With a groundbreaking Friday, Amgen takes a concrete step towards a promise to create hundreds of jobs in Holly Springs.

The $1.02 billion investment is an expansion of the biopharma company’s manufacturing capacity expected to create 370 jobs at a average salary of $91,000 per year.

Amgen — which makes medicines that treat cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and inflammatory diseases among others — plans to establish a second drug-substance manufacturing facility on its existing Holly Springs campus, helping the company meet long-term growth projections.

While construction on the plant expansion kicks off Friday, the jobs won’t begin to be available until about 2028, the company has told the state Commerce Department’s Economic Investment Committee.

Needed are engineers, technicians, quality control analysts and supply chain managers at a minimum average wage of $91,527, officials said. That’s about 22% above the average annual wage for private sector jobs in Wake County, according to state data. The company also considered a site in Lebanon, Indiana, before settling on Holly Springs, according to state records.

Amgen broke ground on its first Holly Springs plant — on the northwest side of Holly Springs, south of U.S. 1 — in 2022. Operations in that plant are expected to begin next year, and the facility could employ about 355 workers by the end of 2029.  

The expansion brings an additional 370 jobs, for a total of 725 over the next eight years, the company estimates.

A dozen students at Wake Technical Community College are already training for the jobs in a collaborative apprentice program.