Pacific Life’s expansion into Lynchburg is on schedule.

The company, projected to add 300 jobs to the region, has hired 79 people so far and is on track to employ 120 by the end of the year.

“We’re tracking to our project schedule to be ready to do business by the end of this year,” said Michael Shadler, the company’s Vice President of Lynchburg Operations. “We’ve got an extremely positive response in the community.”

The company will continue to hire in phases, reaching full employment of 300 by early 2018.

Pacific Life is hiring for positions including customer-service representatives, IT professionals, administrative assistants and insurance underwriters. The average salary for employees is approximately $51,000 a year, according to Shadler.

In June, Pacific Life completed its purchase of Genworth Financial’sdowntown Lynchburg building and its new term life insurance business.

While Pacific Life is investing $4 million dollars into the expansion, it also received $500,000 in grant money from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, a state business-incentives program.

The company also has received federal funding through the On the Job Training Program. Facilitated through the Region 2000 Workforce Development Center, the program provides money for workers who have been impacted by layoffs in the region and have been out of the workforce.

If an employee qualifies for the program, Pacific Life receives anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 per person to provide job training. According to Ben Bowman, Region 2000 Workforce Development Director, the program has budgeted approximately $100,000 to help train employees.

“Genworth just laid off 200 people, but Pacific Life coming in lets us make lemonade out of lemons,” Bowman said, referring to Henrico County-based Genworth Financial’s February round of Virginia layoffs that included 200 job cuts in Lynchburg. “It’s a blessing for the community that we have this kind of a quick turnaround making some good things happen.”

The company also has begun community involvement initiatives, such as sponsoring the Get Downtown festival and becoming a part of the annual United Way of Central Virginia campaign, which encourages employees to give donations to the charity.

“We’re not only located downtown, but we’re giving back to the community as well,” Shadler said.

Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Life has been selling insurance since 1868 and specializes in annuities, investment products and mutual funds, but is expanding into the mass market insurance business.

The company is ranked first in indexed universal life insurance sales and 7th in total life insurance sales, according to the 2015 Confidential Annual Sales Survey of Participating Companies. It is ranked 387th on the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. companies.