Atlanta & Local Affairs
Duracell has opened a $56 million global research and development center at Science Square Labs in Atlanta, a facility the company says is expected to create 120 jobs.
The 83,000-square-foot Global Innovation Center, at 101 Nerem Street NW next to Georgia Tech in West Midtown, is meant to anchor Duracell’s worldwide battery-technology innovation network. The company said the building brings scientists, engineers and cross-functional teams under one roof to speed up battery development.
For Atlanta’s job market, the project stands out because the positions center on research, engineering and product development rather than distribution or manufacturing. Duracell already runs a manufacturing plant in LaGrange and a distribution center in Fairburn, and the company describes the new center as linking those sites into a single Georgia network spanning research, production and logistics.
The location also ties the jobs to the city’s university research base. Duracell Chief Technology Officer Liben Hailu said the site lets the company draw on a “rich pipeline of diverse talent” from Georgia Tech and nearby research institutions.
The opening completes a project Gov. Brian Kemp first announced in February 2025, when the state said Duracell would invest about $56 million and create 110 jobs at what it then called the company’s new global R&D headquarters. The company’s job estimate now stands at 120. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens joined state, city, Georgia Tech and Duracell leaders at a ribbon-cutting on Oct. 6.
Duracell has not published a role-by-role hiring schedule for the 120 positions. For workers in engineering, battery science and related technical fields, the center adds a corporate research employer to the Science Square innovation district on the western edge of Midtown.
Sources
- Duracell press release on the Atlanta Global Innovation Center opening (Business Wire, via Yahoo Finance), October 6, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/duracell-opens-56-million-global-204700483.html
- Duracell press release on the Atlanta Global Innovation Center opening (Business Wire, via Stock Titan), October 6, 2026. https://www.stocktitan.net/news/BRK/duracell-opens-new-56-million-global-innovation-center-for-research-vucqlhv2jlmt.html
- Georgia Department of Economic Development, Duracell R&D headquarters announcement, 2025. https://georgia.org/press-releases/2025/duracell-selects-georgia-new-rd-headquarters
- Metro Atlanta CEO, report on the Duracell R&D headquarters ribbon-cutting, October 2026. https://metroatlantaceo.com/features/2026/10/duracell-officially-opens-new-atlanta-based-global-rd-headquarters-ribbon-cutting-ceremony-attended-mayor-andre-dickens/
Featured photo: A Duracell battery factory in Cleveland, Tennessee. Representative image of the company; not the Atlanta research and development center. Photo: Harrison Keely, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Cropped from the original.
