You are viewing this article in the AnnArbor.com archives. For the latest breaking news and updates in Ann Arbor and the surrounding area, see MLive.com/ann-arbor
Posted on Thu, Jun 17, 2010 : 5:59 a.m.

Barracuda Networks continues aggressive hiring plan at Ann Arbor office

By Nathan Bomey

Barracuda Networks’ growth trajectory in Ann Arbor shows no sign of slowing.

The information technology security company, which has been hiring new workers at a pace of about one per week, recently decided it needs to add 10 people as soon as possible to fuel its growth.

But hiring 10 advanced technology professionals at once is turning into a challenge.

“They’re great jobs, but we haven’t lately gotten the resume volume that we had been getting in before,” said Guy Suter, director of data protection and backup services for Barracuda. “I just know the people are here.”

He said the slowdown in high-quality applications can probably be attributed to the summer lull found in a college town.

To attract more job applications, Barracuda is planning a career fair June 24 at its Ann Arbor office on Depot Street. The jobs include positions in quality assurance and software engineering. Applicants must receive approval to attend the career fair by e-mailing application materials to aacareerfair@barracuda.com.

Once Barracuda fills its 10 open positions, the firm will have about 100 workers in Ann Arbor, making the company one of the region’s top IT employers. The company has about 700 employees worldwide, a spokeswoman said.

Suter said he expects Barracuda to continue hiring employees at a rate of about one per week “into the foreseeable future.”

The growth is tied to general growth in revenue and to the company’s decision to use its Ann Arbor office for efforts related to backup services, message archiver and phone system technology.

“We decided strategically that we wanted to align some more resources here,” Suter said.

Barracuda in 2007 opened an eight-person office in Ann Arbor as a test to see whether local software talent could sustain its appetite for new technology progress.

A year later, the company pronounced the test a success and announced it would expand its Ann Arbor presence with plans to hire 185 workers over the next five years. The company takes up the 12,000-square-foot first-floor office space in the 201 Depot St. building.

Despite recent challenges in finding workers to fill the 10 new jobs, Suter emphasized that Barracuda is quite satisfied with the contributions of its Ann Arbor office.

“It’s been a tremendous success,” Suter said. “There’s a lot of advantages of this area even over California. It’s a really good area, people like the lifestyle here, we get really educated people, very talented people. There’s less turnover in Michigan than you find in California. The work environment is great.”

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.