A picture of an office space with the Foxit logo on the wall.
Image: Foxit

Foxit to expand its Irish tech team, opening new offices in Dublin

30 Mar 2023

Foxit has a rapidly growing engineering team in Dublin. It is set to open an office in the coming months on Ormond Quay, as well as its newly opened European hub off Stephen’s Green.

Foxit, a provider of PDF and e-signature products, already has a presence in Dublin and has just opened a new office just off the capital’s Stephen’s Green.

Foxit has been in Ireland for a few years and currently employs 25 people here. The company began its operation here remotely in 2021, before opening an office in Fairview.

Its new, more centrally located office will function as one of the company’s three European hubs, with a particular focus on R&D.

According to David Martin-Sullivan, Foxit’s regional enterprise sales team manager for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, the business has big hiring plans here.

“I don’t have any exact figure,” he told SiliconRepublic.com. “But to maintain and supplement our continued success and expansion not only in Dublin, but also across EMEA, we are actively hiring to expand our sales teams and other departments to help us scale quite rapidly to meet the demands of the marketplace.”

The reluctance to put an exact figure on the number of hires it plans to add in Ireland is a deliberate strategy.

Frank Kettenstock, Foxit’s CMO, pointed out that the company wants to hire “very intelligently, very deliberately, with a long-term view”.

A short-term view sometimes gets people in trouble, he added, referencing the spate of Big Tech layoffs that Foxit does not want to emulate.

Martin-Sullivan is optimistic about the Dublin operation’s growth. As well as the new European hub off Stephen’s Green, there are plans afoot to open another office on Ormond Quay in “the coming months”.

David Martin-Sullivan sitting with a red brick wall behind him.

David Martin-Sullivan. Image: Foxit

Ireland is proving particularly positive for Foxit’s engineering division. “We have seen a dramatic growth and acceleration in our engineering team,” said Martin-Sullivan.

“We’ve hired over 40 or so engineers in the last 14 months and 25pc of those engineers are actually based in Ireland and some are based in the office and others are based remotely around Ireland, too.”

Was good engineering talent the only reason Foxit decided to move into Ireland back in 2021?

“There’s several reasons why Foxit was attracted to Ireland and Dublin specifically,” Martin-Sullivan said, before outing himself as a Cork man.

“First, being a Cork man, I too notice that Dublin is a vibrant city with incredibly rich heritage and a well-established technology ecosystem.

“Secondly, it’s the Irish government ­– the geopolitical stability that it provides, and government agencies such as the IDA have been a tremendous help in ensuring our set-up and expansion in Ireland has been frictionless.

“And thirdly, we’re extremely fortunate as we continue to grow to have the access to such an extremely rich, diverse and well-skilled pool of talent to bring on board.”

According to Kettenstock, who is US-based, the Irish hub is growing faster than the other two – including its main European hub, which is in Berlin. The other is in Skopje, Macedonia.

Although Foxit’s current growing team is relatively small compared to some others in the Irish tech scene, Martin-Sullivan said there are around nine different nationalities. There is also an office mascot – not a fox – but a dog, named Paul.

A brown dog lying on a red sofa in an office with the Foxit logo on the wall.

Paul, the Foxit Dublin mascot. Image: Foxit

Having started out in Ireland at the height of the pandemic, Foxit operates on a hybrid basis, but meet-ups and working culture is clearly important. Every Tuesday, the Irish team meets in the Dublin office to share food and chat to each other.

There are a lot of different cuisines shared around at each meet-up, with potluck style lunches being a way of celebrating the company’s diverse team.

“It’s a classic melting pot,” Martin-Sullivan said. “Our diversity is our strength, and that really comes through when we engage with customers because we are an international global company.”

“We’ve got a fantastic team of individuals here and we’re extremely fortunate to have hired those people who’ve really complemented [the company] and are a big part of our ongoing expansion and success.”

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Blathnaid O’Dea
By Blathnaid O’Dea

Blathnaid O’Dea joined Silicon Republic in 2021 as Careers reporter, coming from a background in the Humanities. She likes people, pranking, pictures of puffins – and apparently alliteration.

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