350 new jobs have been announced by Irish software company Intercom, which has developed a platform for businesses to interact with their customers.

150 of the roles will be at Intercom's Dublin office, with the rest spread across its San Francisco headquarters and its London operation.

The positions will be across a wide range of specialities and will be filled over the next 18 months.

"We are looking for engineers at all level, from intern to graduate, all the way up to director level positions," said Des Traynor, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom.

"We are looking for people who are experienced in designing software, we are looking for people who have managed products before, we are looking for people who have done good user research or product research, people who are familiar with analytics.

"All these areas are open," he stated.

Currently the company employs over 450 people, with more than 220 of those based in Dublin.

The main focus of the Dublin operation is the product team, and it will double over the next year, with 100 extra engineers to be hired in the capital.

Mr Traynor said Intercom is confident that it will be able to find the necessary talent, although he did express concern about the difficulties the housing shortage is having on attracting people into the country.

The company said it is expanding so that it can widen its product suite.

"Our biggest successes have always come from building great software," Mr Traynor said.

"And to achieve the targets you want to achieve, to have the impact you want to have, you have to build software that powers all customer conversations."

"Our mission is to make internet business personal. The biggest next steps for us are more products, are better products," he added.

Intercom was founded in Dublin in 2011 by Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee and David Barrett.

It has since grown rapidly, raising $116m in a series of fundraising rounds, but its management said it will not need to secure more investment to fund the latest expansion.

The firm now as 25,000 customers, who have 500 million conversations with their customers each month.

Among its bigger customers are Microsoft, Spotify and Shopify but the bulk are small startups.

The company has grown its annual recurring revenue to $50m over the three years from 2013 to 2016, which it claims makes it one of the fastest growing companies in tech.

As well as the offices in San Francisco, Dublin and London Intercom also has operations in Chicago and Sydney.

The company is thought to be approaching a valuation of €1 billion.

However, Mr Traynor said it is not considering a stock market flotation or selling the business to another suitor.

"There are genuinely no signs," Mr Traynor said.

"And it is no something at exec level we focus on. Our mission is very clearly stated. We want all businesses, all people on the internet, we want to power all the conversations. That's what we are excited about, that's what we come to work for," he added.