Amazon Hiring More Than 200 Remote Positions In US, Europe, Costa Rica

Online retail giant Amazon has made Seattle its home since 1994 and growth has been so robust that the company announced plans in 2017 to branch out to a second city, dubbed HQ2. However, those seeking full-time benefits and an employee discount on Amazon products can now do so by working remotely, via hundreds of new job postings that don't require moving to Washington state or Amazon's possible second headquarters.

The Amazon jobs site lists 237 full-time, remote positions in fields ranging from internal employee relations to cloud development. There were remote openings from as early as December 2016 but many of the postings have surfaced in recent weeks.

Many of the remote jobs (labeled “Virtual Location” by Amazon) still seem to want candidates in certain cities or countries. Several listings say “Virtual Location - Michigan,” for example. Most of the jobs with certain locations attached to them are in cities across the U.S., in states like Florida, Iowa and North Carolina.

However, as USA Today pointed out, there are some listings in the U.K. and Costa Rica. One of the Florida job listings is for a Prime Video business executive position whose job will be to enhance the Prime Video experience in Brazil.

As Amazon grows and expands its reach into many different service sectors, it may see the benefit of hiring more remote workers to avoid overextending itself. Earlier this summer, the company announced an initiative for aspiring entrepreneurs to run their own local delivery services for Amazon products. They would get funding and support from headquarters, but would otherwise independently run their own businesses.

Another important detail is that anyone hired for these full-time remote positions would get standard company benefits like health insurance and a 401K. Amazon has been roundly criticized by former employees and elected officials like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for alleged poor working conditions in its warehouses. Some have accused Amazon of overworking those employees and obsessively monitoring their actions in the workplace.

Amazon, for its part, has denied many of these allegations. A company spokesperson told International Business Times in July that bathroom breaks were not monitored and fulfillment centers were adequately climate controlled, contrary to previous reports over the years.