Meta to hire up to 2,500 workers in Canada, open engineering hub to build metaverse

Meta (Facebook) Doug Ford at Meta Toronto Office March 29, 2022
Meta said Toronto will play an important role in creating the metaverse.

Meta (Facebook) announced today that it plans to hire up to 2,500 employees across Canada over the next five years as part of a new Canadian engineering hub.

The news was shared at Meta’s Canadian office in downtown Toronto, at the MaRS Discovery District, by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

The 2,500 hires will include remote and in-office positions, and look across the country for tech talent. The office and large team expands on Meta’s existing presence in Canada, which includes hundreds of employees and labs in Montréal and Toronto.

Meta also noted that the hires will include the establishment of the first Canadian WhatsApp, Messenger, and Remote Presence engineering teams. It will also mean larger Canadian Reality Labs and AI Research teams.

Rachel Curran, public policy manager for Meta Canada, noted at the event that it was “not an easy task” to convince Meta to invest in Canada and Ontario, but it was largely the economic environment spurred by the growing tech sector and work being done by the provincial government that finally convinced the company to make the investment.

Meta did not share how much it plans to invest as part of this hiring and office creation, with a spokesperson noting “we don’t have an overarching number to share.” In response to a question about whether the province had provided the company with a tax break as part of this hiring and office, Meta told BetaKit it had not.

Ford called the move “a tremendous show of confidence in [Ontario].” He added, “Projects like these demonstrate that our tech talent no longer has to look elsewhere to pursue their careers.”

Meta joins what seems to be an ever-increasing number of international tech companies that are looking to take advantage of Canadian tech talent.

Earlier this month, Walmart announced the launch of its tech hub in Canada. Hubspot also recently announced it was opening its first Canadian office in Toronto. On the social media front, Twitter has ramped up its hiring in Toronto, using Canada as a testing ground for new tech.

That approach is one Meta is also taking with its new hires. The company noted that the Toronto hub will play an important role in the creation of Meta’a metaverse. Meta’s spokesperson noted that the majority of the new roles will be engineering-focused and “are expected to span across building extended reality (XR) experiences and Meta’s family of apps.”

While a location has yet to be set for the new office space, Meta confirmed that it will be located in downtown Toronto and come in addition to its existing offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montréal.

Feature Image courtesy Meta

Meagan Simpson

Meagan Simpson

Meagan is the Senior Editor for BetaKit. A tech writer that is super proud to showcase the Canadian tech scene. Background in almost every type of journalism from sports to politics. Podcast and Harry Potter nerd, photographer and crazy cat lady.

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