Nortel Plant Plans 33% Increase in Staff

Nortel Networks’ Simi Valley facility will spend $50 million over the next five years to increase its employee head count by a third, company officials said.

The company will hire as many as 50 engineers and support staff, a 33% increase over its current staffing, spokeswoman Tracy Dupree said.

The local plant makes high-performance voice and data networking products for the Internet. The upcoming staffing increase indicates that Ontario, Canada-based Northern Telecom sees the Simi Valley operation as a key resource, the company said.

The company opened the $18-million, 136,000-square-foot facility in Simi Valley last year.