Workday to create 1,000 new jobs at Dublin headquarters

US company hiring in roles across product development, engineering and data science

US financial management software company Workday is to create 1,000 new jobs over the next two years at its European headquarters in Dublin, increasing its Irish workforce by about 60 per cent.

In addition, to support its future growth, Workday is to construct its new European headquarters at Grangegorman, Dublin 7.

Workday will be hiring in roles across product development, engineering and data science, sales, services and user experience.

It currently employs more than 1,700 people in Dublin, helping support the organisation’s more than 9,500 customers worldwide.

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Workday’s new European headquarters at Grangegorman will be a “highly sustainable” 550,000sq ft campus across about four acres in a strategic development zone, adjacent to Technological University Dublin.

The company has agreed to purchase the site from the Health Service Executive (HSE). The Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA) is the State developer for the site.

As design planning for the new European headquarters begins, Workday will become the anchor tenant of the Dockline Building in Dublin 1, helping augment its existing headquarters at Kings Building.

“In addition to having excellent transport links and facilities, the 80,000sq ft Dockline Building has approximately 200 bicycle spaces and is BER A3 energy rated,” the company said.

Workday co-chief executive Chano Fernandez said “the incredible talent” the company has been able to hire in Dublin has been a “critical component” of its innovation and customer service efforts.

“We see great opportunity ahead as we help some of the world’s largest organisations with their digital transformation efforts, including how they adapt to change, plan for the future and support their employees in the changing world of work,” he added.

HSE ‘delighted’

Chris Byrne, senior vice-president at Workday, said the planned Grangegorman headquarters would “provide us with a contemporary and thoughtful workplace to deliver even greater employee experiences and drive customer initiatives”.

“As importantly, we will be able to engage more deeply in our local educational and community programmes, including our Stem partnership with Technological University Dublin, which will help to upskill young people ranging from primary school age to third-level education,” he said.

A HSE spokesman said it was “delighted to facilitate the sale” of part of the it retained lands in Grangegorman to Workday.

“This part of the site was always identified as a commercial hub area and having the new European headquarters of Workday on the campus exceeds the original vision for this area,” he said.

“This significant development will enhance the overall Grangegorman campus which will be uniquely shared between the HSE, Technological University Dublin, the new local primary school, and Workday,” he added.

Workday has seen major growth in revenues and headcount in recent years with the number of staff it employs locally more than doubling over the past five years.

Turnover at the software-as-a-service company’s Irish subsidiary rose to $994.3 million (€882.5 million) for the 12 months to January 2021 as against $817.8 million a year earlier. Pretax losses fell from $707 million to $469 million over the same period.

Net assets amounted to $2.6 billion down from $3.15 billion in the prior year.

Workday established its European headquarters in Ireland in 2008 following its acquisition of Cape Clear Software.

Founded by former PeopleSoft founder and chief executive Dave Duffield in 2005, Workday provides financial management, human capital management and analytics applications via the cloud to more than 1,000 organisations worldwide. Customers include Aon, Airbus, Fedex, Levi Strauss, Comcast, Puma and Sanofi.

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter