We welcome you to JobBank USA and hope your job hunting experience
is a pleasant one. We hope you find our resources useful.
August 29, 2009
Medtronic Diabetes, which is expanding its sales and customer support division in San Antonio from its Los Angeles base, is ahead of its hiring schedule as it approaches “going live” Sept. 14 in the new 150,000-square-foot building it's leasing at The Rim.
Medtronic Diabetes Therapy and Education Center already has hired 75 San Antonians who started four weeks of training Monday. By Sept. 14, employment will jump to 220, including 100 Los Angeles workers who elected to move to San Antonio, said San Antonio operations general manager Jeff Ruiz.
Some of the Los Angeles personnel will be involved in training, Ruiz said. The company hoped for at least 50 Los Angeles workers out of a group of more than 600 to volunteer to move to San Antonio. One hundred did, even though they would have kept their Los Angeles jobs.
By year's end, employment will stand at 230 and rise to 250 by April, ahead of its commitment to the state, city and county to hire 150 by April.
Medtronic Diabetes, a unit of Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., received more than 2,000 online applications after it announced in May it planned to create at least 1,400 sales and customer support jobs in San Antonio over a five-year period. It was one of the most sought-after job-creation projects in the country this year.
“We are extremely impressed and pleased,” Ruiz said. “The talent level has exceeded our expectations.”
The initial 75 hires are being trained in order processing, supply management and inside sales, in which personnel will discuss options with diabetes patients and coordinate insurance coverage.
As the San Antonio operation grows, employees will conduct sales visits to doctors and provide customer services that include troubleshooting and optimization of medical devices. A visitor center will be created at the three-story building at The Rim to train physicians and patients on the company's devices.
The company sells glucose monitors, insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, plus therapy management software patients can use to download data from monitors onto home computers for viewing by their doctors. Medtronic Diabetes has more than 200,000 customers worldwide.
Ruiz, 38, is a New Orleans native and a 1995 Tulane University graduate. He worked for Connecticut-based U.S. Surgical Corp. and Rhode Island-based C.R. Bard Inc. before joining Medtronic nine years ago, rising to the rank of senior director of sales operations and customer support before moving to San Antonio this summer.
As sales grew, Medtronic Diabetes ran out of room in its Los Angeles building and wanted to diversify geographically in case one facility becomes disabled, Ruiz said. San Antonio was selected from an initial list of more than 900 site candidates.
San Antonio and Texas were attractive because of the business climate. “We liked that San Antonio had a population accustomed to taking care of people,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz wants the building at The Rim to integrate the latest technology. “We're placing a tremendous amount of investment to create a place people are proud to work in,” he said.
After starting operations at The Rim on Sept. 14, the company plans a formal opening celebration in early November.
“Every day we've been here reinforced our decision to come. We couldn't be happier,” Ruiz said.
Email This Page!