First Data, a Fortune 500 payments processor, is creating about 350 finance and clerical jobs in Atlanta.

The jobs are headed to Cobb County over the next 18 months as First Data continues to consolidate its operations in metro Atlanta.

First Data moved its corporate headquarters from Denver to Atlanta last year, saying it expected to create about 1,000 jobs in the area, a number that includes the 350 TASQ positions.

First Data’s headquarters is in the Perimeter Center area.

First Data said Thursday that its TASQ Technology subsidiary, which resells point of sale equipment such as credit card readers, will close two offices near Sacramento, Calif. and will move the jobs to Marietta.

First Data is one of many companies making the decision to move their headquarters to Atlanta in recent years.

According to AJC.com, Atlanta has been regularly poaching Midwestern companies for over a decade now.

First up was NCR, the famed, 125-year-old cash register company that moved its headquarters from Dayton, Ohio, to Duluth last June.

Then came Fischbein, which announced in July that Suwanee, not Cleveland, would be the site for a new production line.

Finally, earlier this month, aluminum can maker Novelis quit Cleveland and moved its North American headquarters to Buckhead.

But Atlanta officials insist that they are not targeting Ohio specifically.

“We don’t have a ‘Target Ohio’ strategy,” said Hans Gant, a top Chamber recruiter. “And we’ don’t really say to the Rust Belt: ‘Come to the New South.’ We always target companies that have essentially out-grown their current locations. As companies become global players their needs change dramatically.”

TASQ has leased a 266,000 square foot building on Canton Road, just off I-75, First Data said.

In making the move, TASQ qualifies for $6 million in job tax credits from the state of Georgia, said Alison Tyrer, director of communications for the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Some of the California employees are expected to relocate to Marietta, but many of the positions will be filled locally, said Chip Swearngan, a First Data spokesman. Positions include project managers, business analysts, distribution clerks and relationship managers, he said.

In addition, TASQ’s office in Kennesaw will move to the Marietta site, Swearngan said.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 6:56 pm and is filed under jobs, Finance, Administrative. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.