GE Transportation on Tuesday announced it was creating a new digital hub in Chicago.
GE Transportation Digital Solutions, it will design software to help customers and patients. It’s just the latest jobs news from GE, which earlier this year, moved the global headquarters of GE Healthcare to Chicago from London.
Adding the digital hub to GE Transportation’s offices at 500 W. Monroe St. will create 100 jobs, the company said. The new jobs will include software engineers, software developers, data scientists, product analysts and project managers.
GE will hold a Chicago job fair at its headquarters next month.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was on hand Tuesday to bask in the glow during a news conference Tuesday at the west Loop headquarters.
“When you said that our manufacturing is brilliant and our technology is brilliant, you started to remind me of a Jewish mother who talks about her children. So, thank you,” the mayor joked.
Calling it “another great day for Chicago,” Emanuel said it’s no accident that his sales pitch to corporate leaders is working.
“When it comes to technology, when it comes to talent and when it comes to transportation, Chicago is the epicenter of those three things. Which is why it’s a perfect fit for GE and Chicago,” he said.
Emanuel said it’s no surprise that GE Transportation moved its corporate headquarters from western Pennsylvania to Chicago a few years ago and why the company has chosen Chicago once again for its digital hub.
“Chicago I’ve always referred to as the inland port of America. If it runs on roads, rails or runways, it comes in and out of the city of Chicago. And unlike the ports or the inter-modal systems on the coast, Chicago is the inland port of the United States,” the mayor said.
“Having a company like GE Transportation and specifically GE Digital here reinforces not only that footprint for Chicago. It [creates] the opportunity to bring more companies, more jobs and more investments because everybody is in search of the technology, the transportation as well as the talent that Chicago has to offer.”
