WATERLOO - TD Bank Group is creating 120 jobs in Waterloo with the opening of a technology innovation centre.

The office, at 55 Columbia St. E., is already up and running, with a few employees on-site since mid-September.

Those numbers are expected to swell dramatically over the next year as the bank draws on local talent, said Jeff Martin, TD's senior vice-president and chief information officer of direct channels.

"We recognize that there's a lot of innovation talent in the area," he said. "We need to be where they are. They're not going to come to us."

Proximity to the region's universities was a factor in opening the facility in Waterloo, Martin said.

Employees at the local office will take on information technology and software engineering roles. The centre will also look at attracting data scientists in the future.

"We're really continuing to expand, especially in the digital space," Martin said.

The new centre builds upon an innovation lab launched last year by the bank in the Communitech Hub in downtown Kitchener.

The "small and nimble" TD Lab takes a startup approach to developing improved customer experiences through technology, essentially taking ideas and incubating them into proof of concept, Martin said.

The new technology centre will help build those concepts into products that TD's customers can use on a daily basis, he said.

The partnership with Communitech will continue.

"It definitely keeps going as is, and we really value our partnership with Communitech," he said. "They've been great with helping us get engaged in the region."

The lab "led us to see the bigger opportunity to tap into the talent in Waterloo Region," Martin added.

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The bank says the office is an example of how it embraces and fosters innovation.

A program in which employees are encouraged to think differently about customer needs has generated nearly 10,000 ideas.

"Technology and technology innovations are important to our customers. It just makes banking more comfortable," Martin said.

"You need to have that talent to really build the bank of the future."