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Facebook hiring 1,000 more staff in London, bringing total workforce in capital to more than 4,000

PA
PA

Facebook is hiring 1000 more staff in London this year bringing its total workforce in the capital up to more than 4,000.

The announcement was made by the social media giant’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg this morning on a visit to London.

She said that more than half the jobs will be high skilled tech roles in software engineering, product design, data science and product development.

Facebook’s artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality and engineering infrastructure teams in London will also be expanded.

Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg (Getty Images )
Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg (Getty Images )

Some of the openings will be in Facebook’s community integrity team, which already has a large presence in London and is responsible for tracking down and deleting harmful content.

London is the Silicon Valley company’s biggest engineering hub outside the US and was the location for its first European office a decade ago.

Facebook, which also owns the messaging service WhatsApp, currently has three office buildings in central London but is building a new headquarters at King’s Cross that will have capacity for 6,000 staff.

Announcing the investment at an event in London for small and medium sized UK businesses, Ms Sandberg said: “The UK is a world leader in both innovation and creativity. That’s why I’m excited that we plan to hire an additional 1,000 people in London this year alone. London is home to Facebook’s biggest engineering hub outside the US and we’re committed to investing here for the long-term.

“Many of these high-skilled jobs will help us address the challenges of an open internet and develop artificial intelligence to find and remove harmful content more quickly. They will also help us build the tools that help small businesses grow, compete with larger companies and create new jobs.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “The UK is at the centre of tech growth and innovation, and is leading the way as the world’s biggest tech hub outside of Silicon Valley. It’s great news Facebook plans to create a thousand more jobs in London - yet another sign of the strength of our dynamic tech sector.

“The UK is successfully creating both homegrown firms at the forefront of cutting-age technologies, such as artificial intelligence, whilst attracting established global tech giants like Facebook. We are committed to making the UK the safest place in the world to be online, alongside being one of the best places for technology companies to be based.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, said: “London’s tech sector is a global success story and the 1,000 new jobs Facebook is creating shows that our city has the talent to attract tech companies of all sizes from across the world. Facebook’s commitment to growing its business in the capital demonstrates that London is open and remains at the forefront of tech innovation.”