Cork a 'future-focused city’ as 100 jobs announced in AI sector

The CEO of Cork Chamber, Conor Healy, has said Proofpoint’s announcement of 100 new jobs over the coming years is “a powerful endorsement” for the region.

The Cork-based cybersecurity company this week announced the expansion of its Leeside base, with the introduction of the new roles coming as part of an ongoing investment into Proofpoint’s Irish operations.

As the company launches its AI innovation centre, the expansion will bring 45 new specialist roles to the company’s city centre location, including data scientists and AI and large language model (LLMs) specialists, with a continued growth trajectory of up to 100 additional roles over the coming years.

The new centre will allow the acquisition of larger data sets, allowing Proofpoint’s LLMs to be used in industry-leading, high-volume, high-velocity cases, improving overall threat detection for organisations.

The company will also bring a security operations team to Cork, and increase roles in other functions such as its data security team.

Mr Healy said Proofpoint’s decision to “significantly expand its workforce in Cork is a powerful endorsement of our region’s standing as a smart, modern, and connected location for global technology investment”.

“The fact that many of these will be specialist roles, across data science and AI, speaks volumes about the depth of talent and ambition in Cork,” said Mr Healy.

“This announcement further strengthens Cork’s position as an ambitious, future-focused city region and a great place to invest, work, and thrive.”

Minister for enterprise Peter Burke said the ongoing expansion of Proofpoint in Cork is “a clear reflection of Ireland’s continued success in attracting world-class companies to establish their international hubs here”.

“The creation of up to 100 new roles in the coming years, including in AI and large language models, further strengthens our position as a global technology and innovation hub,” said Mr Burke.

Remi Thomas, chief financial officer at Proofpoint, said the investment is “critical to our international growth, and to strengthening our ability to protect European organisations”.

“We are excited to tap into Cork’s technical talent base to further strengthen our industry-leading AI-driven solutions,” said Mr Thomas.

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