????最近幾周的招聘信息顯示，中國領先的民用無人機制造商，深圳市大疆創(chuàng)新科技有限公司正在位于美國加州硅谷的帕洛阿爾托市建立一座新的研發(fā)中心，可容納的工程師數(shù)量在75名以上。

????中心占地面積約1110平方米，坐落在當?shù)厮固垢４髮W以東的波蒂奇大街上。目前已有三名工程師在這里工作，其中包括負責系統(tǒng)和應用工程的副總裁達倫·里卡多。里卡多的領英個人網(wǎng)頁顯示，他今年8月份加入大疆創(chuàng)新，此前是特斯拉汽車自動駕駛團隊的組建者和負責人。

????大疆創(chuàng)新的總部設在深圳，這個硅谷研發(fā)中心是其為利用美國的工程人才資源邁出的第一步。據(jù)公司發(fā)言人邁克爾·佩里介紹，大疆目前在美國有大約100名員工，但到目前為止，他們的主要工作一直是客戶支持、營銷和商業(yè)開發(fā)。大疆的工程團隊目前設在中國，與其硬件廠商的聯(lián)系很緊密。

????佩里拒絕對上述研發(fā)中心發(fā)表評論，但他說：“硅谷匯聚了最頂尖的人才。這對我們來說真的很重要。我們的招聘工作一直面向國際。”

????大疆有九年歷史，美國是它最大的市場。今年5月份，設在帕洛阿爾托市的風投公司Accel Partners為大疆提供了7500萬美元資金，以助其全球擴張。大疆生產(chǎn)的白色“幻影”四旋翼無人機已成為這個行業(yè)的標志，從動畫片《南方公園》到無人機在繁華街市（甚至是白宮草坪上）著陸的新聞報道，“幻影”可謂無處不在。

????2013年底前，大疆的北美核心團隊一直設在德州奧斯汀市，其中有營銷人員、無人機駕駛員和攝影專家。但當年12月，該公司突然解雇了20名成員，包括北美業(yè)務首席執(zhí)行官和少數(shù)股東科林·吉恩。隨后，吉恩請求法院頒布禁令，不準大疆在北美收購資產(chǎn)或經(jīng)銷產(chǎn)品。雙方在七個月后和解。

????2014年2月，大疆在美國設立了第二個辦事處，啟動了設在洛杉磯的負責客戶支持以及跟好萊塢方面接洽的中心。2014年晚些時候，大疆在加州圣馬特奧市的辦事處開業(yè)，主要工作是客戶支持和攝影師事務。

????在帕洛阿爾托市新建的研發(fā)中心有助于大疆利用硅谷在計算機視覺和軟件方面的資源，與深圳的硬件開發(fā)團隊相輔相成。目前大疆正在招聘的人員需要具備視頻流和存儲、嵌入式軟件和計算機模擬等方面的技能。

????佩里指出，進駐舊金山灣區(qū)后，大疆還可以跟開發(fā)者密切協(xié)作，后者可以幫助大疆建立應用軟件生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，并為無人機找到新的使用案例。

????在無人機行業(yè)，軟件方面的競爭日趨激烈，軟件功能也越發(fā)智能化，比如躲避障礙、自主飛行和精密的攝影控制。大疆的競爭對手3D Robotics和Parrot都已在灣區(qū)設點。商業(yè)無人機初創(chuàng)企業(yè)Airware、Skycatch、Matternet和DroneDeploy也都在這個地區(qū)爭奪人才。

????大疆航拍攝影總監(jiān)Eric Cheng10月份剛剛辭職，此前他一直是該公司在北美的形象代表。Eric說，大疆的中國團隊在工作中有一種強烈的緊迫感。對最佳公司這個寶座以及最佳員工的爭奪很激烈。盡管這種緊迫感有時造成大疆在技術(shù)或市場尚未完全成熟之際就推出了產(chǎn)品，但他相信，這股動力讓大疆比美國競爭對手高出一籌。Eric介紹說，在大疆，一款產(chǎn)品從研究到生產(chǎn)用時不足六個月的情況并不少見。

????他指出：“制造原型機和生產(chǎn)之間沒有任何延誤。采購零部件的工作也沒有耽擱。如果大疆能想辦法利用硅谷的優(yōu)勢，將其和深圳方面特別擅長的快速開發(fā)管道整合到一起，這家公司就會更上一層樓。”

????大疆投入資源的另一項工作是在美國創(chuàng)造友好的法律環(huán)境。美國政府正在考慮對無人機愛好者加強管理，無人機的普遍商用可能還要好幾年才能合法化。今年1月份，大疆聘請了喬恩·雷斯尼克，他常駐華盛頓并負責美國政策事務；7月份，駐紐約的政策和法律事務副總裁布倫丹·舒爾曼走馬上任。

????這些措施看來起了作用。截至今年8月份，在美國聯(lián)邦航空管理局解禁的無人機使用案例中，71%的案例都和大疆的無人機有關。舒爾曼現(xiàn)在是美國聯(lián)邦航空管理局無人飛機系統(tǒng)注冊工作組的成員。

????Cheng說：“大疆可能是第一個真正被消費者視為全球性公司的中國企業(yè)。”

????譯者：Charlie

????校對：詹妮

????DJI, the leading manufacturer of consumer drones, is building a new research and development center in Palo Alto, Calif., that could hold 75 or more engineers, according to several job listings posted in recent weeks.

????The center, housed in a 12,000-sq.-ft. building located east of Stanford University on Portage Avenue, is already home to three engineers, including vice president of systems and applications engineering Darren Liccardo. Before joining DJI in August, Liccardo built and led the autopilot team for Tesla Motors TSLA -0.92% , according to his LinkedIn page.

????The center marks the Shenzhen, China-based company’s first major effort to take advantage of American engineering talent. DJI currently has around 100 employees in the U.S., according to DJI spokesperson Michael Perry, but up until now they have mostly focused on customer support, marketing and business development. DJI’s current engineering teams are based in China, where the company has deep ties to hardware manufacturers.

????“Silicon Valley attracts the best possible talent to one spot. That’s really important to us,” Perry says, though he declines to comment on the R&D center. “We’ve always had an international approach to hiring.”

????The U.S. is the largest market for the nine-year-old company, which received $75 million in funding in May from Palo Alto-based Accel Partners to help it expand globally. Its white Phantom quad-copters have become a symbol for the industry, appearing everywhere from an episode of South Park to news reports describing downed drones on busy city streets (and even the lawn of the White House).

????Until late 2013, DJI had a core North American staff of marketers, pilots, and cinematography experts based in Austin, Texas. But in December 2013 it suddenly fired 20 employees, including North American CEO and minority shareholder Colin Guinn, who subsequently filed an injunction challenging the company’s takeover of North American assets and rights to distribute on the continent. They settled seven months later.

????DJI next opened a U.S. office in February 2014, when it unveiled a customer support and Hollywood-relations center in Los Angeles. A San Mateo office focused on customer support and photographers followed later that year.

????The new Palo Alto R&D center will help DJI tap into Silicon Valley’s strength in computer vision and software, complementing Shenzhen’s expertise in hardware development. Current job listings call for skills in areas such as video streaming and storage, embedded software, and computer simulation.

????A presence in the San Francisco Bay Area also allows DJI to work closely with developers, who can help it build up an ecosystem of software applications and new use cases, Perry says.

????Software is an increasingly competitive space in the drone industry, which is trending toward smart features like obstacle avoidance, autonomous flight and sophisticated cinematography controls. DJI competitors 3D Robotics and Parrot already have Bay Area offices. Commercial drone startups Airware, Skycatch, Matternet, and DroneDeploy also compete for talent in the area.

????Eric Cheng, who was the face of DJI in the U.S. until he resigned from his post as director of aerial imaging this month, says DJI’s Chinese teams work under a sense of great urgency. Competition to be the best company—and the best employee—is fierce. It’s a drive that he believes has given DJI an edge over its American competitors, though it sometimes leads it to release products before the technology or market is fully mature. He says it isn’t unusual to see a DJI product go from research to production in six months.

????“There’s no delay between prototyping and manufacturing. There’s also no delay in sourcing components,” Cheng says. “If DJI can figure out a way to harness what Silicon Valley is good at and to integrate it into the rapid development pipeline that they’re really good at in Shenzhen … it will be the next level for the company.”

????DJI is also pouring resources into developing a friendly legal climate in the United States, which is considering stricter rules for drone hobbyists and potentially years away from legalizing widespread commercial use. It hired Washington, D.C.-based policy lead Jon Resnick in January and vice president of policy and legal affairs Brendan Schulman, who is based in New York, in July.

????It appears to be working: As of August, 71% of the commercial drone use cases exempted from the ban by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration involved DJI drones. And Schulman now sits on the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force.

????“DJI is probably the first real example of a Chinese company that is seen mostly as a global company by consumers,” Cheng said.