California cybersecurity company opening downtown Wichita office, hiring immediately
A California-based cybersecurity company will open a new office in downtown Wichita and immediately begin hiring for developer job positions, local officials announced Thursday.
Novacoast, which is based in Santa Barbara, will work out of the Epic Center downtown. While the office won’t open for another three to four months as the company completes renovations, Wichita-based employees could begin working remotely sooner, said Novacoast CEO Paul Anderson.
“We needed a place with a great hiring pool,” Anderson said. “We also want them to want to live in the community where we hired them. This aspect of Wichita was a perfect fit.”
The company expects to start with around 60 employees in Wichita, which could grow to 100 or more jobs in the coming years. Developer positions will be posted as soon as Thursday on kansasworks.com, the state’s job search and employment website.
The new Wichita office will house a 24/7 security operation center downtown, as well as sales employees, analysts and cybersecurity engineers.
Founded in 1996, Novacoast has more than 350 employees and operations in California; Michigan; Manchester, United Kingdom; and Guatemala City, Guatemala. The majority of Novacoast’s customers are global banks and health care and energy companies.
As part of the company’s expansion, the Kansas Department of Commerce offered state incentives to Novacoast through three programs, an agency spokesperson said. Promoting Employment Across Kansas (PEAK), Kansas Industrial Training (KIT) and Job Creation Fund (JCF) incentives were made available to the business.
In choosing Wichita for Novacoast’s expansion, Anderson cited downtown revitalization efforts, the competitive cost of doing business and existing cybersecurity resources such as Wichita State University, Butler Community College, Friends University and WSU Tech.
He also pointed to the 184th Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard, stationed at McConnell Air Force Base, as a unique asset.
A group of bipartisan elected officials spoke Thursday in support of the company’s expansion into Wichita, along with the Greater Wichita Partnership, the Wichita region’s economic development agency. The Partnership reached out to Anderson and Novacoast, he said, to encourage and facilitate the move.
“Your arrival in Kansas, your expansion to our state, gives our citizens a greater opportunity to do more things,” said Sen. Jerry Moran. “And for us to keep young, highly-trained and educated Kansans in our state and to attract new people to our state and particularly to the city of Wichita.”
The announcement comes at a time when the future of office space in urban downtowns remains uncertain nationally, as the coronavirus pandemic spurred a remote work movement that could be permanent for some businesses.
At the same time, Anderson said COVID-19 pushed the company to look for additional locations outside of Santa Barbara.
“COVID highlighted for Novacoast our need to diversify our geographic location,” he said.
With more office space in multiple locations, the company can continue to operate and respond to “outages in different cities and states,” Anderson said.
For the Wichita region and Kansas as a whole, the move represents a goal to diversify the area’s economy, which is heavily reliant on aviation manufacturing and aerospace. The Greater Wichita Partnership identified the information technology and cybersecurity fields as target industries in its regional growth plan, said Jeff Fluhr, president of The Partnership.
David Toland, lieutenant governor and commerce secretary, reiterated that the state is looking to grow and create tech-focused jobs in Kansas.
“The cybersecurity jobs we’re celebrating today are exactly the types of opportunities we’re focused on growing in Kansas,” Toland said. “These high-demand, high-wage jobs will help us keep more of our best and brightest here in the state of Kansas.”
“We will always be the Air Capital of the World in Wichita, but we can be the capital of other sectors as well,” Toland said.
Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple said that what struck him most about Novacoast wasn’t just the high-paying jobs and opportunities, but a commitment to the community.
“It’s not just about attracting a company, it’s about building a relationship,” he said.
Some of the positions based in Wichita, such as software developers and computer engineers, are commission-based jobs with no cap on earnings, a Novacoast human resources official said. The company won’t adjust the income based on where the job is located either.
Other employees, like analysts, will receive a starting rate between $16 and $20 an hour based on experience. A full benefit package is offered to all full-time employees.
The decision to locate in Wichita happened relatively quickly. Anderson said he visited the city three times and was impressed with what he saw — including the food and dining options.
“We’re really excited to join the community,” Anderson said.
Anyone in Wichita with additional questions about applying to the cybersecurity company can email info@novacoast.com.
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
