The first of three Silicon Valley tech companies to establish Central Ohio offices because of the region's talent pool and affordability is doubling its footprint in Dublin.
Veeva Systems Inc. now has 208 employees locally, rising weekly, with about 50 open positions in the Columbus region out of some 1,000 listings nationwide. It's among several regional tech employers participating in a virtual job fair on Tuesday. (See related story.)
The office is expanding even though all those positions are "work from anywhere" – an emergency pandemic policy that Veeva has permanently embraced, said Catherine Allshouse, corporate CIO, head of cloud operations and Dublin site leader.
"We're learning as we go ... but that has really resonated with folks," she said.
Veeva (NYSE:VEEV) is taking the entire second floor for a total of 60,000 square feet in 5555 Parkcenter Circle, Allshouse said. (She used headphones during a videoconference to mask the sound of hammering around her.)
"A lot of it is collaborative space," Allshouse. "The meeting room-to-person ratio just went way up.
"If you could choose to work anywhere, why would you come here? The answer is obvious: You want to be around people."
Construction, which included cutting out part of the floor plate to create a large open staircase connecting the floors, is about 80% complete. Furniture is expected in November.
Check the slideshow for Design Collective's renderings of the space.
Xerox Corp. used to run a sales office on the floor, but no longer lists it on the corporate website and has said in quarterly reports that it's shrinking real estate.
Veeva has already far surpassed goals to grow to about 140 jobs, set three years ago when it expanded a Central Ohio customer service center to a second hub with administration and engineering, including core product development.
"We have (Ohio State University) Fisher School (of Business) graduates here, and law school graduates here," Allshouse said.
Plus Veeva can draw experienced workers from the region's financial and healthcare sectors, she said. "We need people comfortable working in those highly regulated environments."
The combination of talent and a friendly, open environment put Columbus on top for the hub over "your usual suspects," she said, such as Denver, Austin, Indianapolis and Raleigh.
Other Silicon Valley tech companies that have established Columbus offices include lending platform Upstart and digital insurer Huckleberry.
With about 5,000 employees and $1.5 billion revenue last year, the publicly traded company makes software for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, such as for managing clinical trials and drug manufacturing processes. It transitioned to a public benefit corporation in February 2020.
Ohio clients include gene therapy startup Forge Biologics Inc. in Grove City and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Its more than 1,000 clients include giants such as Pfizer, Merck and Biogen.
Additional Ohio hires increase incentives to the company under terms of a seven-year state tax credit approved in 2018. A Dublin city incentive passed then was capped at $135,000 regardless of payroll growth.
