Digital transformation firm Alchemy Technology Services will establish a European centre of excellence in Derry and take on 256 new recruits.
Alchemy Technology Services has today (10 September) revealed that it is to set up a new European centre of excellence in City Factory in Derry.
It will provide software implementation and technology consultancy to the UK and European insurance sector. It will also provide certified and well-trained staff to companies operating in the insurance industry so as to help them roll out the most cutting-edge digital solutions.
To meet the demand for its services, Alchemy will recruit 256 staff in the north-west over the next three years.
“The Alchemy management team has extensive knowledge of the insurance sector and in delivering transformation projects,” said Alastair Hamilton, CEO of Invest Northern Ireland (NI). “[It has] identified a gap in the market to provide a service to the insurance industry and believes Derry is the right place to find the talent to meet this need.”
These new roles will be in the areas of software implementation and technology consultancy. The majority of the roles will be customer-facing, and Hamilton stated that new recruits would have the opportunity to work on projects “right across Europe”.
Salaries for these roles will be in the mid-£20k range. Once fully implemented, this investment from Alchemy will generate more than £6.5m in annual salaries for the NI economy. The NI government has in total offered more than £2.3m worth of funding to support the project, Invest NI has offered £1.536m towards the creation of the roles, while the NI department of the economy has provided £800,000 worth of ‘Assured Skills’ funding.
John Harkin, director and founder of Alchemy, said: “Insurance companies in the UK and across Europe are making an unprecedented investment in the digital transformation of their core systems and processes to respond to the changing demands within their marketplace. There is a real shortage of specialist skills to respond to this upsurge in digital transformation projects across the insurance industry. We plan to help meet that demand by bringing new talent into the industry.”
He added: “I am originally from Derry, and have made frequent visits here in recent months as we assessed different locations for this investment. I have met with the colleges and university, and numerous students, and have been impressed. I am confident that this is the right place to set up our business and find the talent we need.”
