PENDERGRASS, Ga. — Siemens is beginning to staff a new electrical-equipment factory expected to employ about 1,700 people near Pendergrass, extending metro Atlanta’s industrial growth farther north along Interstate 85.

The 550,000-square-foot plant will manufacture busway and busplug systems, which carry and distribute electricity inside data centers, factories and other large buildings. Production will include metal fabrication, painting, plating, epoxy work and final assembly.

For residents of Suwanee, Sugar Hill and the Buford area, the factory will be close enough to widen the local job market beyond Gwinnett County. Pendergrass lies in Jackson County, directly north along I-85, where warehouses and manufacturing plants have steadily gathered around the interstate.

Hiring is beginning with the people Siemens needs to prepare the factory for production. The company is recruiting managers and technical professionals to establish its workforce, suppliers, production systems and material flow before larger-scale operations begin.

Among those positions is a materials manager who will oversee inventory, production scheduling and the movement of materials through the plant. Siemens is seeking candidates with at least eight years of manufacturing materials-management or production-planning experience, preferably including a plant startup or major expansion.

The posted salary ranges from $109,670 to $188,006, with a target annual incentive equal to 15% of base pay.

Siemens has also sought an on-site human-resources business partner to help recruit employees and organize the plant’s workforce. That position pays between $91,463 and $156,794, with a 10% target incentive, and calls for eight to 10 years of human-resources experience.

Procurement and manufacturing-engineering jobs have appeared as well. Together, the openings show a factory still in its building stage: Siemens is hiring the team that will buy equipment, recruit employees, develop suppliers and prepare production lines.

The company is also offering a paid operations-leadership internship in Pendergrass. The position pays $25 to $32 an hour and is intended for undergraduate students interested in manufacturing, engineering, logistics, quality control or supply-chain management.

The full hiring wave has not started

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported Aug. 7 that the Pendergrass project was expected to create 1,400 jobs. Siemens now says the factory will support approximately 1,700 employees.

The company has not explained the difference. It remains unclear whether the larger figure reflects an expansion of the project, employees transferred from other plants or a revised count covering several stages of production.

What is clear is that Siemens is not advertising 1,700 immediate openings. Its early recruiting remains concentrated in management, engineering, procurement and factory-planning positions.

The company has not announced when large-scale production hiring will begin, what those jobs will pay or how many positions will be available in assembly, maintenance, quality control, warehousing and related work.

Those details will determine how much the factory changes the job market for North Atlanta families. A plant employing 1,700 people would require far more than executives and engineers. Its production processes are likely to create opportunities for technicians, machine operators, maintenance workers, material handlers and front-line supervisors, although Siemens has not released the final breakdown.

Siemens already maintains a significant North Atlanta presence. The company’s Georgia location directory includes offices in Suwanee and Peachtree Corners, as well as several locations in Alpharetta and Norcross.

The Pendergrass factory is different in scale and purpose. Rather than another suburban office, it would establish a major manufacturing center farther up the same interstate corridor.

What prospective workers can do now

Job seekers can visit the Siemens careers portal and search for “Pendergrass.” Openings may change as the plant moves through construction, preparation and production.

Workers interested in future technical positions can also explore training before the main hiring period begins. Gwinnett Technical College offers programs in mechatronics and automated manufacturing. Lanier Technical College’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center provides instruction in automation, industrial maintenance, electrical systems, robotics and process improvement.

Neither college has announced a training partnership specifically tied to the Siemens factory.

For now, the most important sign is that hiring has started at all. The management team is being assembled first. The larger test for local workers will come when Siemens begins filling the production floor.