One of N.J.’s startup success stories, Synchronoss Technologies, the Bridgewater-based provider of transaction management, cloud enablement and mobility management for devices like smartphones and tablets, has elected to stay in N.J.

The company, which employs 1000 people worldwide, expanded its corporate headquarters and is looking for more employees in the Garden State.

In a recent interview, Stephen Waldis, CEO, told NJTechWeekly.com the publicly traded company had moved to an 88,000-square-foot space vacated by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Aventis in the Bridgewater Crossing office park.

The company’s expansion will enable it to build its workforce here. While Synchronoss is looking for the typical headquarters help—sales, marketing, project management and back-office teams—the firm will be expanding an engineering group it established in its former building and is hiring software engineers with mobile apps and cloud experience.

“Typically our engineering is done out of our Pa. location and offshore,” Waldis said, “but we ended up bringing in a team for senior engineering positions. They have fared very well. In our new building we have significantly increased space, and in one area we are going to have more engineers.”

At least a dozen states courted Synchronoss to move its headquarters, Waldis said, including Virginia, which made a very competitive push. Waldis pointed out that jobs at Synchronoss headquarters are typically high-paying, and “a lot of states would love to have those jobs.” In the past five years the company has grown its employee base over 500 percent, he added. “I think we are a really solid private-sector growth story.”

However, while other states offered “very compelling incentives,” Waldis said, he wanted to stay in N.J. “I was born in South Jersey and went to school in North Jersey, so I’m a Jersey guy, and I founded the company here. Certainly there were other states that offered equal or slightly more compelling financial opportunities,” but a team looked at the long-term picture and both the current employee base and the one the company needed going forward, and it decided to stay in N.J.

“Obviously N.J. has a lot of good telecommunications and technology talent, which is a good match for our company … We also didn’t want to disrupt the current group of employees who were here,” Waldis explained. He said the company had received no special incentives from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) or the state to remain in N.J.

Encouraged by steps N.J. has taken to bring its budget under control, Waldis is “hopeful the state will continue to make sure our business environment remains competitive.” He would like to see many more incentives regarding R & D. “One of the biggest things Synchronoss brings to the table is our technology R & D. We spend 18 percent of sales on it, and I think that’s a competitive advantage not only in N.J. but in the world … Our software sits on millions of devices, and we are doing leading-edge work,” he noted.

He added, “I would hope N.J. would be a little more competitive with its research grants and opportunities, similarly to what is being offered by some other East Coast states and Calif.,” which he says is very pro-technology on the R & D side. Synchronoss does have a small office in Calif., an R & D center in Pa. and offices in Wash., Ireland, Germany and India.

The company has outfitted its new headquarters with a state-of-the-art customer presentation facility. Finishing touches are now being put on the building. Conference rooms are being wired with the latest technology, Smart Boards and interactive displays, VP of marketing Stacie Hiras said.