‘The talent is here.’ A closer look at Google’s plans to bring 1,000 jobs to the Triangle
When Google was deciding whether to pick Durham as the site of a 1,000-job cloud engineering hub, it may have helped that the city had a huge cheerleader within the company’s ranks.
Lilyn Hester, the company’s head of external affairs, public policy and government relations for Google Southeast, is a longtime Durham resident. Her parents are from here, and she graduated from Jordan High School in Durham.
She says she never hesitated to tell anyone who would listen that Google should have a larger presence in the Triangle. At one point she even made a slide deck to highlight the Triangle’s attributes — from its local tech talent to its proximity to the beach and mountains.
“I always advocate for my home state,” she said in a video interview with The N&O. “I’m proud of the work that I do throughout the Southeast, but when it comes to North Carolina, it’s always been, for me, somewhat like a no-brainer.”
Now Durham could be one of Google’s five largest cloud engineering hubs, only trailing offices in places like the Bay Area, New York and Seattle. When the company announced March 18 it had chosen Durham for its hub — without seeking incentives from the state — officials lauded the local talent and universities as two of its big draws.
“The Triangle region ... is home to highly skilled software engineers, including those with a focus on infrastructure,” said Marian Croak, vice president of engineering at Google, to announce the Google Cloud hub. “This makes the region an ideal area to recruit and grow our engineering teams.”
Hester said the company plans to sublease space from Duke University at 200 Morris St. for the next three years while the company looks for a permanent landing spot in Durham.
Hester said the company is already hiring employees and plans to gradually ramp up its base here, potentially reaching 500 employees by the end of 2023, Hester said.
“It’s not like on Day 1, there’s going to be 1,000 people. It’s going to be a mindful approach,” she said.
Hester has also been the driving force behind Google initiatives, like the Rolling Study Halls program, where Google helped school districts turn their buses into wifi hot spots to help kids that don’t have access to broadband at home. During the pandemic, Google helped expand this program to more school districts in North Carolina.
The N&O sat down virtually with Hester to talk about why Google picked Durham — part of a broader national expansion — and what the community can expect from the technology giant.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for space and clarity.
Q. What was Google’s relationship with North Carolina prior to last week’s announcement?
Hester: We have had a presence in the state since around 2005. So it’s been 16 years, starting with the office in Chapel Hill, and that was from acquisition of a company called Skia that did graphics. We have a data center, that’s up in the foothills in Caldwell County, in Lenoir, and the data center is our largest presence in the state. There are a few hundred Googlers who are based there.
Q. So you were advocating for Google to come to Durham?
Hester: We already have a good cadre of tech, biotech and medical in the state. So I thought, why don’t we just go old school and make a pitch and put a deck together, highlighting the state’s accolades.
And then we had visits. It’s not unusual for an elected official to fly in to Mountain View (where Google’s main headquarters is located in California). Governor (Roy) Cooper did that, and he pitched to us. He met with our senior leaders and he also met with Googlers before the meeting, who had ties to the state, either they’re natives, or they graduated from universities.
It wasn’t a decision that just got made one day, though. People don’t stop and say, “Oh, we are going to Durham.” There was a lot of work that got done, but it still starts with the interest and the support and having executives that support that as well.
Q. So Google ran the numbers and decided Durham could become one of its largest cloud engineering hubs?
Hester: You can see that the talent is here. And maybe there should be some more competition in the marketplace.
This is a state, where there are also lots of firsts. This is the state where you had the previous FCC Commissioner roll through, and he talked about how it’s the first state to have wifi in all of its schools. Now you would think that on the surface that might not be a big deal, but our state is first to do that. That means that there was a commitment on this and that was something that was important.
And when you look at all of our tech brothers and sisters in the marketplace, like the Red Hat-IBM deal or all the great work that the folks at Epic Games are doing. It’s an awful lot of goodness.
Q. What will Google’s relationships with the region look like?
Hester: Since the announcement, and a little bit before, I have been making the rounds. I connect with different folks and just give them a call and let them know that we’re going to be mindful, we’re going to be respectful and we’re going to be helpful in our approach to the city of Durham.
When Google goes into a community, there is a whole community relations effort, and that includes the support from leadership, it includes the support from the local Googlers on the ground. So it’s going to be a ramp up. We want to be in our temporary space for about three years. And so in that time, until our real estate team can decide exactly where our footprint is going to be, we’re going to be continuing those conversations.
Q. Who will those conversations be with?
Hester: It’s conversations with the higher-ed community, and the folks over at Durham Tech, and the community college system. That was a conversation we had on the eve of the announcement, so that they could feel comfortable. Because look, we want to hire your students. They can go to other companies, but we really want to hire your students, and to highlight what’s the curricula at these universities when it comes to computer science and engineering.
We know the skills we’re going to need, and if there are any type of gaps or holes, how can Google be supportive? Could we support some type of initiative? Do we start working on some type of plan to bring the universities up to speed? How can we all work together? Then it’s also connecting with the school district. To work at Google you do not have to have a college degree. So I am calling the superintendent and the school foundation to see how we can be supportive at that level as well.
We want to be respectful and mindful in our approach. How do we enter this area, knowing there are concerns about affordable housing, or concerns about gentrification, there are concerns about diversity? By the end of this year, we want to hire at least 100 people. The goal is to hire local talent, and to make sure that people of color and people from diverse communities have opportunities in the company as well.
Q. It seems like you think partnerships with local schools will be essential then.
Hester: The university community, and the higher-ed community and school districts are bar none. That’s where we’re getting those young people to work in the company. There is some research out there that points to, if you do not reach a young person by middle school and get them engaged in science and math, it is hard to get them as they get older as they go into high school, and then go into college. So there’s always been this pipeline concern that if you as a small child aren’t interested in science, then of course it’s going to be difficult.
We want to make sure that people can see themselves at Google — be it the kindergartner who might visit the office and get inspired, or that person who’s making a change in their career. What do we have to help that person? We have certificate programs though our Grow with Google program. We announced new ones last week for data analytics, project management and user experience.
Q. There have been concerns about housing affordability. Has Google thought about what its role might be in that regard?
Hester: We’re mindful of what’s already happening in the community. I know that Durham passed an affordable housing bond (in 2019), so this is a community that really has thought about how they’re growing. In California, Google does support different affordable housing initiatives and programs. (In 2019, the company said it would invest $1 billion in land and money to construct housing in California over the next decade.)
As we plan out, the goal is to see what we’ve already done in the company and see if there are opportunities for something like that to scale. Could some of the work that we’re doing out West come to North Carolina, knowing that the North Carolina housing market is like night and day compared to what’s going on in the Bay Area? It’s not apples to apples, but we can look at how they’ve addressed it and see what can we learn and how can we be helpful.
And when it comes to transportation, I joined the Regional Transportation Alliance, so that I can be on the front lines of conversations about how are people getting in and out and around the city, and what does it look like for Durham when it comes to transportation and how can we be helpful. Is it the rail conversation? Is it conversations around working hours?
Right now we’re all remote, and the roads aren’t as tight as they once were. But at some point all that’s going to come back, so how can we as a company help with those conversations.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate. Want more on the Triangle’s tech scene? Sign up for the N&O’s weekly Innovation & Tech newsletter.
