Justin Sayers, The Republic | azcentral.com
Groupon plans to host a job fair next week to fill 100 sales positions at its recently opened Scottsdale location, the company announced.
The global e-commerce marketplace is looking have about 160 employees at its office in SkySong by the end of September. The company opened a branch in the Valley in February and moved into its current location on Friday.
Representatives from Groupon will be interviewing candidates Monday through Friday at SkySong 1, 1475 N. Scottsdale Road, company spokesman Nicholas Halliwell said. Interested candidates can fill out an application online at jobs.groupon.com to sign up for a time slot.
“We’re looking for folks with really strong negotiating skills and diligence and experience,” he said, noting the positions will focus on building relationships with local merchants.
The company also announced today that Diana Vowels was hired as site manager for the location. She most recently worked for Deem, a cloud and mobile commerce company.
“For me, this was a fantastic opportunity with a growing, dynamic company,” said Vowels, who worked for Gannett Co., Inc., parent company of The Arizona Republicand azcentral.com, for nearly 20 years, including three years at The Republic. “I jumped at the opportunity to join Groupon.”
The SkySong operation is the only company sales office outside of the Groupon headquarters in Chicago. Groupon executives hope the branch can help expand business relationships on this side of the country.
Groupon operated out of a temporary location at 2575 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix before moving into 16,000 square feet of space in SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, last week. Half of the office is still under construction but should be completed within the next month.
“The SkySong space is filled with a lot of tech companies and a lot of innovation-focused companies,” Vowels said. “It’s perfect for the Groupon culture.”
The company chose Phoenix partially because of the popularity of the e-commerce marketplace in the area. Phoenix ranks among Groupon’s 10 most popular markets, Vowels said.
Roughly 3,000 deals are offered at a time, and more than 15,000 Valley merchants have been featured.
“Having a Phoenix presence helps us cover the Western time zone, so that we can expand our relationships with businesses in the Western part of the U.S.,” Vowels said.
Vowels described the company as “fun” and “quirky,” noting that, “It’s a company that is very serious but doesn’t take itself very seriously.”
“We still have that dynamic and energy of a startup, but yet we have the power of a well-known brand,” she said.
Groupon, founded in 2008, had nearly 48.1 million active customers as of March, including 24.6 million in North America, Halliwell said. The number of active deals globally was 425,000 as of March, including 200,000 in North America.
The positions are salary-plus-commission-based and “definitely” pay above the living wage, Vowels said. Employees who excel in their job could earn upward of $60,000 a year, she said.
Employees also are eligible for benefits, such as unlimited vacation time.
“We’re actively searching for talent, and we will take them as quickly as we find them,” she said.
Groupon is a “marketplace of deals ranging from local businesses to restaurants,” Halliwell said. Top sellers are salons and spas, food and beverage, and things to do.
Deals are accessible online, but more than half of deals are completed on the company’s mobile app, Halliwell said.
The company bases technology functions on the West Coast in offices in Seattle, San Francisco and Palo Alto.