Amazon doubles size of London tech team at new headquarters

The online giant unveiled its 600,000 sq ft new UK head office in London’s Shoreditch this week.

The new head office, which has been in development since 2014, was originally intended to be 430,000 sq ft.

But the etailer has since upped the size of the new headquarters in order to double the workforce based at present at its London Development Centre.

The increased scale of the etailer’s London tech team will mean its research and development division grow to include over 5,000 roles across the city by the end of the year.

UK boss Doug Gurr said Amazon, which pledged to employ 24,000 in the UK and create 5,000 new permanent roles in 2017, was “on track to meet at least the 24,000 mark by year end”.

‘London is open’

He also downplayed the impact of Brexit on Amazon’s ability to secure top talent in the UK,  and said that it was “a brilliant place to recruit” across fashion, creative and engineering roles.

London mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the news.

“London is open to talent, innovation and entrepreneurship and the natural place for major global companies to call home – and it’s great news that Amazon has put its confidence in our unique blend of talent, creativity and access to finance,” he said.

“This is the latest in a long line of recent major investments in London by global tech firms over the last year, and shows once more that our great city is the tech capital of Europe.”

Gurr said: “London is one of the world’s truly great cities and home to some of the most talented, creative people on the planet, and we are truly delighted to provide our teams of innovators with a new, purpose-built workplace.”

The online giant’s expanded research and development team will primarily focus on bolstering its Prime Video service with roles including software development engineers, data analysts and graphic designers.

Amazon will have 1,500 tech roles across its UK development centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London by the end of the year, which will work on services ranging from the etailer’s voice recognition technology to drone capabilities.