FICO CEO Will Lansing plans to hire 50 new employees and expand to a new downtown location in Bozeman within the next 18 months. Image by Rachel Leathe at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Silicon Valley analytics pioneer FICO has quietly been establishing a foothold in Montana's Gallatin Valley, and plans to expand its workforce there in the coming months. At an event October 5 in the company's Bozeman, Montana offices, FICO executives announced plans to hire 50 more people there over the next 18 months.

FICO Chief Executive Officer Will Lansing said that the region's strength as a technical hub, fueled in part by quality education at Montana State University, was behind FICO's decision. "It just makes sense," said Lansing. "We want to hire the best, and the talent pool in this part of Montana has attracted dozens of leading technology firms."

Wayne Huyard, FICO's executive vice president for Sales, Marketing and Services, is a Montana resident and a veteran of RightNow Technologies and Oracle operations in Gallatin Valley. "We've built FICO's global sales and service operations center in Bozeman, which today includes about 20 people," said Huyard, who is based in Bozeman. "Bozeman is a fantastic place to live and work. It combines small-town living with the excitement of a high-tech hub and a strong, diverse pool of smart and experienced people."

Also on hand for the announcement was RightNow Technologies Founder Greg Gianforte, a FICO board member. "We now have over 80 high-tech companies right here in Bozeman," said Gianforte. "I'm thrilled to be a part of this announcement to bring even more high-wage jobs to Bozeman."

FICO is a member of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance, and intends to take an active role in the growth of Bozeman as a technology center, just as they have done in other cities. The company employs around 3,000 people worldwide. The company is a recognized leader in analytic technology, and was named this week as #31 of the Top Technology Providers in financial services by American Banker and BAI. Also this week, the company's chief analytics officer, Dr. Scott Zoldi, was named to the Analytics 50 by Drexel University and CIO.com for his leadership in developing groundbreaking fraud detection analytics.

About FICO FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 165 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

Learn more at http://www.fico.comBozeman co. plans to bring more high-tech jobs to town (KBZK, MTN News)

Credit agency FICO to expand Bozeman office, hire 50 people (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

Fifty new tech jobs come to Bozeman (ABC FOX Montana)

FICO Job Opportunities in Bozeman:

Managed ServicesSales DevelopmentSales Development RepresentativesSolution ConsultantSolution Sales