Ericsson Ireland is planning to hire 250 new staff at its R&D centre in Athlone, Co Westmeath. The roles will be filled over the next three years.

Roles will be available for software developers, data scientists, architects, cloud and mobile communication engineers at all career stages.

The company is seeking, in particular, cloud native engineers with competences including Kubernetes, Docker, Helm and HCP. They should also have core programming languages such as Java, C++, JavaScript, Python and Golang.

Ericsson has grown its Irish operation by 25pc over the past five years and it wants to focus on supporting 5G growth and continued investment in cloud technologies at its Athlone base. The new hires will be involved in these plans.

The Swedish IT services giant currently employs around 1,400 people in Ireland, with 1,200 of those based at its Athlone R&D centre. These employees work on the development of Ericsson’s digital services operations support systems, as well as its cloud radio access network (RAN).

Ericsson has had an R&D presence in Athlone since 1979. It employs an additional 200 at its Dublin base.

Internationally, Ericsson’s portfolio spans networks, digital services, managed services and emerging business. More than 40pc of the world’s mobile traffic passes through networks delivered by Ericsson. It manages networks that together serve more than 1bn subscribers. Recently, it has been battling with Apple over patent licensing agreements.

According to Denis Dullea, head of R&D at Ericsson Athlone, the new hires will work to deliver “the benefits of cloud native technologies” to its global customer base via its “RAN, management, automation and orchestration offerings.”

Dullea added: “The investment is also good news for Athlone and the wider midlands region, where Ericsson is one of the largest employers. With strong ongoing partnerships with the IDA, the Irish Government and the recently established Technological University of the Shannon, we are excited to continue attracting and nurturing the best and brightest Irish and international talent to the heart of Ireland.”

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