Porto Alegreruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Technology & innovation
Dell, SAP, HP, Thoughtworks, and the tenants of Tecnopuc and Tecnosinos
Porto Alegre has more than thirty years of IT industry behind it and two of Brazil's most established technology parks — Tecnopuc at PUCRS in the city and Tecnosinos at Unisinos in São Leopoldo. The senior engineering market here is deeper and older than in most Brazilian capitals outside the São Paulo axis.
Steel, industry & manufacturing
Gerdau, Randon, Marcopolo, John Deere, AGCO
Gerdau, one of the largest steel groups in the Americas, has its roots and much of its corporate presence in Rio Grande do Sul, and the state's industrial belt north of the capital builds buses, trailers and agricultural machinery for the whole continent.
Health & hospitals
Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Santa Casa, Hospital Mãe de Deus
The city's hospital cluster is one of the strongest in Brazil, with the federal university hospital and Moinhos de Vento both nationally regarded, and it anchors a large clinical, research and health-technology sector.
Agribusiness & Mercosur trade
Grain, soy, rice and leather traders; the Port of Rio Grande's operators
Rio Grande do Sul is a major agricultural exporter, and Porto Alegre holds the trading, financing and logistics functions for it. The state's road borders with Uruguay and Argentina make it Brazil's principal land gateway into the rest of Mercosur.
Retail, media & services
Lojas Renner, Grupo Zaffari, Grupo RBS
Several national retail and media groups were founded here and still run substantial head-office operations from the city, which is why the professional services market is bigger than the metropolitan population would suggest.
Universities & public administration
UFRGS, PUCRS, Government of Rio Grande do Sul, TJRS
UFRGS is among Brazil's leading research universities and, with PUCRS, supplies the pipeline the technology parks were built on. Note that Brazilian nationality is a statutory requirement for the civil service, with a narrow exception for teaching and research posts at federal universities and research institutes.
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