Cloud-based security company Verkada is hiring 120+ for a new Philly office

A California-based security tech company is setting up five global offices, including one in Philadelphia that will bring more than 100 jobs to the city.

Verkada is the maker of building security products such as video security cameras, door-based access control, environmental sensors and alarms, all managed through a cloud-based software platform.

The company closed a $205 million Series D at a $3.2 billion valuation in September 2022. It counts 14 offices around the world, and in December opened an engineering hub in Krakow, Poland. CTO Martin Hunt said in a statement at the time that this engineering team would “work on end-to-end systems, fully owning products from ideation and design to prototyping and iteration to mass production.”

In the years previous to these expansion efforts, the company came under fire for poor security within its own operations — namely, that employees could look through customers’ live camera feeds, per Bloomberg — as well as allegations of workplace harassment tolerance and “bro culture.” (The company was also named to Inc.’s Best Workplaces list in 2022.)

Now, Verkada is slated to open five new offices, in Philadelphia, Mexico City, New York City, Toronto and Tokyo, which will serve as sales and engineering hubs. The expansion of offices and talent was part of the plan for the company’s latest raise, and will bring on more than 300 roles.

Philadelphia was a “strategic location” for Verkada, company spokesperson Annie Shepard told Technical.ly in an email: “Not only is it centrally located and in close proximity to our customers across the East Coast, but it’s also got a large and growing tech workforce.”

Greater Philadelphia-based Peter Rego will lead the mid-market sales team for the East Coast after spending two decades at Cintas. He’s planning on bringing on about 120 representatives to the local office, as well as six managers. No specific location has been named for the Philly office yet.

“Over the past 12 months, we’ve grown tremendously: we’ve expanded our team by 60% and continued to expand our product offerings. Today, we empower more than 15,000 customers to protect their people and property,” said Filip Kaliszan, CEO of Verkada, in the announcement. “We are transforming the reliability, user experience and design of the connected building of the future. Staffed by world-class talent, these newly-opened hubs are essential to Verkada’s continued growth and innovation as we scale globally.”

After this story was published, a company spokesperson responded to Technical.ly’s previous requests for comment on reports of its past technical and culture challenges by sharing a Verkada blog post describing the steps taken to rectify the 2021 security breach.