Microsoft will create 200 highly skilled engineering positions in Dublin.

The recruitment drive follows a $ 27 million investment in a 10,000-square-meter engineering hub near the main campus in Leopardstown.

The expansion will bring the total number of employees working in the tech company’s offices and data center operations in Ireland to 2,700.

Microsoft has already begun recruiting for new positions in software, customer engineering, program management, product design, user experience and data science.

They work to develop, deploy and support cloud services and new technology for users around the world.

The company already employs 600 engineers in Ireland.

Kathorona Hallahan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland, told RTE News that although the Kovid-19 pandemic business has seen significant growth and a technological leap in customers, this is not the only reason for investment.

“None of the investments you are redesigning millions of dollars come from one particular thing,” she said.

“It’s all around our customers, big and small, who are translating their businesses digitally.”

“It’s happening globally. Obviously Kovid has helped accelerate it, because technology is now at the center of how we communicate, how we connect, and how businesses work.

“So it’s a factor, but it’s not the only factor.”

Hallahan said that because of the Covid-19 restrictions, almost all Microsoft employees currently continue to work from home, creating challenges for employees.

Hallahan said the company will continue until government rules are removed, but will then ask officials to return to office.

“We will bring them back as soon as it is safe to bring them back,” she said.

At the heart of the new engineering hub building is an area known as The Garage – where Microsoft employees as well as external partners such as users, academics and students are encouraged to innovate, test, create and fail.

It also includes a maker space with cutting edge tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters and milling machines.

Although this is a physical space, digital programs will still work in the garage while the Kovid-19 restrictions remain in place.

Microsoft has ten other garages in the US, Canada, Israel, India and China, but this is the first to be developed in Europe.

The investment has been supported by the government through IDA Ireland and has been welcomed by tennis and Leo Varadkar, Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

IDA Chief Executive Martin Shanahan said it was precisely FDI that his organization was trying to bring to Ireland.

“It came at a very important time, and it shows that Ireland continues to compete, even in the midst of a global pandemic,” he said.