A TEXAS based company is setting up a new European base in Northern Ireland with the creation of nearly 170 new jobs.
Bazaarvoice, Inc. the provider of consumergenerated content (CGC), advertising, and personalisation solutions, is making a multimillion pound investment in a new office in Belfast and will be recruiting the new staff over the next three years.
Announcing the investment, Alastair Hamilton, Invest Northern Ireland CEO said: “Bazaarvoice works with major high-street brands and retailers to provide them with precious insights on consumer purchasing habits through collecting and analysing consumer-generated content (CGC), like ratings and reviews.
“The new office will house 168 software engineering, sales and customer service staff to help service and grow the company’s UK and European business. Once fully operational this will generate nearly £5.5m annually, in salaries, into the Northern Ireland Economy.”
Bazaarvoice services over 5,000 customer websites across the UK, Europe and the US, including household names like Argos, Debenhams, ghd, and Philips.
The majority of the new roles will be technical – software engineering, support and quality assurance – in addition to some sales roles. In addition to these posts the company is also setting up an Assured Skills training programme funded by the Department for the Economy that will help unemployed and underemployed non IT graduates enter the ICT workforce.
Executive Vice President of Engineering at Bazaarvoice, Gary Allison said: “Northern Ireland was able to offer high quality technical staff with relevant industry skills, as well as a stable ICT sector, to support our growth plans. We were also impressed by the low staff turnover rates here.
“We have already begun our recruitment for experienced software professionals, and have been very impressed with the quality of the people. We spent time with Queen’s and Ulster universities, learning how to get the best from their internship and graduate recruitment programmes. I am pleased that we are now able to create significant opportunities for graduates to work in software engineering, client services and sales roles.”