A global science and technology firm is increasing its investment in Victoria with a new cutting-edge facility in Melbourne as part of a project which will create up to 100 new, highly skilled tech jobs. The Minister for Economic Development and the Member for South Eastern Metropolitan announced recently that the firm will establish its Software Factory in Melbourne, its first outside the United States.
The factory will support the company’s growth in Australia, extend its global reach and attract new industry-leading capabilities for software development. The firm is an information technology, engineering and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in defence, intelligence, homeland security, civil and health markets. The company’s 38,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers across the world.
The company will use the new factory to develop highly secure and complex software products, reaping the benefits of its Melbourne location to work in tandem with US-based offices as part of its global model. The new factory will enable the company to bring software to market rapidly, affordably and at consistently high quality. The firm employs more than 550 highly skilled workers at its existing Australasian and Asia Pacific headquarters in Victoria as part of its workforce of more than 1,400 across the country.
The company’s Australian clients include the Department of Defence, the Australian Tax Office, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Department of Home Affairs and other Agencies. The investment by the company is a further boost to Victoria’s thriving tech sector which contributes $38.4 billion to the State’s economy and supports more than 139,000 workers across 19,941 businesses.
This announcement is part of a string of international investments in Victoria secured by the Labor Government recently; including AWS, Illumina and Elbit that will assist in Victoria’s economic recovery. The Minister for Economic Development stated that this expansion by the global company is yet again a strong validation of the region’s thriving tech sector, its highly skilled workforce and its thriving culture of innovation. “Having this cutting-edge facility in Melbourne will further boost our capabilities in areas of software development and create highly skilled jobs which will continue our economic recovery,” he said.
The Member for South Eastern Metropolitan stated, “This is a fantastic announcement and investment in Melbourne’s south-east that will bring highly skilled jobs and technical specialists to our region – the kind of jobs the Government is so proud to back.”
The Chief Executive of the firm’s Australia branch stated that the investment in cutting-edge software development techniques draws on the firm global capabilities and will significantly enhance its capabilities to deliver the highest standards of complex software development to its customers.
Victoria is recognised for its innovative capabilities in digital technology and has a strong track record of developing world-class technology-enabled businesses. The state has a strong base of companies across a diverse range of key industry sectors that are increasingly adopting cutting edge technology. These sectors include utilities, industrial, agriculture, energy, mining, infrastructure, telecommunications, retail, insurance and wealth management.
Victoria is recognised as Australia’s centre for engineering and technology skills, producing more technology graduates than any other state. Its leading educational institutions are helping to develop a highly-skilled, globally competitive digital technology workforce that is actively engaged in all areas of industry and business.
