Microsoft reveals 200 new roles, half of which will be in engineering and areas such as AI.

Software giant Microsoft is to create 200 new jobs at its campus at One Microsoft Place in Sandyford.

Once this new wave of recruitment is complete, it will bring the total numbers employed by the company in Ireland to 2,200. The expansion follows the announcement of 600 jobs last year.

‘Microsoft engineers in Dublin are developing exciting innovations that have global impact’

– CATHRIONA HALLAHAN

Approximately 100 of the new roles will be in Microsoft’s engineering team, which will be working on cutting-edge developments such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Some of the new engineering team members will join the global centre of excellence for site reliability engineering, which is based at One Microsoft Place, with responsibility for developing and improving the performance and reliability of the company’s cloud infrastructure and services globally.

Microsoft is making its own digital transformation

In addition to the 100 engineering roles, the company is also recruiting 50 people to support the continued growth of its 700-strong EMEA digital sales organisation, with vacancies for technology solutions specialists, solutions sales specialists and account executives, who will join the growing team of digital sellers.

An additional 50 roles are available across a range of areas in the company, including data centre, the sales subsidiary, and positions on the company’s graduate and intern programme.

“The broad-based expansion of Microsoft in Ireland reflects the dynamism, energy and continued transformation of our team in Dublin,” said Microsoft managing director Cathriona Hallahan.

“The team here is working with businesses, governments, organisations and people across the globe to help make our vision a reality, helping them to do and achieve more. Microsoft is developing and deploying solutions fuelled by new technologies that are helping to support opportunities and solve challenges for our customers.

“Our engineering team is at the centre of this work. From the creation of new cloud services that enable flexible working for employees and the adoption of machine learning to automated translation, to the harnessing of data to provide personalised products, Microsoft engineers in Dublin are developing exciting innovations that have global impact.

“With the expansion of our engineering team together with the additional roles in other divisions of the business, including EMEA digital sales and data centre, our new operations in Dublin will play an increasingly important role within the company globally,” Hallahan said.

The software giant first came to Ireland in 1985 initially to manufacture software. Since then, its Irish operations have grown to foster a variety of important roles from software development to data management.

Earlier this year, Microsoft opened the doors to its 2,000-strong €134m campus, One Microsoft Place, in Dublin. The building is home to 2,000 employees with 71 different nationalities. It also houses the new €5m DreamSpace innovation and education hub, envisioned to equip 100,000 schoolkids and their teachers with vital digital skills.

The latest news was welcomed by IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan. “This is another substantial expansion by Microsoft which is greatly welcome. It is a further strong endorsement of its commitment to Ireland and is clear evidence that Ireland meets the criteria for innovative, global companies like Microsoft to successfully operate here, including sourcing the highly skilled staff they need.

“I am particularly delighted with the strategic element of this expansion of the company’s engineering team, designed to help drive its AI and machine learning offering to its customers globally.”