Google is set to double the size of its technical team in Brazil by the end of 2023; the company has announced this week.

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According to the web giant, the plan is to grow the 200-strong team to a total of 400 technology staff by next year. Most of the tech team is currently based in Belo Horizonte; the new hires will be split between the firm's engineering office and a new office in S?o Paulo, where the firm's commercial operation is already located.

"Today, Brazil is one of the most important markets for us, featuring among the 'top 5' in the list of the company's nine products with more than one billion users", said Fabio Coelho, president at Google Brazil. "Investing in local talent allows us to bring a 'Brazilian look' to [the development of] these products and, at the same time, showcases the innovative capacity of our professionals to the world since we are talking about solutions used globally."

Google will be mostly looking to recruit software engineers and will be focusing on bringing in more black professionals under a special selection process. "The expansion of our engineering department and the initiatives aimed at the recruitment of black people are concrete examples of our continuous commitment to the development of the country", Coelho added. The company has been introducing initiatives to make progress in the racial diversity agenda, such as Next Step, the internship program it announced in 2019.

In relation to its new recruitment drive, the web giant also plans on hiring a number of these new positions on a fully remote basis. As for the roles expected to come in person, the company chose to use the hybrid model, whereby professionals will work three days a week from the office and two days remotely.

Google's Brazilian engineering center was created in 2005, with the acquisition of Akwan, a Belo Horizonte-based search technology company in 2000 by professors at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The executive director of Akwan at the time, Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, was named director of engineering for Latin America at Google and has remained in that position ever since.

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