SolarCity is starting to build its Buffalo workforce. The solar energy systems installer, which is building a Buffalo factory that ultimately is expected to employ 1,460 people once it’s running at full capacity in 2017, has hired its first three local employees as it builds the system to hire a local workforce.

 

By the end of the year, SolarCity plans to have about 200 local workers hired, mostly for mid- to upper-level managers and engineers.

 

“A lot of that is what I would consider the engineering and mid-level management – the architects and specialists,” said Chris Beitel, the SolarCity executive who is overseeing the construction of the Buffalo factory.

 

Hiring for the plant’s production workers is likely to begin late this year, although SolarCity plans to add employees gradually as it outfits the new factory, works out the kinks in production and steadily builds its capacity, Beitel said in an interview at SolarCity’s headquarters in San Mateo, Calif.