By Brice Wallace
A camera technology company will expand in Utah with dozens of high-paying jobs, and state officials are saying the project is picture-perfect for the state.
Snap Inc., a California-based company that offers Snapchat, a camera application allowing people to share short videos and images, got everyone to smile at a recent Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board meeting. Its expansion in Utah County may have a low employee count — 50, which is small by GOED standards — but another figure caught everyone’s eyes.
The average pay for the new jobs will be $470,405 a year.
{mprestriction ids="1,3"}“This is really an interesting opportunity for us,” said Val Hale, GOED’s executive director. “It is probably the highest-paying incentive jobs we’ve ever done here at GOED. It’s a very interesting opportunity and the company is very excited to have a presence here in Utah.”
“When I opened the packet, I looked at the jobs,” said board member Christopher Conabee. “This hits me personally on so many levels for our state. I’d never seen numbers like that before.” He later added that that average salary figure “will more than likely never, ever, be done in our office again.”
The high pay level means the positions will not be transitional and the hires likely would have plenty of job options if something bad were to happen to the company, he said. “To me, that’s a watershed moment [for the state],” Conabee said.
The board approved a tax credit incentive for Snap, based in Venice, California, of more than $2.5 million. The $1.8 million capital project is expected to result in new state wages of $334.3 million over 15 years, and new state tax revenue of $12.7 million during that time. The company is expected to put the project in Utah County, and the new jobs will be in research and development, primarily focusing on camera technology and augmented reality.
Snap Inc. went public in March and has more than 3,000 global employees. It acquired a Utah-based company, Scan.me, specializing in QR code technologies, in 2014.
“We are excited to see Utah’s talented workforce being utilized by Snap Inc. to continue their innovative approach to technology,” Theresa Foxley, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, said in a prepared statement. “Their presence in Utah will be a positive addition to our already thriving Silicon Slopes.”
“We always learn a lot from the incredibly diverse local communities where we operate, and we are very excited to build a new team in Utah,” Jerry Hunter, vice president of engineering at Snap Inc., said in a prepared statement.
Thomas Wadsworth, director of corporate growth and business development at GOED, said that when reviewing the Snap incentive application, GOED officials looked at figures comparing Snapchat to other social media companies. “As far as traction is concerned and some other key metrics, they [Snap] are far and away ahead of them, at where those other companies were at this same time,” he said.
Several speakers said the project could have positive, long-lasting impacts on Utah’s high-tech community.
“As we have heard from a long time and from numerous tech companies here in our ecosystem, it’s been very difficult to recruit and retain high-end engineering talent here in the state of Utah,” Wadsworth said. “This sends the message, loud and clear, that high-end engineering talent does want to be here in the state of Utah, and this can be a real turning point for the ecosystem as a whole.”
“It’s a win-win for us,” said Mel Lavitt, chairman of the GOED board’s incentives committee. “We hope that this R&D facility grows the way that Snapchat thinks it will. On the other hand, we know at the very least we’re going to have 50-plus really high-performing people in the state, and it is a model for other companies who say they have problems bringing people to the state, so we’re very pleased to do this incentive.”
Marlin Eldred, Lehi’s economic development director, praised the incentive approval. “When you look at the names that we have in Lehi — Adobe and MX, and we’ve got others that are lining up — to be able to put this as the moniker on the building, it just fortifies the Silicon Slopes concept that Lehi is becoming a very strong IT sector,” Eldred said.
Gov. Gary Herbert recently visited the Snap headquarters and learned about the company’s technology. After the GOED board meeting, John Knotwell, president and chief executive officer of the Utah Technology Council, issued the following statement: “We are learning time and time again that our quality of life, focus on STEM education and collaborative spirit are a magnifying force for companies to move to Utah. Snapchat is one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world. Their new office will add a unique and creative perspective to the makeup of Silicon Slopes. And it’s always fun to watch Gov. Herbert learn how to add filters to selfies.”{/mprestriction}
