Facebook To Hire 1,000 UK Staff

Facebook is to ramp up its UK operations with the news that it will hire 1,000 people in London in 2020.

Over half the roles will be technology based, Reuters reported, with the social networking giant seeking to grow its biggest engineering centre outside the US after the UK leaves the European Union.

In 2016, Facebook revealed that that it would expand its British workforce by half when it moved into its new London headquarters in 2017.

London Jobs

At that time, Facebook employed about 1,000 staff in the UK and planned to add another 500 employees, many in highly skilled areas such as engineering roles.

Facebook’s largest engineering base outside the US is located in Fitzrovia, near the West End of London.

Facebook is now adding another 1,000 staff to take its British workforce to over 4,000.

Over half of the new jobs will be in technology, including software engineering and data science, Facebook’s VP for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Nicola Mendelsohn said in an interview with Reuters.

Other roles will reportedly be in the “community integrity” team, which makes products to detect and remove harmful content from Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Mendelsohn said London’s appeal was not only in its technology ecosystem but also the strength of its creative industries.

She said that while Facebook’s enthusiasm for London was undimmed, like other tech companies it wanted certainty about Brexit.

Great news

“The Johnson government has been very clear about what that looks like, and so we will continue to invest here in London,” Mendelsohn reportedly said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Facebook’s growth was “great news”.

“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,” he reportedly said.

Last October Facebook agreed to drop its appeal against the half a million pound fine by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), over its role in the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal in 2018.

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