As Facebook prepares to open their new engineering centre in central London, the company is set to create 500 new jobs.
Of the 500 roles, the majority will be in Facebook’s Community Integrity team. The team is focused on upholding safety and tackling abuse on the platform.
The company has outlined other available roles, including; building software and AI detection systems to locate and remove malicious content, fake accounts and other “harmful behaviour”.
This latest office will mark the third Facebook office to have its home in London. The company already has an office in Fitzrovia and one in Paddington. Once the new site is up and running, the total number of employees working for Facebook in the UK will be 3,000, with 1,800 working in technology and engineering.
Faceook’s current London offices, as well as all their offices around the world are built with no ceilings and exposed conduits to create a look of ‘unfinished-ness’ – and fulfil the need for a creative office space. This design is meant to reflect the sentiment of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg when he said the company’s work is only 1% done.
Some of Facebook’s most significant global products have been designed in their London offices, including Workplace, Facebook’s enterprise collaboration tool. Facebook’s London VR team is currently building core software products, services and applications for Oculus.
Facebook already has plans to expand, the company plans to open offices in King’s Cross in 2021. King’s cross is also where Google and YouTube based.
Nicola Mendelsohn is Facebook’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She said that the office opening demonstrated the social network’s commitment to the UK during a speech made at London Tech Week last month.
“Safety is our top priority at Facebook and over the last two years we’ve substantially increased our investment in this area. These hundreds of new jobs demonstrate not only our commitment to the UK but also our determination to do everything we can to keep Facebook safe and secure,” she said.
“Many of these new roles will accelerate our Artificial Intelligence work in London as we continue developing technology to proactively detect and remove malicious content.”
Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright welcomed Facebook’s investment in the city, calling it a “timely reminder” the UK has the skills, location and language digital firms need to succeed.
“The UK is uniquely placed to spearhead the digital transformation of society and our modern Industrial Strategy aims to use the power of technology to change people’s lives for the better,” he said.