people -- the company has about 1,200 across its Austin offices currently.
The new offices sit directly across the street from Google's relatively new space -- and the two tech giants' employees have been communicating between upper floor offices with playful Post-It note messages and images that are from across the street.
Facebook brought in several local artists to paint murals and add three dimensional art to office walls. The space features three cafes, and employees can get three square meals, along with all the snacks they can handle. They also have a free laundry service, a shipping center where you can send personal and professional packages, a music room to jam in and a mother's room for new moms.
The sprawling offices include 10 outdoor terraces, 10 micro kitchens, a fitness center and locker rooms and 246 conference rooms. But as a company-wide policy there are no private offices here or in any of their offices, including for founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Aside from local artists, Facebook also hosts local small businesses in its pop-up shops where employees can buy goods from local businesses and the local founders can pepper the Facebook team with questions on how to best use the platform to generate business. Facebook has also been working with local tech organizations, including Latinitas, to provide STEM education and other workshops.
Since first arriving in Austin in 2010 with seven employees, Facebook has grown to more than 1,200 employees in the area, making it the social network's fourth largest office. The local office isn't dedicated to a specific Facebook product, instead it's part of the larger global company with major portions of its workforce dedicated to the company's small business operations, as well as HR, community outreach and other roles.
Katherine Shappley, VP of SMB North America at Facebook and head of the Austin office, said Facebook’s small business team in Austin has doubled in the past few years.
She said the local office has a large global business group that is working with advertisers directly, as well as the largest finance team outside of Menlo Park, globally. It also has a large HR team, as well as a new enterprise engineering team. There are also folks working on Facebook-owned WhatsApp, as well as community and business outreach.
People may think of Austin for its tech talent. But Apple and Facebook both have big finance teams here.
“If you look at Austin overall, people are flocking to this city and I think you’re seeing talent in pockets that are expected … but we’re seeing it across the board, and that’s why you’re seeing growth across the board on these teams," Shappley said.
She said Facebook is doubling down on Austin as a place for its small business teams.
“What comes with that is all the functions that come with those account managers," she said. "So you think about things like our measurement teams, our creative shop teams, solutions engineering teams that actually work as a network around our clients… those teams have been growing.”
Currently, Facebook has 97 jobs listed for its Austin office.
Last year, Facebook teamed up with Austin Community College to create a new digital marketing certificate, one of 10 colleges nationwide to do so. Austin Community College President Richard Rhodes was on hand at the grand opening Wednesday to announce enrollment for the program is opening Oct. 14. Facebook, meanwhile announced a $60,000 scholarship fund to help bring more students in to learn digital marketing skills.
“The need for digital skill sets is more important today than ever before, but closing the digital skills gap is something we can’t do alone,” Rhodes said. "This collaboration is a win for our students and our regional economy.”
Here's a look at photos shared by Facebook. Check back for new photos and more on Facebook's new space later today.
