Systems in Motion to begin hiring within months for new Ann Arbor-area delivery center
Systems in Motion, the Silicon Valley information technology firm opening a $15 million service delivery center in Pittsfield Township, plans to begin hiring the first of more than 1,000 workers within months.
The firm, based in Fremont, Calif., has already made its first local hire to oversee processes and infrastructure, said Debashish Sinha, chief marketing officer.
Systems in Motion last week won $7.4 million in state tax incentives to locate the facility in Michigan, where the company plans to hire 1,085 workers over five years. If successful, the development would be a major win for a region suffering from persistent unemployment, and another reflection of Ann Arbor’s burgeoning IT industry.
“We will be looking at hiring resources with skills in design, development, integration, and support for a wide range of technology areas,” Sinha said in an e-mail interview.Â
“We're building out our facilities right now, and that process will take a couple of months. I can't give you number and timing of our hiring, since it's dependent on our customers.”
The Ann Arbor area office will be in an 8,000 square-foot space in the Valley Ranch Business Park.Â
Systems in Motion is a new company backed by $5 million in venture capital with 20 current employees, Sinha said, and its headquarters will remain in Fremont, Calif.
The company also  secured $1.5 million in job-training funding between Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw County Employment Training and Community Services. Ann Arbor SPARK, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Michigan Department of Information Technology also stepped up to provide support.
The company already has received 1,000 applications, which Sinha said would be backlogged.“Our business model is very specific about how we hire,” Sinha told the Michigan Job Search blog. “One of the key investments we're making, is actually working with EMU, Washtenaw Community College and of course U-M to build IT training specific to our requirements into their curriculum, so we can begin to do a lot of direct from campus hiring."
Some AnnArbor.com readers expressed skepticism about the company’s lofty jobs projection, citing similar forecasts by Google that have so far fallen well short.
“We’ve all seen companies over-promise and under-deliver,” Sinha commented online. "But, I’m confident that we’ll live up to our commitment, and I think the continued support of folks from the Greater Detroit Area will go a long way to make that happen.”
• Contact Sven Gustafson at sventg123 (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow him at twitter.com/sveng.