JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) pulled back the curtain on its new tech center Friday for the Business Journal.
The 20,000-square-foot center occupies a full floor in downtown Seattle's 1201 Third tower. The bank started moving into the space at the beginning of the year after acquiring it in mid-2021, said Rao Lakkakula, head of product security at JPMorgan and the Seattle tech center lead.
"We had the option to redesign from scratch, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to be in a more collaborative space here," he said.
The center houses the majority of the bank's cybersecurity team. It's one of 11 JPMorgan tech centers in the U.S. and the second on the West Coast, with the other in Bay Area. The company has 21 tech centers globally.
About 160 employees work at the Seattle tech center, Lakkakula said, and it can house another 60.
The space has open seating, a kitchen, game room and collaborative work areas rather than individual offices. It offers views of Elliott Bay and downtown.
"I do believe that innovation stems from when you collaborate from multiple different backgrounds," Lakkakula said.
The rest of JPMorgan's corporate operations are housed at the 2+U tower, across the street from the tech center, where the bank has about 75,000 square feet across five floors. It's home to about 550 employees, including 100 tech roles, Lakkakula said.
The bank is hiring engineers in software, security and data.
JPMorgan is the largest bank in the U.S. by asset size, with $3.77 trillion in total assets as of the end of the third quarter. Its retail bank, Chase, has more than 4,700 branches. JPMorgan Chase had over 271,000 employees at the end of 2021.
