For the second time in two weeks, Ireland’s second city has been the subject of a significant IT jobs announcement. US semiconductor manufacturer Altera Corporation has created 20 jobs at a new shared services centre for the European market, based in Cork Airport Business Park.
The news follows the announcement last week by software firm Sage that it is hiring 30 staff at its new offices in Cork’s East Gate business park.
Altera European Trading Company Ltd, as the Cork subsidiary will be known, has completed its first phase of hiring, with the support of IDA Ireland, and the centre is now operational. While the start-up team of 20 people has now been hired, the company expects that double that number could be created over the coming five years.
“The fact that Altera was able to recruit and train staff to make the centre operational this quickly is a direct result of the high-calibre talent pool in Ireland,” said Tim Colleran, vice-president of European Business Operations and managing director of Altera’s Irish subsidiary. “Twenty-five percent of Altera’s business comes from the European market and our revenues from this region have grown 50pc just this last year alone. Having an office in Cork allows us to support and grow our European customer base, including customers in the digital cable infrastructure market who are located here in Ireland.”
At the official opening, Minister of State for Trade and Commerce Michael Ahern TD said, “Altera’s choice of Cork for this IDA-supported investment is an important recognition of Ireland’s continuing ability to be a cost effective base and a leading location for high-level knowledge-intensive investments. I congratulate Altera on the rapid start-up of this facility and its impressive build-up of employment. Both of these achievements reflect very well on the people of Cork and the whole South-West Region, and on their ability to support such knowledge-intensive and highly skilled operations.”
Altera is a leading manufacturer of programmable logic devices (PLDs), which is one of the fastest growing sectors of the semiconductor industry. The role of the Cork office is to support Altera’s business services to customers across Europe. Key functions include the management of the complex network of independent European distributors, product pricing, contract negotiations, and financial shared services.
Altera’s PLDs are integrated circuits that allow electronic system manufacturers to customise a semiconductor based on their application needs. Altera’s product portfolio ranges from low-density, low-cost PLDs for use in high-volume, cost-sensitive applications such as DVD players, digital TVs, and video recorders, to high-density PLDs that allow an entire system to be implemented on a single chip that previously required a full printed circuit board, such as those in routers, mobile base stations, and computer servers. PLDs help manufacturers to cut development costs and shorten delivery time of their products to market.
