Amazon to close software design office
Days after Amazon broke ground on a massive east-end Ottawa warehouse, it has emerged the company will close a software design office it’s had in the nation’s capital for the better part of two years, affecting about 30 high-paid jobs.
The company quietly opened the office in August 2016 in a bid to better its Alexa voice-activated products. Ottawa has a long history in big-data analytics, dating back to Cognos, which was once an industry-leading giant.
Staff at the facility, which was located at 555 Legget Dr. near the Brookstreet Hotel, were brought in to help fine-tune Alexa’s capabilities, especially finding pertinent information for users.
Amazon is in a race with Google Inc. and Apple Inc., each of which has its own voice-activated helper in Google Assistant and Siri, respectively. Amazon said the move to close the Ottawa office is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to streamline efficiencies.
“After thorough review, we have decided to move roles from our Ottawa office to other offices in Canada and the U.S. to help teams operate even more efficiently and collaboratively. We are working closely with affected employees through this transition to provide relocation with their current role, or assistance with pursuing other opportunities with Amazon or outside of the company,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
The company said the jobs are being moved to other Amazon offices in Toronto and Seattle. Employees have been offered assistance by Amazon to move out of the nation’s capital to retain their jobs. The average pay for a software development engineer at the facility was more than $107,000 annually.
“These are good jobs. They are high-paying jobs,” said Ian Lee a professor at Carleton University in the Sprott School of Business.
“Research and development jobs are really valuable because they have a spinoff effect. Governments everywhere promote research and development because it promotes innovation, it promotes investigation, it produces discovery of new products and new services.”
News that the high-end development centre would be closing emerges the same week highprofile speakers, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a warehouse now under construction in the city’s east end.
Amazon plans to lease the warehouse from commercial real-estate firm Broccolini, which will build the facility for the company, retain ownership and act as property manager for the warehouse.
Lee believes the overlapping announcements were likely timed to coincide.
“I’m assuming this was not a coincidence,” Lee said. “I’m sure they timed it so that they could bury the bad news because it would be offset by the news of the new facility opening. You want to bury the bad news with good news.”
Amazon said the new facility, which will store and ship Amazon products to customers in Eastern Canada, will create as many as 600 new jobs. A majority of the new jobs will be for “warehouse associates,” who are paid $14.40 per hour, three per cent more than minimum wage.
The software development centre in Kanata will close sometime in the fall. Amazon did not provide a specific date.