Three men and a woman in business attire stand in a line. The woman holds a tablet that shows the number 550 in blue writing.
From left: Michael Lohan, IDA; Taoiseach Simon Harris, TD; Tara Roth and James O’Connor, Microsoft. Image: Naoise Culhane

Microsoft to create 550 Irish-based jobs in R&D investment

1 Nov 2024

The jobs will be in areas such as software engineering, applied sciences, data science, design, technical writing and analytics.

Tech giant Microsoft is making a major investment to boost AI development in Ireland, creating hundreds of jobs in the process.

The 550 new Irish-based roles will be created over the next three to four years and will help to pioneer the development of new AI technologies.

The jobs will be in areas such as software engineering, applied sciences, product management, programme management, data science, design, technical writing and analytics.

More than 100 of these new roles are available to apply for from today (1 November) in software engineering, applied sciences, security research, product management and programme management.

The investment and new roles are supported by IDA Ireland and will aim to drive new applications for AI across multiple industries and create new AI-enabled product offerings for Microsoft.

The new roles will bring Microsoft’s Ireland-based workforce to more than 6,000 people across its campus in Leopardstown, its data centre campus in Grange Castle and LinkedIn.

Taoiseach Simon Harris, TD, said today’s announcement highlights Ireland’s attractiveness for investment and boosts the country’s AI ecosystem.

“Fostering AI skills and advancing capabilities in the field are core to the Government’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and this project will help develop new specialist skills and expertise, thereby positioning Ireland for further investment in this critical area,” he said.

James O’Connor, Microsoft Ireland’s site leader and corporate vice-president of Microsoft Global Operations Service Centre said Ireland is “an established hotbed of engineering and cybersecurity talent” and that this was a significant contributing factor in Microsoft’s continued investment in the country.

“Through this investment, we are building on our almost 40-year presence in Ireland, which has been characterised by continuous investment, transformation and the diversification of our operations from a manufacturing site to a significant international hub for Microsoft providing software development, engineering, data centres, finance, operations and sales and marketing for EMEA,” he said.

“The creation of 550 new roles enables us to further strengthen our presence here in Ireland and take AI and cybersecurity innovation to the next level.”

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Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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