Huawei announces major jobs boost by end of the year

Chinese technology company Huawei has announced the creation of 110 new jobs in Ireland by the end of next year.

The firm, which has a base in Athlone, says the expansion will allow it to meet sustained growing demand for its products and services across its sales, R&D, IT development and in its consumer division.

Huawei also announced that it will invest €80 million in Irish research and development (R&D) over the next two years to support its growing business in Ireland.

The company says it has a strong focus on helping its business partners roll out 5G across Ireland in coming years.

A statement today indicates that the jobs will be mainly based in its Dublin headquarters and across operations in Cork and Athlone.

Today's jobs boost brings to 310 the total of new jobs it will have added over a three year period from 2019 to 2022 – more than doubling its workforce in that time.

Over the past 15 months alone, Huawei has created 200 jobs in Ireland, as well as investing €60 million in R&D. In the next two years, Huawei will invest a further €80 million in R&D in Ireland, doubling its commitment from 2019.

Tánaiste & Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said: “The news that Huawei will create 110 new jobs is most welcome.  The company is creating new jobs at a time when we really need them with so many people out of work. Despite all the current uncertainty and challenges, Ireland continues to attract top class investment from global technology companies.

"These 110 jobs, which come in addition to the 200 created over the past 15 months, will be accompanied by an €80m investment in Irish research and development. I wish the company the best of luck with this expansion.”

Confirming the latest recruitment plans Huawei Ireland Chief Executive Tony Yangxu said: “We are delighted to see such growth in our workforce and business.  Huawei has a long-term commitment to Ireland, where since 2004 we have built a world-class team servicing our ever-growing consumer and enterprise customer bases.

"Today’s announcement is testament to the strength of those, as well as the ongoing success of our research and development programme, to which we committed €70 million in 2019.  Our story in Ireland is one of mutual success, as we assist with the national digital transformation and Ireland continues to grow its international reputation as a pro-business environment with great talent available.”

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan also welcomed the investment by Huawei which will add substantially to Ireland’s technology and R&D ecosystem.

"The company’s continued commitment to significant investments in R&D and creating high value jobs demonstrates Huawei’s confidence in Ireland and the talent pool available here,” he said.

"Huawei has a broad range of activities in Ireland, where it serves all of the major telecommunications providers with products and business solutions.”

Huawei’s R&D operations in Ireland work closely with Science Foundation Ireland research centres including Adapt, Connect and Lero while also having partnerships with DCU, Trinity, UCD, UCC and UL.

Its R&D efforts in Ireland focus on the areas of video, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), site-reliability engineering and 5G consumer use cases.

The investment is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.