John Deere, the company well known for its vibrant green trackers and heavy machinery, recently announced it will open a new office in downtown Chicago.
The company is currently based in Moline, a quaint town in eastern Illinois that borders Iowa. The new office space would centralize John Deere in the heart of downtown Chicago in the Fulton Market District. The new location is set to open in late summer or early fall of 2022.
“A focused expansion of John Deere’s global footprint aligns directly with our smart industrial strategy. This includes leveraging additional markets that have great diversity and technology skills to incorporate into our world-class talent base,” Andrez Carberry, John Deere’s director of global HR operations, said in a statement. “We build the best products in the world and through our technology; we improve our customers’ profitability while driving more sustainable outcomes. Recruiting and developing diverse talent is critical to our continued growth and to the success of John Deere as a major employer of tech talent in Illinois.”
John Deere is planning to hire 150 new employees in the IT field over the next two years, according to a prepared statement from the company. Eventually it plans to hire a total of 300 employees for the Chicago office. These positions would support the company’s e-commerce, cloud, data and analytics services.
While its digital hub would support the company’s website and other tech needs, in recent years John Deere has also been expanding to implement AI into its products. In 2017, the company acquired Blue River Technology, an AI agriculture company, and it has since used the technology to automate its farming equipment.
“Over the past few years, the digital transformation and agility of our business operations have been accelerated by a more modern information tech stack on the foundation of stronger digital and technical skills,” Ganesh Jayaram, VP of IT at John Deere, said in the statement. “Chicago offers us the opportunity to augment our technical skills to drive this ongoing modernization of our digital business solutions.”
John Deere’s move to Chicago is partially due to the EDGE agreement offered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The program provides companies with tax incentives for expanding within Illinois and creating long-term jobs.
“John Deere’s new technology center in Chicago is just one example of the innovation and investment Illinois is inspiring with our top-tier talent and world-class infrastructure,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said about the company’s recent announcement. “This new location will pave the way for hundreds of new IT jobs for Illinois residents and help Illinois continue its long-standing tradition of being at the center of breakthrough discoveries in agricultural and construction technology.”
