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Unisys starts hiring for Augusta IT center [The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.](Augusta Chronicle (GA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 06--Unisys is already posting job openings for its new Augusta information technology support center and will hold a job fair in two weeks to recruit workers. City and company officials laid out plans Thursday to begin staffing the 700-person IT center that was announced Monday. A job fair will be held on Nov. 17, but a location has not been selected. Unisys will be interviewing people at the fair and will start making job offers Thanksgiving week, said Tracey Laurence, vice president of End-User Services for Unisys. New hires will undergo training in waves and be on the job in mid-January. Job openings have also been posted on the Unisys web site, ranging from support representatives to service desk trainers to operations managers. The employees will start in waves of about 40, Laurence said. "They are primarily going to be level one and level two service desk agents and accompanying operational function and support management," she explained. Laurence said it will take five years to get to the 700 employee level. "The pay will be very competitive for those roles in this job market," she said. "From a skill standpoint, we're looking for people with an associate's degree or diploma and people with a couple of years of experience with technology and/or customer support services." The caliber of the talent pool, "with the civilian and the military population," available to Unisys was high on the reasons the company selected Augusta, Laurence said. Company officials said they have not finalized the location for the 60,000 square foot IT center, although Gov. Nathan Deal indicated at Monday's press conference that the former Fort Discovery science center on Reynolds Street was in the running. Unisys will initially use a temporary office near Interstate 20. Laurence said that although the Army is a major client, the company will not have multiple locations, such as one on Fort Gordon. Unisys will initially use the Augusta center to provide services to the U.S. Army, which recently selected the Pennsylvania-based company for the Army Enterprise Service Desk. "This project will provide a single point of contact for Amry personnel who need service desk or other information technology support," Laurence said. The Augusta center will eventually serve other commercial clients. Unisys has 23,000 employees around the world. It handles cybersecurity, maintenance, cloud management, and systems integration and consulting. "The jobs that are coming to Augusta are just the kind of jobs everybody wants," said Henry Ingram, the chairman of the Augusta Economic Development Authority. "We are fortunate to have them coming to Augusta." Unisys began searching for a location for an expansion of its service desk earlier this year, said Walter Sprouse, the executive director of the Augusta Economic Development Authority. It started a seven month search involving 50 cities nationwide. Sprouse said the economic development team learned of the Unisys project through development consultants in Dallas that officials frequently visit. "They have a strong emphasis on hiring veterans," said Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver. "They are precisely the kind of company that we want here. I would say that probably every other city would want Unisys to locate there." ___ (c)2014 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) Visit The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) at chronicle.augusta.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |