Buildings in Cork city lit up at dusk on the River Lee.
Cork city. Image: © Patryk Kosmider/Stock.adobe.com

100 engineering jobs for Ireland as Qorvo brings R&D centre to Cork

28 Jun 2021

IoT player Qorvo announced 100 highly skilled engineering roles in Dublin and Cork to be filled over the next two years.

Qorvo, the US company that acquired Irish chipmaker Decawave in 2020, is set to expand its presence in Ireland with a focus on developing next-generation technology.

The semiconductor company designs and manufactures radio-frequency (RF) systems for wireless devices and numerous other applications. It has announced that it will open a new R&D operation in Cork, focused on ultrawide-band (UWB) product research and innovation.

In addition to creating jobs in Cork, the company will also be hiring at its site in Dublin, creating 100 highly skilled engineering jobs in total.

Headquartered in North Carolina, Qorvo employs more than 8,000 people in 17 countries worldwide.

The new jobs created in Ireland will be filled over the next two years.

These roles will span UWB radio system architecture and modelling, transceiver and baseband design, power management, system on chip (SoC) integration, embedded software, physical design and IC characterisation.

“As UWB adoption is accelerating across mobile, consumer, [internet of things] and automotive markets, we are on the verge of the next big wave of innovation in wireless connectivity, much like Bluetooth was 20 years ago,” said Eric Creviston, president of Qorvo Mobile Products.

“Expanding our UWB operations in Ireland helps build on our technology leadership and expands Qorvo’s world-class team of UWB experts, while leveraging Ireland’s strong technology ecosystem.”

William McFadden, Qorvo’s senior director of engineering in Ireland, said the country will become “Qorvo’s development centre for advanced UWB technology research, core standards and product development”, with lab and automated testing to be conducted here.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar, TD, welcomed the announcement of jobs in both Dublin and Cork. “This is great news for both cities and demonstrates Qorvo’s continued commitment to Ireland,” he said.

Qorvo’s investment is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

“This investment further enhances the reputation of the Irish semiconductor industry, adding to Ireland’s already strong reputation in microelectronics R&D,” said Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland.

Qorvo closed its $400m acquisition of Decawave last year and the company became part of Qorvo Mobile Products.

Decawave had built its reputation as a global player in internet of things (IoT) technology. Innovative chip technologies are at the heart of the expanding IoT sector as well as the growth of 5G and cloud computing.

More information on jobs available at Qorvo can be found via the company website.

Elaine Burke
By Elaine Burke

Elaine Burke was editor of Silicon Republic until 2023, and is now the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Elaine joined Silicon Republic in 2011 as a journalist covering gadgets, new media and tech jobs. She later served as managing editor before stepping up as editor in 2019. She comes from a background in publishing and is known for being particularly pernickety when it comes to spelling and grammar – earning her the nickname, Critical Red Pen.

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