One of Nashville’s newest tech recruits hopes the race cars zooming around downtown this weekend will boost business and even give a lift to its recruiting and hiring efforts.
The first-ever Music City Grand Prix provides a key spotlight for NTT Data Services, whose Japanese parent company sponsors the IndyCar series and two drivers, including current top-ranked driver Alex Palou.
In March, NTT Data Services announced a new hub in Nashville with 350 jobs, at average pay of almost $47 an hour. Several C-level executives, including CEO Bob Pryor and CFO David Croxville, are flying in from the company’s U.S. base in the Dallas area for race festivities. The company is hosting some 20 clients and local dignitaries, either at an Aug. 7 event at downtown restaurant The Hampton Social or in suites during the race itself on Aug. 8.
The arrival of the jobs and the race are largely unrelated, as Albright and other executives began their 15-city search shortly before IndyCar formally announced the race. Albright said the company intends to capitalize on that coincidence.
“The amount of attention we’re going to get is significant. It’s good business development and positioning for us, and just a good [public relations] opportunity as well,” said Dan Albright, a senior vice president and head of global consulting at NTT Data Services.
NTT’s first batches of hires, coming straight from a college campus, have begun to arrive at the office at the Capitol View development on Charlotte Avenue. NTT has hired a general manager to run the office, to be announced within days, Albright said.
He expects to have hired 100 people or more within 12 months. “I think we can hit our initial goal of 350 in two and a half years, if not earlier,” he said.
NTT Data Services plans to triple its straight-from-campus hires this year across the U.S. “We’ll be directing as many of those to Nashville as we can. Part of the reason we moved here is that it sells itself, to some extent,” Albright said. “Here’s the test for us: We’ll do very good hiring off of campus and getting them into the office. With the war on talent, it’s how to get some of those mid-level team members to come over. That will be the challenge not just for us, but a lot of companies going forward.”
Two big doses of tech jobs will alter that scenario even more: Amazon’s 5,000-job office hub at Nashville Yards, and Oracle Corp.’s forthcoming $1.2 billion waterfront campus on the East Bank, which could entail 8,500 jobs by the end of 2031.
Asked specifically about Oracle, Albright called it a “net positive” for other tech employers like himself.
“Having Oracle here is a game-changer for Nashville. We do see it as competitive … it might raise salaries for people, and that’s really good for them. But it’s also an opportunity: If we create a more attractive workplace, we’ll get the talent, and we can partner with them in the business world instead of competing with them,” Albright said.
“As some other cities have experienced, had you not gotten Oracle, it would have been a larger net loss. It’s better to have it than not have it,” Albright said. “They’re a great company with deep pockets and a lot of success lately as well. I don’t think that success will slow down anytime soon.”
