Booming business and the competition for skilled workers drives recruiting of up to 500
December 18, 2004
SYRACUSE -- Lockheed Martin Corp. announced Friday it will hire up to 500 new engineers at its Syracuse-area complex in 2005, pushing its original hiring plan ahead by almost two years.
The company announced in early October that its Maritime Systems & Sensors unit had received contracts worth $625 million for radar development. The company said it expected to hire 40 additional employees by the end of 2004 and another 300 by 2007. But business has been so good and the competition for engineers so fierce the timetable was adjusted.
"We've had to change plans and review staffing requirements on all our programs in Syracuse," said Joe Trench, president of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems. "We are in critical need. We really need to intensify our staffing efforts. It's a war for talent."
Trench pinned the actual number of new positions created at 300 to 350 but said up to 500 new engineers will be needed because of retirements and departures. Support personnel for human resources and finance also will be needed, he said.
The new jobs are connected to a $413 million contract Lockheed Martin received last year to build the next generation of radars for the Navy's E-2C Hawkeye patrol plane.
Trench said Lockheed Martin already hired 170 engineers in 2004 and emphasized the need to spread the word about the company's need for technical talent. He said the new jobs would pay $65,000 to more than $100,000, depending on experience.
U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Rep. James Walsh and Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue were among those who attended the news conference after taking an abbreviated tour of the facility, which employs about 2,200 workers. Gov. George Pataki, in a statement released by his office Friday, called the new jobs "tremendous news."
Friday's announcement was purposely timed in mid-December to reach people who moved elsewhere because of better employment opportunities, but who might consider moving back to upstate New York because of family ties.
"There are so many who were raised in this area and in previous decades had to leave. We hope that people all across the country will pay attention," Schumer said.
In an effort to attract talent, Lockheed Martin is touting employee benefits such as 100 percent tuition reimbursement, a pension plan and flexible work schedules. It also is offering current employees up to $3,000 in cash bonuses for each contact who qualifies for a referral program and comes to work for Lockheed Martin.
The contracts for design and development work on the MEADS system come from the joint venture MEADS International and its members -- Lockheed Martin, MBDA-Italia, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., and Lenkflugkorpersysteme Germany. The companies announced in September the signing of a multiyear design and development contract valued at about $3 billion.
The new mobile air defense system will replace the Patriot and Hawk missile systems and protect maneuvering ground-combat forces.
Lockheed Martin also is bidding against Sikorsky Aircraft for the Navy's presidential helicopter replacement program to produce a fleet of 23 helicopters. The contract, estimated at $2 billion, will be awarded in late January.
Last March, Lockheed Martin announced plans for a new 176,000-square-foot facility and up to 750 more jobs at its plant in Owego, west of Binghamton, if it wins the helicopter contract.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide.
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