Irvineruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Semiconductors, hardware & consumer tech
Broadcom (headquartered here), Skyworks Solutions, Vizio, Western Digital, Panasonic Avionics (headquartered here), Karma Automotive, Rivian's Irvine operations
Irvine is the centre of gravity for Orange County's hardware economy, and Broadcom's headquarters here makes it one of the more significant semiconductor addresses in the United States. Panasonic Avionics — the in-flight entertainment business — is also headquartered in the city. These are engineering-heavy employers that recruit internationally and are experienced with employment-based petitions.
Medical devices & life sciences
Edwards Lifesciences (headquartered here), Masimo (headquartered here), Glidewell Dental, Johnson & Johnson MedTech operations, B. Braun, a dense supplier and contract-manufacturing layer
Orange County is one of the largest medical device clusters in the world and Irvine is its middle. Edwards Lifesciences, the heart-valve company, and Masimo, in patient monitoring, are both headquartered here and both are large employers. Regulatory affairs, quality, clinical and manufacturing engineering roles are steady, and the sector is far less cyclical than the tech side of town.
Automotive North American headquarters
Kia America, Mazda North American Operations, Rivian, Karma Automotive, a long tail of design and engineering studios
An unusual concentration: two major Asian carmakers put their US headquarters in Irvine, and the electric-vehicle wave added more. These are sales, marketing, product planning, engineering and design operations rather than plants, which makes them white-collar employers with genuine international mobility.
University & research
University of California, Irvine — including UCI Health and the medical school, Irvine Valley College, Concordia University Irvine
UCI is a major research university and one of the city's largest employers, with a medical centre in nearby Orange and a growing health campus in Irvine itself. It anchors the biotech and device pipeline, brings a very large international student and postdoctoral population, and is the reason the city feels younger than its master-planned architecture suggests.
Games, software & digital
Blizzard Entertainment (headquartered here), Alteryx, Amazon's Irvine offices, Google's Irvine office, a deep games and esports layer around UCI
Irvine has been a games town since the 1990s — Blizzard is headquartered here and a long list of studios and publishers grew up around it, with UCI running one of the earliest collegiate esports programmes in the United States. It is a real cluster with real hiring, and it is the part of the local economy most likely to be remote-friendly.
Distribution, finance & professional services
Ingram Micro (headquartered here), Taco Bell's corporate headquarters, a large accounting, legal and immigration bar, First American Financial nearby
Ingram Micro, one of the world's largest technology distributors, is headquartered in Irvine, and Taco Bell's corporate head office is here too. Around them sits a substantial professional services layer including one of Southern California's larger business-immigration bars — genuinely useful if your move runs through an employment-based petition.
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