STAGGERING GROWTH WP Engine

BEN JACKSON, OMAHA SITE LEADER, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, WP ENGINE

Staggering Growth

WORDPRESS GIANT WP ENGINE BUILDS OMAHA HUB

WP Engine has been in a position to hire more than 30 new team members at its Omaha “hub” (office) in 2021, and local site leader and Vice President of Sales, Ben Jackson, noted the global WordPress hosting leader is poised to double the size of the staff working out of its new 66,000-square-foot space. That space, within the historic Ashton Building, serves as an anchor for the Millwork Commons development and is already serving as a model for WP Engine’s other hubs throughout the world — from its Austin, Texas corporate headquarters, to its new hub in Limerick, Ireland.

“Of course, every company has been affected by the ‘Great Resignation,’” Jackson said. “But our hiring is based on company growth, not backfilling.”

In fact, he added that WP Engine is hiring locally in product and engineering to build new offerings, in sales to sell those products, and in support to take care of its diverse customer base.

For Omaha’s future hiring, a continuation of a trajectory going back two years (WP Engine acquired Omaha-born Flywheel in 2019), Jackson said new hires will likely fill roles in every team and department at “nearly every level.” This includes sales, support and product engineering, as well as finance, marketing, and technical support.

“We have enough room in our current space to double in size over the next two to five years,” he said.

Additionally, Jackson emphasized Omaha’s access to a deep talent pool of “great customer-facing roles.”

“Specifically, due to the local diversity and ‘accent-neutral’ range of talent,” he added.

New digs

At the time of this writing, of WP Engine’s 1,200 employees worldwide, about 200 people work in the Omaha area. Its space, which spans the third and fourth floors of the Ashton building at 1229 Millwork Ave., can accommodate 400 employees.

“Our office in Omaha was ready for occupancy around Memorial Day of 2020; however, due to COVID pushing us all to remote working, we weren’t able to occupy it for more than a year,” Jackson recalled. “We opened it in a limited capacity in early July, and have scaled it up and back, depending on our local COVID restrictions.”

Within an 1800s-era furniture warehouse, the hub’s physical quarters also get “rave feedback” on historical features, restored and accented, such as wooden beams, elevator and sliding metal doors, a custom staircase and skylight.

“This office is truly a reflection of the people who work here,” Jackson said, when asked about how feedback from employees was integrated into the design of the space.

“‘Design matters’ is one of our core values. So, every piece of art you see on the walls around the office was made by someone on our team.”

A “social bunch,” Jackson said everything was built around a vibrant core complete with kitchen, bar, lounge and patio.

We are truly fortunate to work with all types and sizes of customers — from small businesses to global brands.

- BEN JACKSON, OMAHA SITE LEADER, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, WP ENGINE

“There’s no sound dampening in the core area of the office, because we want to invite people to come together and connect in that space,” he said. “But we also have to get work done, which is why we added in sound dampening via carpeting and acoustic ceiling panels, the further you move to the periphery of the building.

“The ‘wow’ factor of this space has already led to inspirations to revamp our company headquarters in Austin, as well as the new hub we just opened in Limerick, Ireland,” he said.

Its other locations span London, England; Brisbane Australia; San Antonio, Texas; San Francisco, California; and Krakow, Poland.

More than a pretty space

Being in the Ashton allows for WP Engine to reside close to what he called the “creative heartbeat” of the city.

“Millwork has been thoughtful about maintaining the richness of the local area while carefully adding new attractions to maintain connection to the original use of the area — for creatives and artists,” he said. “We want this to be a space where local creatives gravitate, regardless of their background.”

Millwork Commons resides on more than 50 acres of land. It features a collection of retail, housing, event, hospitality and outdoor spaces, as well as 60-plus tenants.

“We are truly fortunate to work with all types and sizes of customers — from small businesses to global brands,” Jackson said.

In all, WP Engine works with in excess of 175,000 customers and powers more than 1.5 million websites across 150 counties. There is plenty of room to grow, he indicated.

“Even with the world going online during COVID, we are still in the early days of unprecedented digital transformation around the world,” Jackson explained. “Seventy-three percent of the world’s population now uses the internet. But, at the business level, only 16% of global retail transactions are conducted online and over one-third of American small businesses still don’t have a website.”

WordPress, however, accounts for a reported 43% of the web and represents the leading content management system in the world.

“The WordPress economy is estimated to be $635.5 billion by the end of this year,” Jackson said. “That’s over a half a trillion dollars globally.”

Citing International Monetary Fund data, he added: “To put that in perspective, if WordPress were a country, it’s economy would rank 39th in the world.”

And, Jackson asserted, WP Engine is at the forefront of such staggering growth.

“WP Engine is the leader in managed WordPress hosting, more than twice as large as the next three competitors combined, and we host more of the top 200,000 websites than anyone else,” he said.

One of its core values, “Committed to give back,” could very well apply to its new partnership with Metropolitan Community College. Jackson indicated the partnership is about more than connecting MCC students to its internships and job openings.

“We have larger plans to help with curriculum advisory, workshops for student projects, co-located events, summer youth camp involvement … all of which will give their students the real-world tools, resources and experience they need to land a job upon graduation,” he said, adding that MCC is one of its co-tenants.

MCC’s Associate Vice President for Community and Workforce Education, Gary Girard, said by way of Jackson that the collaboration has the “potential to provide ready access to skilled talent right in our community.”

Living its values, WP Engine’s Omaha hub is also active with Avenue Scholars, Open Door Mission, Girls Inc., Latino Center of the Midlands, Black and Pink Omaha, Siena Francis House, the Women’s Center for Advancement, Code Crush, Youth Emergency Services and several other local nonprofits.

MBJ

402-235-6105 • 1229 MILLWORK AVE., SUITE 301, OMAHA 68102 • WPENGINE.COM

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