Cyber security firm will establish office in Shawnee

RiskIQ, a San Francisco-based cyber security firm, is getting an $80,000 incentive loan from the city of Shawnee to pull 11 current home-based telecommuters from around the metro area into a new office in Shawnee.

The company also pledges to add 15 more jobs in Shawnee by the end of 2016.

The Shawnee City Council has approved the forgiveable loan under the Shawnee Entrepreneurial and Economic Development program.

Andrew Nave, at the Shawnee Economic Development Council, said this was the seventh SEED loan granted under the 2-year-old program, which is used to encourage companies to locate or expand in the city and help fill vacant office or industrial space.

The six previous SEED grant recipients are Mile Hi Foods, Source Inc., Wesco International Inc., Westmor Industries, General Automatic Sprinkler Fire Protection, and Clarence M. Kelley and Associates.

The total projected number of jobs gained in Shawnee through the SEED program was expected to be 239.

City spokesman Dan Ferguson said that the two agreements for which there are measurable results so far — the Source and Kelley organizations — have exceeded projections.

In documents filed with the city, RiskIQ said its initial Shawnee jobs have an average salary of $197,000 a year, and jobs to be added in the coming year are expected to have a salary average of $138,000.

The high-paying jobs are described as cloud-based software specialties focused on security platforms to help organizations detect phishing, fraud, malware and other online and mobile-app security threats.

People interested in the RiskIQ jobs may go to riskiq.com/careers or email kc-jobs@riskiq.net.

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Cyber security firm will establish office in Shawnee."