Facebook to Open Engineering Office in New York City in 2012

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- To keep up with its rapid growth, Facebook today announced plans to establish an engineering presence in New York City and tap into the remarkable technical talent that the region has to offer. The Facebook NYC engineering office, the company's first outside the West Coast, will open in early 2012 and will begin accepting applications immediately.

"More than 800 million people around the world rely on Facebook, and more than half of them visit every day.  Operating at such a large scale, and innovating as quickly as we do, we need to recruit the most talented engineers in the world," said Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's Vice President of Engineering. "New York has a strong history of innovation and is home to thousands of talented technical people, and we want them to help us solve the challenges of designing and building the next generation of Facebook," he added.

"Building an engineering presence outside the West Coast is a big step for us, one we would take only if we found the right combination of talent and community support," said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer. "We're particularly grateful for the encouragement and assistance of New York's elected leaders, who understand what it takes to build a climate where technology can fuel economic growth and the creation of high skilled jobs," she added.

"Facebook is capitalizing on what more and more tech companies are realizing: that New York City is the best place in the world to recruit and retain a talented workforce," said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "The growth in the tech sector is creating jobs and further diversifying our economy. That's why we are invested in expanding our engineering workforce by building a new applied sciences school in the city. We want to do everything we can to make sure that Facebook can grow here, and that the next Facebook will be founded here."

"New York is pleased to call Facebook a 'friend' and welcomes their decision to expand by hiring engineers who will help to continue fueling innovation in the greatest city in the world," said U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer. "There is so much to like about Facebook's decision to grow in New York, most importantly is the fact that as the largest city in America, New York can offer up the greatest and most diverse talent pool in the country to the most successful social media company in the world."

"Facebook has been at the forefront of social media innovation and its engineering presence here will create jobs and help position New York City to lead in the high-tech economy of the future," said U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. "Our city is home to some of the world's brightest minds and best ideas to grow our economy. And we must continue to cultivate our city's talent pool and businesses to become tomorrow's innovators."

"I'm thrilled to welcome Facebook's new engineering team to the East Side – and to the superb web talent pool of New York City," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

"Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, world-renowned companies like Facebook are once again seeing New York as a premier place to grow and invest," said Kenneth Adams, President, CEO, and Commissioner at Empire State Development. "I thank Facebook for their commitment to New York and welcome them as another innovative partner to help grow our economy."

The office will be led by Serkan Piantino, an engineering manager at Facebook who previously managed the engineering team behind Facebook's News Feed and built the infrastructure behind Timeline. He currently manages the engineering teams that power Facebook Messages and Chat. Serkan holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Originally from Connecticut, Serkan joined Facebook in Palo Alto in 2007 and moved back to New York for Facebook in the summer of 2010. Jay Parikh, who oversees Facebook's infrastructure team, will serve as the executive sponsor for the new office.

Potential applicants for the Facebook engineering team in NYC can review the first listing of available positions at https://www.facebook.com/nycjobs. Others interested in receiving updates on the developments at the office can like the Facebook Page for NYC Engineering at https://www.facebook.com/fbnyc.

About Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

CONTACT: Michael Kirkland, 415-392-8282, [email protected]

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