Dublin delivers on big bet on talent for Atlanta-headquartered fintech.
One of America’s biggest fintech players, Equifax, is to establish 150 new jobs at its Dublin IT centre, just a year after opening the facility.
The IT development centre creates new and advanced solutions for its global customers, and the new jobs will mostly be filled by software engineers, business analysts and other IT specialists.
‘Ireland today is a globally recognised tech hub, and we are building a diverse, highly skilled team who are at the forefront of excellence in innovation’
– MARK ROHRWASSER
“We said last year that we were betting on Dublin to deliver the talent we need, and that bet has paid off significantly,” said Paul O’Dwyer, IT development centre leader.
“It has been a whirlwind year of rapid growth, and we are now going back into the recruitment market with a further 150 vacancies to fill as part of our continued investment in Ireland.”
The company specialises in providing bespoke solutions for clients operating in the consumer credit and business sectors in 24 countries across the world.
European tech hub
Equifax was founded 118 years ago in 1899 as the Retail Credit Company.
It hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in September when it emerged that the company had been the victim of a major cybersecurity breach between May and July 2017.
It is understood that as many as 143m customers were exposed in the breach. The fallout led to the resignation of two major Equifax executives, its former CEO and CIO, on 14 September.
Establishing a major IT hub in Dublin is likely to be part of Equifax putting its affairs in order and strengthening its IT leadership.
“Ireland today is a globally recognised tech hub, and we are building a diverse, highly skilled team who are at the forefront of excellence in innovation,” said Mark Rohrwasser, interim chief information officer at Equifax.
Welcoming the announcement, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen, TD, added: “This expansion project by Equifax, bringing an additional 150 high-quality jobs to Dublin, is a great vote of confidence by the company in what Ireland has to offer.
“We are very pleased that their existing operation has made great achievements in such a short space of time. The availability of highly skilled staff for Equifax’s innovative IT development centre has been key to their ongoing success in Ireland, and I am confident that this will continue to be the case,” Breen said.
Equifax has a goal of filling all positions over the next 12 months at the Equifax office on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.
IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said that the decision to expand in Dublin bolsters the city’s reputation as a tech hub within Europe. “This expansion also demonstrates that Ireland has both the necessary business infrastructure and talent pool to continue to attract global services companies here.”
