A leading London-headquartered network software provider is to establish a technical and research and development centre in Northern Ireland which could create 94 jobs.
Metaswitch Networks, which designs and develops cloud-native communications software, will locate its new centre of excellence in Belfast, initially creating 25 jobs and rolling out its investment over the next three years with a view to employing a team of 94 people.
The privately owned company currently has offices from the US to Asia Pacific but this is its first investment in the North.
Graeme MacArthur, executive vice president of engineering and support services at Metaswitch, said it was attracted to Northern Ireland primarily because of the “stable supply of highly educated people”.
Mr McArthur added: “High-quality telecommunications and lower operating costs were also attractive and we anticipate that the Belfast centre will provide a very cost-effective element of our growth strategy.”
The North's Minister for the Economy Simon Hamilton has welcomed the jobs boost and said he expects that once all of the jobs are in place the company could contribute around £3.3 million per annum in wages to the Northern Ireland economy.
Mr Hamilton also announced details of the first Metaswitch Academy to be held in Belfast – the programme will recruit 20 graduates to undertake an intensive nine-week training programme delivered by Belfast Metropolitan College.
Academy participants will learn the skills that could kickstart a successful career in software support engineering, with potential employment available once they have completed the programme at Metaswitch’s new Belfast centre.
