The local competition among defense companies is likely to intensify in D.C. as Amazon is preparing to employ 25,000 new employees near Washington, D.C.
About one-sixth of the present workforce of local private-sector defense contractors and government IT specialists reportedly comprises of 25,000 workers.
Amazon didn’t reveal the nature of workforce it needs to hire at its new headquarters in Vigninia. The company is also hiring 25,000 new workers at its HQ2 near New York City.
According to the Wall Street Journal, about 210,000 veterans live near Washington, D.C. Amazon had earlier said that the access to local talent was the main criterion for the selection of its HQ2 location.
The company reportedly chose the Arlington, Virginia HQ2 location due to its close proximity to the Pentagon. It plans to model its new services on renowned defense contractors that already inhabit the area, like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, Fox Business reported.
Amazon is also eyeing a multi-billion dollar, single-source defense contract with the Pentagon, called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), which may be the largest contract yet of Pentagon.
Amazon’s partner REAN already has a $600 million cloud contract signed with the CIA. Earlier this year, the CIA had scaled back the value of the contract to $65 million from $950 million.
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