Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is hiring in Durham. Can office space be far behind?

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is advertising online that it has several job openings to fill in the Triangle and its LinkedIn posts suggest that the company is planning a physical presence.

What that presence might be remains to be seen. WRAL, citing unnamed sources, reported that the presence would be “significant.”

“We have nothing to share regarding any plans in the Research Triangle at this time,” Meta spokesperson Jamila Reeves emailed late Tuesday.

Meta’s Triangle office may focus on the company’s research into augmented reality, according to job postings on LinkedIn.

The website’s job board lists several roles in Durham, including a facility and operations manager for Reality Labs — a Meta subsidiary working “to build the future of connection within virtual and augmented reality.” Its products include VR headsets and software.

The job posting, uploaded five days ago, suggests Meta will establish an in-person Durham location. Among its job requirements are “managing the operations of our facility, including day-to-day activities, logistics, and lab operations.”

Reality Labs succeeded Oculus, a prominent startup behind early VR technologies, which Facebook acquired in 2014.

Developing the metaverse — a network of digital spaces where users can interact in virtual reality — is central to the Meta’s mission. Increased interested in VR technology was one reason Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in October.

Several companies have similar aspirations, notably Cary’s Epic Games. The company has promoted the metaverse as one of its primary projects.

“The metaverse is a vision that spans many companies — the whole industry,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge last summer. “You can think about it as the successor to the mobile internet. And it’s certainly not something that any one company is going to build, but I think a big part of our next chapter is going to hopefully be contributing to building that, in partnership with a lot of other companies and creators and developers.”

Epic Games did not respond to an email inquiry from the The News & Observer asking if a partnership with Meta might be possible.

In addition to Facebook, Meta operates apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. The Meta careers site has jobs in Durham for content designers and product designers.

Meta is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and has offices around the U.S. and the globe, including Seattle, New York, Boston, Austin and Chicago.

Meta already has a presence in North Carolina in the form of a data center in Forest City in the western part of the state. Meta acquired Kustomer, a software company that claims a Durham headquarters, earlier this year.

If Meta expands to the Triangle, it would be the latest high-profile tech company to set up shop in the region, which routinely lands on “best places to live” lists.

Apple, Google plans in NC

Both Apple and Google plan to have a significant presence in the Triangle, joining video game behemoth Epic Games, headquartered in Cary.

In April 2021, Apple announced it would build its East Coast headquarters in Research Triangle Park. Apple will eventually employ about 3,000 people earning an average of $187,000 a year, The News & Observer previously reported.

Apple’s office will be on the Wake County side of Research Triangle Park, the sprawling business hub that sits at the heart of the region and is home to hundreds of companies.

To secure Apple’s commitment, North Carolina approved what was then its largest-ever incentive package for a private company. If Apple meets its hiring goals, it stands to earn incentives worth $845.8 million over 39 years. Wake County plans to spend $20 million.

In the meantime, Apple will set up temporary shop in Cary, The N&O previously reported.

Google announced in March 2021 that it would create 1,000 jobs in downtown Durham in the coming years. The company didn’t negotiate an incentives package from the city or state.

Google has said Durham could become one of the company’s top five engineering hubs in the U.S., along with the Bay Area, New York, Seattle and Kirkland, Washington.

This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is hiring in Durham. Can office space be far behind?."