Alarm.com to expand Fairfax HQ, create 180 jobs

Alarm.com will expand its technology research and development division at its Fairfax headquarters, investing $2.6 million and creating 180 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday.

The technology company already has several hundred workers in Virginia and will create additional engineering positions within its research and development division with this expansion.

“Every day companies make a choice,” Youngkin, in one of his first economic development announcements as governor, said at the company’s Tysons headquarters. “Ones that are here make a choice to invest incrementally or to do it someplace else and companies that aren’t here make a decision to either come here or go someplace else. We have to compete every day and that’s why I love seeing Virginia competing and winning and that’s why it’s so important. The best way to grow is to grow companies that are already here. They already know Virginia, they already know the benefits of our infrastructure, our workforce, our education and then we can go to work, even more, to get taxes down, to in fact cut regulations, to continue to invest in infrastructure to make our communities even safer. This will continue to be the best place to do business in America.”

Alarm.com’s platform integrates with a growing variety of IoT (Internet of Things) devices through its apps and interfaces.

Alarm.com President and CEO Steve Trundle said the company started in Virginia with 5,000 square feet and just a handful of employees and has grown to 200,000 square feet. The company currently employs about 1,500 workers, including 700 employees in Virginia. Trundle said the company hopes to hire as many as 400 workers this year.

“We find this to be a great market to recruit, there’s a lot of university access here, great STEM skillsets here, but we also are successfully bringing people in this area,” he said.

The firm was named to Fortune magazine’s list of 100 Fastest Growing Companies in 2021. Trundle said Monday that Alarm.com has more than 8.4 million subscribers, most of which are in the United States.  More than 5 million devices in Virginia connect to the company’s network operation centers in the state, he added.

“If you’re using an app to look at a video camera from your home or your business, or an app to unlock the door, more than likely that’s our technology,” he said.

Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, said adding 180 new employees really represents 450-to-500 people.

“This is a community and when you save those jobs, you actually begin to save households, you begin to save communities, and that’s really what we’re here for,” Hoskins said.

Alarm.com has been partnering with the state on an apprenticeship program, Trundle noted. About 75% of the people who have gone through the program have been hired, and 60% were from underrepresented groups, Trundle said.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority to secure the project for Virginia and will support Alarm.com’s job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment program (VJIP), which provides consultative services and funding to companies creating new jobs to support employee recruitment and training activities.