TEXAS-based workforce management company Workrise is setting up a technology engineering centre in Northern Ireland, where it will offer “top of the market” £40,000-plus salaries to 153 new recruits.
And for the firm's chief technology officer and head of engineering Praveen Kalamegham, it marks a “second coming” to Belfast, where he previously launched another software start-up in Bazaarvoice.
Praveen, who oversees software engineering teams in the US, South America and Ukraine, said the roles at Workrise - which launched in 2014 as a workforce management platform for the oil and gas industry and which has a current valuation of $2.5 billion - will be created over the next four years.
The company provides a full-service workforce solution, matching skilled labour contractors to companies that require staff for time bound projects.
By automating the process of matching workers to companies, it brings technology-backed efficiencies across recruiting, logistics, operations and payments to reduce the operational costs for businesses.
The project will contribute around £6.8 million in wages to the north's economy once all the roles are in place.
Invest NI has offered £994,500 of support towards the creation of the new technology jobs, which will be a mix of back-end, front-end and dev-ops, along with product management and programme management roles.
Around 30 jobs are already in place, and while the roles will initially be remote-working, Workrise ultimately plans to establish an office hub in Belfast.
“Having previously launched Bazaarvoice in Belfast, I feel a know the scene here, and when I approached Invest NI about Workrise, I felt I was pushing an open door,“ Praveen told the Irish News.
“There was never any doubt that we'd select Northern Ireland to establish this new centre. As well as its high-quality software engineers with industry skills, and a strong pipeline of graduates from your excellent universities, my own experience told me the connection would work for us.”
He says the current target of 153 is “ultra conservative“, adding that he expects the total workforce in Northern Ireland to grow well beyond that (Workrise told investors in the US that it hopes to reach 100,000 workers by 2023, and 1 million by 2030).
Founded in Austin, Texas, Workrise matches skilled labour contractors to companies that require staff for time-bound projects, and it says its goal is to revolutionise the industry, using technology to streamline everything from recruiting to payments.
Welcoming the investment, Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said the company will make an important contribution to the region's economy, adding: “We want post-Covid Northern Ireland to be stronger than before.
“We also want our people to develop the skills of the future and our businesses to be resilient, innovative, sustainable and competitive, and one of the ways we can achieve this is to attract new investment and create high-value employment like this.”
Invest NI chief executive Kevin Holland said:“Northern Ireland has a well-developed and growing ICT sector, and we continue developing the talent that businesses like Workrise look for.
“New investors with novel technology ideas and solutions offer excellent potential for knowledge transfer, career progression and sector development, enhancing our world-class reputation in this field.”
Praveen Kalamegham's previous firm Bazaarvoice, which provides product reviews and user-generated content (UGC) solutions, grew from one to more than 100 staff in Belfast in less than five years, and earlier this year announced plans to create an additional 168 jobs.
