THE head of a Silicon Valley company has said its decision to set up in Belfast is part of a global war for talent in the cyber security sector.
Contrast Security chief executive Alan Naumann said the firm will create 120 jobs in the city over the next three years as it looks to expand into the European market.
The California based company, which specialises in protecting software from cyber attack, currently employs around 200 people between offices in Silicon Valley and Baltimore.
It has now set up a new development centre in Belfast, with ten people recruited since April to its initial base in River House on High Street.
Invest NI, which has offered the firm £786,500 toward the move, said the 120 jobs will eventually be worth around £4 million a year to the economy.
The economic support agency said the cyber security industry is on course to employ almost 1,700 professionals in the north, generating £70m in salaries.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Last month Texas-based cyber security firm Alert Logic closed its Belfast offices. It had initially employed 30 people in 2016, with plans to expand its workforce to 88.
It now has just nine remote staff in the north.
Invest NI’s chief executive Alastair Hamilton accepted that not all firms expanding into Northern Ireland will succeed, but said many had grown beyond their initial recruitment target.
The quango had initially offered Alert Logic £572,000 for its Belfast move. Invest NI has declined to state how much was actually handed over.
“We recognise that whenever you get to very early stage high growth companies, that not all of them will follow through,” said Mr Hamilton.
“Therefore we protect the public funds by making sure that we only pay out whenever the jobs are created and retained.”
The outgoing chief executive said he believed the north’s talent pool remains deep enough to meet the ambitious growth plans of the overseas tech investors.
“We look at our universities and colleges and we have between 1,000 and 1,200 graduates a year who are coming out of those colleges in the main areas these companies are looking for,” he said.
“I’m fairly confident that the companies will be able to meet that demand.”
Contrast Security boss Alan Neumann said the number of tech graduates being produced in the north was a key factor for its move. He said the competition for talent in Silicon Valley had pushed the company to explore ‘undiscovered areas’, including Baltimore.
Despite being associated with its high crime rate, Mr Naumann said Baltimore’s proximity to universities and the intelligence community had paid off for the firm.
“We think Belfast is in some ways is similar. It is not as discovered as perhaps even south of here, or in other parts of Europe, but there’s a great talent pool.
“It is a global war for talent,” he continued. “In the cyber security industry it’s stated that worldwide there is two million job openings. Because of all the cyber attacks and software being written, there is a huge shortfall of cyber security professionals.
“We are in a talent war if you will, to try and find and retain the very best people."
Mr Naumann said Belfast’s “history of building things” and its proximity to Europe were also major draws for its decision to move here.
He said while Brexit was “concerning”, it was not a major issue for the cyber security industry.
“As a software company, we were choosing not for manufacturing or trade or even tax reason. We were choosing to have a development centre where we could find great people and great university access and would be easy for our European customers to communicate with our support teams.”
