DUBLIN – July 27, 2020 – (NASDAQ:AMZN) Today, Amazon announced that it is creating another 1,000 permanent jobs in Ireland over the next two years. The new, highly skilled roles will be based in locations across the company’s Cork and Dublin sites in Blanchardstown, Tallaght, the city centre, and north County Dublin, and will bring Amazon’s total permanent workforce in the country to 5,000 people over the next two years. This will help to support Ireland’s economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new employment opportunities will range from software development engineers, network development engineers, systems development engineers, optical deployment engineers, database engineers, Dev Ops engineers, and support engineers, as well as data centre technicians and mechanical and electrical engineers, solutions architects, security specialists, big data specialists, technical and non-technical programme managers, and account managers. In addition, there will be a range of technical management and senior leadership opportunities in both Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
In addition to the new jobs, Amazon is investing in a new 170,000 square foot campus in Charlemont Square. The campus will be home to AWS’s growing cloud computing workforce, and is expected to open in 2022. In September 2020, the first of Amazon’s wind farm projects in Ireland will come online. The Esk wind farm in County Cork will be Amazon’s first operational renewable energy project outside the US, which will deliver clean energy to Ireland’s electric grid. It will also help Amazon to meet its commitment to power its global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025 as part of its goal to reach net zero carbon by 2040
“Amazon has been investing and growing in Ireland for over 15 years, and today, we are reaffirming and increasing that commitment with the creation of these highly skilled roles,” said Mike Beary, AWS Ireland Country Manager. “We have seen a surge in demand for cloud services in Ireland and globally, and we are excited to add 1,000 highly skilled roles so we can continue to help our customers to innovate, especially in this difficult time, and work towards building a robust digital economy for the future.”
“This latest jobs announcement by Amazon and AWS is a further vote of confidence in the skills and talent of Irish people and will provide a welcome boost to our economy. We have a strong and proud record in attracting investment, and today’s announcement further bolsters our reputation as a leading nation in global technology. AWS has played an important role in shaping Ireland’s tech ecosystem, resulting in job creation in communities across the country, and I am confident that it will continue to do so into the future. The government’s mission over the coming months and years is to rebuild our society and economy in the post- COVID world. We need to get people back to work and to protect and create sustainable jobs. This announcement is an important and welcome step in that journey”, said An Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Speaking about the announcement, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar T.D. said: “This significant announcement from Amazon is very welcome news and is a huge vote of confidence in Ireland’s economy and workforce as we recover from the economic crisis caused by COVID. It speaks to our ambition to make Ireland the tech capital of Europe. It demonstrates our ability to continue to attract high quality jobs in growth sectors like digital. The Government will continue to prioritise investment friendly policies and we will work hard to maintain our reputation as a leading destination for global organisations and top tech talent.”
Martin Shanahan, CEO at IDA Ireland added, “Amazon’s phenomenal growth in Ireland is due to its commitment, energy, and creativity in how it does business and we are delighted to support them in their further expansion. These new roles, in addition to the thousands that Amazon has already here are a strong indicator of Ireland’s continued ability to attract quality global investment, despite the significant challenges created by COVID-19.”
To learn more, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/locations/ireland.
Amazon and AWS’s long history of commitment to Ireland
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After first opening an office in Ireland in September 2004, Amazon extended its commitment and investment in the country, and in April 2006 opened a Customer Service Centre in Cork. The Cork Customer Service Centre spans over 47,500 square feet and employs people in a variety of roles from Instructional Designers and Support Engineers, to Operations Managers and Capacity Planners.
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In November 2007, AWS launched its first infrastructure region outside of the US in Ireland.
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Amazon will open a new delivery station in Dublin later this year (2020), adding additional capacity to ensure it continues to meet growing customer demand, and will work alongside existing carrier partners who provide a valuable high-quality service.
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Between 2011 and 2018, AWS contributed more than €2 billion in capital expenditure and ongoing operational spend in data centre construction and operation in Ireland, hiring more than 2,000 employees directly and supporting 9,500 jobs indirectly in the construction and sub-supplier sectors.
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In addition to creating new jobs, AWS has extended its collaboration with Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) in Tallaght and in Blanchardstown to fund a bursary programme for 40 students to study to become Data Centre Technicians.
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AWS is also working with a number of Irish colleges and universities as part of its AWS Educate and AWS Academy programmes. AWS Educate provides member institutes such as the Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin City University, and the University of Limerick with no cost access to learning content and AWS services designed to build knowledge and skills in cloud computing.
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AWS Academy serves post-secondary institutions exclusively and offers an end-to-end curriculum, developed and maintained by AWS. It is designed to be delivered over a semester by AWS Academy Accredited Instructors. Institutions including TU Dublin, Cork Institute of Technology, Limerick Institute of Technology, and Waterford Institute of Technology are all members of AWS Academy. Through these initiatives, students and educators will have access to content and programmes specifically developed to skill up for cloud careers.
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AWS is also investing in new initiatives to encourage more people to consider careers in technology. In 2020, AWS launched AWS GetIT to secondary schools in Ireland. AWS GetIT is an initiative designed to introduce 12-13 year old students in Ireland to cloud computing and digital skills. In conjunction with initiatives such as AWS Girls Tech Day, the company works to inspire more students to consider a career in technology.
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AWS is committed to running its infrastructure in the most sustainable way, and in 2019 became the first organisation to deliver corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) to support the development of two windfarms in Esk, Co. Cork and Meenbog, Co. Donegal. The two new wind farm projects, which will come online in 2020 and 2021 respectively, will support Ireland’s goals to meet its 2020 and 2030 renewable energy targets.
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In Tallaght, AWS is also supporting the country’s first heat waste project, which will see waste heat redirected from AWS’s data centres to serve South Dublin County Council’s (SDCC) HeatNet Project.
About Amazon Web Services
For 14 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 175 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 77 Availability Zones (AZs) within 24 geographic regions, with announced plans for nine more Availability Zones and three more AWS Regions in Indonesia, Japan, and Spain. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.