Boeing will save $60,000 per job by moving engineering center to Alabama; average salary will be $89,000

The relocation of a Boeing engineering center from Washington state to Alabama is part of an effort to save more than $100 million a year, documents from the company show.

Boeing announced late last year it will move as many as 400-high paying engineering jobs to Huntsville as part of what the company described as a reorganization and realignment of its research and technology operations. The 400 jobs are among 2,000 technology positions that are being divided among centers in southern California; St. Louis, Mo.; North Charleston, SC; and Seattle, Wash.

The realignment will add jobs in Alabama, Missouri and South Carolina but existing centers in Washington state and California will lose a combined 1,200 positions.

Huntsville's center will focus on simulation and decision analytics and metals and chemical technology, according to company officials.

Internal documents obtained by the Seattle Times said the realignment will cost Boeing $150 million to implement but save as much as $100 million a year after 2016, due mostly to lower wages in the new areas. Each engineering job moved to a new state, the documents show, will produce an annual savings of $60,000 in pay and benefits. 

Boeing officials did not dispute the figures cited in the Times but said cost was just one element in making the decision to move the centers.

Boeing vice president Jim Schlueter said the company also plans to "gain access to new talent," and reduce its "footprint where we are not as productive as we should be."

The documents show as many 40 percent of the jobs at the new centers will be entry-level engineering positions. The projected average salary at the new centers would be $89,000 versus $125,000 at the Washington state/Southern California locations. With benefits added in, the company expects to spend $152,000 per engineering position at the new centers compared to $212,000 at its existing locations.

The realignment will dramatically change Boeing's engineering presence in Huntsville, the Times reports. Currently, about 1 percent of the company's engineering workforce is located in Huntsville. By 2016, that percentage will grow to 12 percent, equal to the amount in southern California.