ViVOtech will hire 12 new engineers this year, and eight sales and marketing employees, CEO Mick Mullagh said.
ViVOtech produces near-field communications technology (NFC), which companies like Google and Apple could use to turn smartphones into credit cards, allowing users to wave their phone to make a purchase.
ViVOtech anticipates going public or being bought out by a larger company by the time it becomes profitable in 2012.
Over the next five years, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company plans to annually double its 90 person staff. It looks for engineers with experience in Java, Web logic, mobile technologies like Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7, and in C++.
Front-line engineers, Mullagh said, earn upwards of $125,000. All employees receive full benefits and stock.
"We need people with enterprise and device software backgrounds," Mullagh said.
It's an exciting time to work at ViVOtech, Mullagh said, as the stars have finally aligned around making mobile payments a reality. The company launched its first NFC reader in 2005, but, according to Mullagh, getting all of the players -- Mobile phone carriers, credit card companies, merchants and smartphone operating system makers -- to embrace it hasn't happened until now.
"We've been talking about this vision for many years, believing it was just around the corner," Mullagh said. "It's now here."
Mullagh sees mobile payment systems as only the first use of NFC. Eventually, retailers will be able to send personalized purchase offers to consumers when they are inside a store or nearby.
Write to Joseph Walker
