Semiconductor multinational Xilinx is to create an unspecified number of high-level jobs at its Dublin site.
The company has appointed Lionel Barker, formerly director of engineering for Xilinx Design Service, as general manager and senior director of a newly established global development division, which will be based at the company’s European headquarters in Dublin.
The new customer engineering division will focus on innovation and engineering specifically for customers, working closely with Xilinx Research Laboratories which also has research operations in Dublin.
Barker will head up three global design teams – two in North America and one in Dublin. It is anticipated that over 50pc of the new global division will be based in Dublin. However, Xilinx would not elaborate on the specific number of new jobs that would be created.
However, it did reveal that the new positions will require senior-level technical postgraduate qualifications, as well as the ability to deal at a research and development level with the company’s global customers.
The customer engineering division will help customers to deliver products to market faster, more cost-effectively and with optimal performance. It will involve the creation of some of the most advanced semiconductor technologies currently available in the world today. The company’s design arm already works closely with many electronics industry leaders to create programmable devices for a wide range of advanced systems.
Xilinx employs 3,800 globally with 400 at its European headquarters in Ireland.
“Customer focused innovation will be the priority for our new division as we concentrate on bringing the fruits of new R&D findings directly to bear in meeting our customers’ needs,” commented Barker.
“Wider innovation is also being fostered throughout the entire global organisation where employees are encouraged to advance new business processes and ideas for investment.”
According to Xilinx, the company’s Irish facility has excelled since it was established in 1995, breaking all performance barriers and attracting further expansion investments, new research operations, senior global roles and management responsibilities that now span Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India and Asia. Xilinx has invested over €125m in its Irish operations to date.
“Securing design activities is a critical element in Ireland’s ongoing evolution into an innovation-led economy. The fact that one of these three teams will also be based in Ireland is a strong endorsement of the success of both Xilinx and the talent pool available in this country,” remarked IDA chief executive, Barry O’Leary.
Xilinx designs and produces highly complex semiconductors capable of being programmed individually for use in a wide range of electronic systems. The company also develops and provides the software tools necessary to programme these devices, as well as predefined system functions that customers load as software into Xilinx’s programmable logic devices. The company holds over 1,700 patents from its inventions.
By Niall Byrne
Pictured: Lionel Barker of Xilinx will head up new global customer engineering division to be based in Dublin
