THE head of a Seattle-based software company believes Belfast's two universities "are producing some of the finest computer science knowledge in the world".
And that, he insisted, was "the deal-clincher" in convincing him to set up a new software development centre in the city, which will hire more than 50 programmers over the next two years on salaries well in excess of industry norms.
Barry Crist is chief executive of Chef Software, whose solutions help businesses deliver their vision of digital transformation, providing the practices and platform to deliver software at speed.
Its investment in Belfast, where it has already recruited six staff, is backed by £357,500 from Invest NI.
It will generate more than £2.3 million a year in salaries, and Chef's hub will also add to the skills base and enhance the north's technology capability.
Over the last four years, Chef’s customer base has grown to include more than 1,000 companies, and its annual recurring revenue increased by more than 10 times, ranking it among the fastest-growing technology firms in North America last.
Companies such as Facebook, Alaska Airlines, GE Digital, Standard Bank and Target rely on Chef to speed up software deployment, leading to increased profitability and market share.
“Digital transformation is a highly valuable exercise for our customers and it’s crucial we invest in the products and solutions they need to be successful," Crist said.
"Our software helps developers and operators to ship, build, deploy, and manage software at speed, and with quality through compliance with regulatory standards such as GDPR.
“Practical support from Invest NI – from introducing us to local talent, helping us identify office space and integrating us into the local technology ecosystem – has meant we've been able to get our new development centre up and running quickly.
"The centre in Belfast will enable us to tap into the strong software development and DevOps skills here and provide world-class solutions for our customers.”
DevOps (development and operations) is an enterprise software development phrase used to mean a type of agile relationship between development and IT operations.
And the fast paced nature of DevOps will mean that those working for the company in Belfast will have the opportunity to help develop new innovation software solutions, get exposure to new technology and develop new skills.
"There's no question the quality and availability of such incredibly talented graduates emerging from Queen's and Ulster University was pivotal in Chef choosing Belfast, and while we're only announcing 55 jobs right now, I've every confidence that number will grow significantly," Crist told the Irish News.
On the thorny issue of the UK's exit from the EU he added: "Boundaries aren't important to us. We work across borders all over the world in our type of industry. Brexit was never in our thought process."
Gary Hanley, Invest NI's senior VP for North America, said: “Chef's new software development centre in Belfast will help it grow its business in EMEA and Asia PAC and provide support to customers there."
