CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — After nearly three years, a new Amazon facility is set to begin operations in Montgomery County on Wednesday.
The new 1.1-million-square-foot building is home to what Amazon calls an Inbound Cross Dock (IXD). There, employees will take in products from vendors, consolidate and organize them to send off to another Amazon site for the next steps. When it’s fully operational, over 2 million items will go through the warehouse each day.
Initially, the plan was to hire 500 people to work there, but it turns out, that was just the minimum. Amazon officials confirmed they’re now aiming to employ over a thousand.
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“Their goal is to hire about half of the workforce over the next couple of months, and they want to be fully ramped up by the end of the year,” said Josh Ward, Vice President of Industrial Development for the Clarksville-Montgomery County Economic Development Council. “These jobs are at or above the county average.”
Ward told News 2 that Amazon is set to become the city’s third largest employer in the Industrial Park behind Hankook Tire at 2,200 hires once built out and Trane Technologies which has a team of around 2,000.
“We look forward to a long-term relationship with the company and to all the growth that’s ahead,” Ward said.
With Clarksville being near Fort Campbell, Amazon leadership said they’re ready to welcome service members with open arms. Just a few weeks ago, the company announced it exceeded its goal of hiring 100,000 veterans and military spouses worldwide.
Susan Jennings, a site leader and operations manager for the new facility, shared that currently, 50% of the Clarksville Amazon leadership team and support staff are veterans.
“We want to make sure that our veterans know that we support them and that we’re going to help them in every area,” Jennings said. “Whether it’s fresh off of retiring, or a deployment coming in to us, we have such great resources for them. “We’re really excited to be able to offer everything that we’ve got from benefits to transitioning from the military into the regular civilian world and what that will look like, and we’ll be able to do that here at the site as well.”
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Sam Stephenson is a former Marine who now works with Amazon as a public relations manager in Clarksville. He described the collaboration between Amazon and active duty transitioning service members as a win-win situation.
“I really want the local community to understand that Amazon really approaches our commitment to veterans holistically,” Stephenson said. “We care about the active duty transitioning service members and the incredible skills they bring to the table but we recognize also what the military spouses bring. There are a lot of sacrifices to being a military family, especially serving right now in the United States. We recognize the skills that those families bring, and we want those individuals on our team here at Amazon.”
According to Amazon, jobs for front-line employees in customer fulfillment and transportation come with an average hourly pay of more than $20.50, with employees earning between $17 and $28 per hour depending on the position and location. All regular full-time employees enjoy healthcare from their first day on the job, a 401(k) plan with company match, up to 20 weeks of paid leave for birthing parents, access to free upskilling opportunities and more.
There are currently over 24,000 full and part-time employees in Tennessee who work for the 12 fulfillment and sortation centers and eight delivery station operations across the state. The company said more than 6,000 Tennessee-based small and medium-sized businesses sell on Amazon.
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Amazon said it hires on a ‘rolling basis’. The company explained that it posts 150 – 200 jobs each week, and continues that process until the facility is fully staffed. Candidates can text JOBEVENT to 31432 to receive job alerts.
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