More Than 700 New Jobs Coming to Mesa

Original Article via Arizona Republic

Looking for a job in the PHX East Valley? Mesa may be a good place to start your search.

In the coming years, several new and existing employers are looking to add upward of 700 full-time positions in the Valley’s second-largest city.

Many are in key industries that Mesa officials have been courting for years, such as high-end manufacturing.

“In general, we’re seeing that the economy is coming back now and companies seem to be more confident about hiring, and expansions that may have been on hold are now moving forward,” said Jaye O’Donnell, Mesa’s assistant director of economic development.

Dexcom: 500 jobs

Dexcom, a manufacturer of continuous glucose monitoring for people with diabetes, opened a 180,000-square-foot facility in west Mesa late last month.

The company is actively recruiting 500 employees for a variety of functions including manufacturing, administration and customer service.

Dexcom is headquartered in San Diego. The new Mesa location will be the company’s second and largest manufacturing facility.

Employees are prepping the first phase of the new facility for approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Full manufacturing operations should be underway early next year, according to Jeff Moy, senior vice president of operations.

Dexcom’s glucose monitoring system tracks glucose throughout the day without finger pricking and sends alerts to patients’ smartphones if their levels are high or low.

“Diabetes, it’s a chronic disease, so it’s basically about reducing burdens,” Moy said.

Mesa Mayor John Giles said he was thrilled with Dexcom’s decision to locate in Mesa both from an economic and public health perspective.

“Diabetes is a nationwide epidemic. The numbers are just off the charts, particularly for children … it’s a very high-maintenance disease. So this technology is really life-changing,” Giles said.

Dexcom’s new facility is located at the former Motorola campus in west Mesa, which was once the “center of our economic portfolio,” Giles said. It’s been closed for more than a decade.

Giles said it’s encouraging to see Dexcom take advantage of “a piece of property (that) remains very strategic” because of its proximity to major freeways. He said he believes Dexcom’s success will attract other similar businesses to the area.

Moy said his company settled on the Mesa location because of its proximity to San Diego and the flexibility of the site itself, which allowed them to design the facility to Food and Drug Administration standards.

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Alorica: 150 jobs

Alorica, the largest customer-service provider in the country, is adding 150 jobs to its Mesa location.

Alorica provides customer-service solutions for large companies in about a dozen industries, including communications and health care.

The staff additions, which are mainly customer-service positions, will accommodate growing client demand, according to spokesman Ken Muché.

He said the company welcomes applicants with varied backgrounds. Customer-service experience is not a prerequisite.

“If you’re the kind of person who likes helping others, we want to meet you,” Muché said.

Wages are competitive within the industry, but there are opportunities for advancement that often don’t exist with other entry-level customer-service positions, he said.  About 70 percent of Alorica supervisors or managers began as customer-service specialists, Muché said.

“We want people who have that potential and interest for a career,” he said.

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EuroContempo Cabinetry: 40 jobs

Later this year, a high-end cabinet manufacturer will open a 72,000-square-foot facility just north of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

EuroContempo Cabinetry announced the new site in February and plans to break ground later this month, according to co-owner Lisa Storey.

The company, which currently operates out of a smaller outfit in Gilbert, plans to add about 40 new jobs in the next three years.

Storey and her husband picked the Mesa Gateway location because of the easy freeway access and visibility, she said.

“When we were shopping around we saw this location here and we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is perfect,'” Storey said.

The city has focused on the Mesa Gateway area as one of its key employment corridors.

“We really see (EuroContempo) as one more company to add to what we know will become a very vibrant regional employment area with a mix of high-wage jobs and also companies that have complementary relationships with the airport,” O’Donnell said.

Giles said the company was a great addition because along with new jobs, it will provide high-end cabinetry to a growing area of Mesa.

“It’s bringing a beautiful building and jobs to an area of Mesa that needs a lot of cabinets and it needs good jobs. So it’s a good fit,” Giles said.

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