Amazon HQ2 may be far in Chicago's rear view mirror, but the city is still getting hundreds of tech jobs from the e-commerce giant.
Amazon announced Monday that it plans to add 400 tech jobs in Chicago, roughly doubling its local corporate office headcount. The company also announced that it will expand its downtown Chicago office by more than 70,000 square feet.
The new jobs will include cloud computing, advertising and business development, the company said. Amazon's downtown office currently houses employees within Amazon Web Services and other roles.
“We’re excited to create more opportunity in Chicago – a city with terrific talent and a culture of innovation,” Geoff Nyheim, director of central U.S. AWS Sales, said in a statement. “We look forward to doubling our teams in the Windy City, contributing to its diverse economy, and hiring local talent to fill exciting roles across Amazon.”
The news comes as Amazon is planning a large "career day" on Tuesday, Sept. 17, where the company will hold hiring events in Chicago and several other cities with the goal of adding 30,000 new jobs across the country.
Amazon announced its intention to grow its Chicago tech office in February after pulling out of plans to put an HQ2 office in New York. Rather than finding another location to share its second headquarters with Virginia, the company decided to split those jobs across more than a dozen cities, including Chicago.
Amazon currently has more than 11,000 full-time employees in Illinois. The company says it has invested over $4.4 billion in Illinois since 2010.
