Cork city
Cork City. Image: gabriel12/Shutterstock

100 cybersecurity jobs for Cork as Forcepoint announces new roles

21 Jun 2018

Global cybersecurity leader Forcepoint chooses Cork for a new centre of excellence.

Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company delivering human-centric solutions, has today (21 June) opened a new centre of excellence in Cork. The investment is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland and will focus on development of products in the cloud and endpoint security sector.

The new office is based in Cork city on One Albert Quay. The investment runs across three years, with the bulk of the new roles in cloud and endpoint software engineering to be created during the first year of operations. Other roles are planned for the remainder of the investment period.

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys, TD, praised the news of “100 quality jobs” arriving in Cork in 2018 alone, noting the growing cluster of cybersecurity firms flourishing in the city. She added: “Investments such as these by innovative software companies continue to develop and grow the highly skilled workforce here, and I look forward to a long, mutually beneficial relationship between Forcepoint and Ireland.”

A strong talent pool

According to Heath Thompson, senior vice-president and general manager of commercial security at Forcepoint, the new Cork facility will be a vital element of the development of future market-leading products in endpoint security, cloud services and applications: “By drawing on Ireland’s strong talent pool we will add to our skilled teams across the world and accelerate our mission to understand human interactions with data across users, machines and accounts.”

The Cork roles will focus on the greenfield development of new cloud and endpoint products, which will integrate across Forcepoint’s entire Human Point System. The facility will join other Forcepoint hubs around the world in leveraging diverse security talent to create uniquely adaptable solutions.

A significant investment by Forcepoint

The CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan, said: “Forcepoint’s decision to establish a software engineering facility in Cork represents a significant investment in technical employment. Ireland is a serious player and a very attractive location for international software and security companies. I wish Forcepoint every success with its future operations.”

Derek Murphy has been appointed as the senior director of software engineering at the centre, responsible for the vision and leadership of the cloud platform and the engineering teams based in Cork, as well as leading and expanding the organisation of development and QA managers, technical leads, developers and testers.

Conor Healy, CEO of Cork Chamber, said: “Cork is at the forefront of Ireland’s transformation into a global leader in cybersecurity. It is very exciting to see a market-leader such as Forcepoint deciding to join our cyber cluster, which is a sector that is currently undergoing strong growth, contributing strongly to new job creation and putting Cork on the global map.”

Cork City. Image: gabriel12/Shutterstock

Ellen Tannam
By Ellen Tannam

Ellen Tannam was a journalist with Silicon Republic, covering all manner of business and tech subjects. She keeps her library card close at hand at all times and is a big fan of babies, chocolate and Sleater-Kinney.

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