Even though there has been a massive shift to hybrid and remote work in recent years, physical office space remains an important asset for most companies.
In 2022, several international companies looked to expand their footprint in Canada, through establishing or growing office space and hiring local tech talent.
We have highlighted some of these hiring companies and their strategic moves below.
Snowflake – Toronto
Snowflake’s Canadian Managing Director Bilal Khan—who was the Founding Chief Executive Officer of Canada’s largest scale-up innovation hub, OneEleven—is set to lead a major team as the company announced in June that Toronto will be its official Canadian headquarters.
“Snowflake has chosen Toronto as its Canadian Headquarters and one of four global engineering hubs,” stated Khan. The data cloud company has acquired 100,000 square feet of office space at the intersection of Bay and Adelaide in Toronto. Snowflake plans to hire “hundreds of engineers.”
“Toronto is home to world-class engineering talent making this decision a simple one,” added Khan. “Canada is home to an exciting and growing technology industry with startups that are innovating rapidly and a list of newly minted unicorns that are competing globally.”
Astera Labs – Vancouver
The Santa Clara company, known for purpose-built data and memory connectivity solutions that remove performance bottlenecks in data centres, announced the grand opening of Astera Labs Vancouver in September.
Astera Labs Vancouver is a “new office and state-of-the-art lab to support the company’s development of cutting-edge interconnect technologies for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning architectures.”
“The new Astera Labs Vancouver location will be instrumental in driving our continued expansion as a company and as the industry leader in advanced data and memory connectivity,” stated chief business officer Sanjay Gajendra.
Gajendra says the Vancouver region is an ideal location for Astera Labs’ expansion given its reputation as a leading North American technology hub and its strong university ecosystem.
Astera Labs is actively hiring across multiple engineering and marketing disciplines to support end-to-end product and application development and overall go-to-market operations.
IBM – Toronto
In April, IBM Canada officially opened its flagship office located at 16 York Street in the heart of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district.
The state-of-the-art office space is spread over three floors and approximately 63,000 square feet, merging four Toronto-based offices into one collaborative space for clients, partners, and IBM employees.
The new office includes an AI and hybrid cloud client showcase centre, collaboration spaces for use by both employees and clients, and space for IBM Garage, a design approach to innovation and digital transformation.
Zoho – Cornwall
Global technology company Zoho Corporation announced in September the opening of a new office in Canada. The India-based tech giant has been investing in Canada where it says it has seen aggressive year-over-year growth in revenue and customers.
The company’s new office is situated in Cornwall, Ontario. This new space will build on Zoho’s regional Canadian approach to sales, support, marketing, and partner management to facilitate a greater understanding of the specific needs of local customers, according to a statement from the corporation.
“Our new office in Cornwall is a continuation of that important goal, and we could not be more excited to build deeper relationships with the businesses in communities small and large across Canada,” stated Chandrashekar, Zoho’s Canadian Managing Director.
Faire Wholesale – Toronto
The multi-billion dollar wholesale marketplace is headquartered in San Francisco but has deep roots in Canada. Faire’s Canadian army serves under the head of Marcelo Cortes, the company’s Chief Technology Officer. Cortes himself is based in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario, where the bulk of his engineer-oriented workforce delivers value to Faire.
A new Toronto office for Faire holds space up to 150 employees. And Cortes suggests expansions plans are bigger than just that.
Cortes, who studied at the University of Waterloo before joining Google as an engineer, believes the region has a rich pool of talent, and that Faire is equal parts American and Canadian.
SAP – Montreal
SAP Labs Canada was named this year an SAP Global Research & Development Hub.
This news came on the heels of the company launch of a state-of-the-art office in downtown Montreal.
The 65,000 square foot office is purpose-built for employees to perform a variety of activities when they come on site, according to SAP.
HubSpot – Toronto
Boston’s HubSpot this year expanded its global reach with an office in Toronto, its first Canadian office.
HubSpot is hiring in the region and successful candidates have the opportunity to choose between flexible work options including home and office.
The growth of the Canadian market will be led by Ryan Beale, the company’s Vice President of Mid-Market Sales.
“I’m thrilled that HubSpot is making this investment in Canada,” he stated.
Unity Technologies – Calgary
In March, San Francisco’s Unity Technologies cut the ribbon on 25,000 square feet for the new Innovation Centre for Digital Transformation in Brookfield Place in Calgary.
The opening of the Calgary office was delayed by a year due to the pandemic but had been in the works for awhile thanks to a commitment from Calgary Economic Development’s investment fund.
In September of 2019 Finger Food Advanced Technology Group was awarded up to $3.2 million from the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund to create at least 200 new jobs in downtown Calgary. Eight months later Finger Food was acquired by Unity.
Unity’s Calgary office promises to become a major development hub for the sector.
Klarna – Toronto
Swedish buy-now-pay-later platform Klarna expanded its service to Canada earlier this year.
With its expansion into the Canadian market, Klarna opened its first North American product development and tech hub in Toronto, with plans to hire 500 engineers by 2025.
Klarna has plans to open additional Canadian tech talent offices in Vancouver and Quebec in the future.
For career opportunities at these types of growing companies and more, take advantage of our free resources like Tech Talent Canada Job Fairs and the Tech Talent Canada Job Board.
