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Amazon Expands Alexa Team in Santa Barbara, California

02/05/2020
Amazon plans to create 150 additional tech jobs in Santa Barbara, California. The company has opened a new 48,000 square foot office for Alexa tech teams located downtown and has invested over $34.5 billion in the state, including infrastructure and compensation for employees.

“We have been able to hire great talent in Santa Barbara and look forward to doubling our workforce here,” said Kevin Davis, Site Lead of Amazon’s Santa Barbara office. “Santa Barbara is an incredibly welcoming city with a high quality of life and innovative culture, and we’re excited to create more jobs, and continue to invest locally in the community.”

“We welcome a new Amazon office in downtown Santa Barbara, adding to the mix of innovative, technology companies in our region. We encourage their employees to participate in community events and enjoy the amenities of local restaurants, shopping, and arts and culture,” said Cathy Murillo, Mayor of Santa Barbara.

The tech teams based in Santa Barbara help Alexa get even smarter every day, developing new ways to power Alexa’s factual knowledge in devices such as Amazon Echo and Fire TV. The Santa Barbara-based teams work with scientists in Amazon’s Development Center in Cambridge, England in this effort. Amazon currently has dozens of open roles located in Santa Barbara, including Software and Data Engineers, Knowledge Engineers, Data Scientists, Machine Learning Associates, Product Managers, and more.

The new Amazon office includes energy efficient appliances and sensors to reduce energy and water consumption, enhanced bike storage and lockers to encourage alternate modes of commuting, and open spaces to enhance collaboration and innovation between teams.

Since 2010, Amazon has created more than 45,000 full-time jobs and invested over $34.5 billion in California, from customer fulfillment and cloud infrastructure to research facilities and compensation to our employees. The company estimates that these direct investments in the state contributed an additional $25.8 billion to California’s economy and generated an additional 100,000 indirect jobs on top of the company’s direct hires. There are also more than 338,000 small and medium-sized businesses, developers and authors growing their businesses with Amazon products and services in California.

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