Microsoft Is Hiring In BostonMicrosoft Is Hiring In Boston

The Cambridge consolidation of NERDs is underway: Microsoft is relocating two of its suburban-Boston development groups into a new office space in Cambridge that will almost double the size of its facilities there. And about that NERD thing: that's Microsoft's own name for its New England Research & Development center.NERD senior director Sara Spalding told the Boston Herald that the consolidation "represents pulling our existing engineering teams together to have a single focal point of research and development in Massachusetts" and is "evidence of our commitment to building a really strong campus in Cambridge."

In spite of all that talk about commitment, Spalding declined to say how many new jobs would be created within the two consolidated and almost-adjacent facilities Microsoft has in Cambridge. The company has 300 employees in its current 171,000 square feet of office space, and is adding 113,000 square feet of nearby space to house the workers being pulled in from the two suburban facilities, according to the article.

Asked by bostonherald.com how many new jobs will be added, Spalding gave an answer that clearly underscores her qualifications for being senior director of NERD:

Well, I hate to disappoint Spalding but even though I'm not a real-estate guru, I don't know how many people you can put in 113,000 square feet of space. But if we're willing to guess that the employee-density in that new space will be about the same as in Microsoft's adjacent 171,000-square-foot facility, here's how the numbers work out: 300 people in 171,000 square feet comes out to 570 square feet per employee, so if we divide 570 square feet/employee into the new space of 113,000 square feet, we come up with 198.24561 employees.

Again, I'm no real-estate guru, but I think it's safe to say the new space will house 200 employees. How many of those will be new positions versus relocated workers from Navic Networks and the Groove division, Microsoft would not say.

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