Amazon has revealed plans to create more than 1,000 new “highly skilled roles” across three UK cities.
The eCommerce giant announced it will open a new corporate office in Manchester next year and increase the capacity of its development centres in Scotland and Cambridge.
The new Manchester base, its first corporate office outside London, will be located in the city’s iconic Hanover Building (pictured below).
The six-storey site will give Amazon capacity to create at least 600 new jobs in the city, including software development, machine learning and R&D roles.
The move was hailed by Mayor Andy Burnham as “another vote of confidence in our city region as a global digital leader” while secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport Jeremy Wright said it was “great” that Amazon chose Manchester.
Amazon will also expand its development centre in the heart of Edinburgh, providing capacity for over 250 new jobs in the Waverley Gate building.
Meanwhile, it also outlined plans to invest in expanding its development centre in Cambridge, creating capacity for an additional 180 new roles.
“With the UK taking a leading role in our global innovation, we are delighted to announce plans to create capacity for over 1,000 new highly-skilled roles across the country,” said Doug Gurr, UK country manager at Amazon.
“These are Silicon Valley jobs in Britain, and further cement our long-term commitment to the UK.”
Liam Fox, secretary of state for international trade, added: “Amazon’s decision to create hundreds of highly-skilled jobs in Manchester, Edinburgh and Cambridge is an enormous vote of confidence in the UK and a signal to the world that the UK is very much open for business.”
Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than £9.3 billion in the UK to build and run its operations, and is on course to grow to 27,500 roles by the end of this year.