Ahead of the launch of its new office space in Kings Cross, London that will be completed next year, Facebook has announced new jobs being created for 2020.
The COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg made the announcement today during an event aimed at SME businesses in the UK.
Speaking at the event, Sandberg said she was ‘excited that we plan to hire an additional 1,000 people in London this year alone. London is home to Facebook’s biggest engineering hub outside the US and we’re committed to investing here for the long-term.’
What are the new positions in?
The recently announced jobs that will soon become available at Facebook offices in London include positions in software engineering, AI, augmented reality, engineering infrastructure, as well as product design and data science for its Whatsapp and Workplace platforms.
Other jobs that will soon be up for grabs include positions in the community integrity team. This is the Facebook team that builds the technology the organisation uses in order to detect as well as remove inappropriate content found on the site.
Overall, these new positions will mean that by 2021, Facebook’s workforce in the UK will be well over 4,000 in total.
New London offices in 2021
As previously mentioned, Facebook will have new offices in London by 2021, having announced its expansion plans in 2018.
The office space which will be in King’s Cross (approximately 600,000 sq ft of space) will see the social media giant double its London capacity. The building will be able to accommodate up to 6,000 staff and workers in the UK, if they choose to do so.
These offices will be joined to search engine giant Google, who have also announced expansion plans in London. With the latter, it is estimated that the total cost of its new headquarters in the capital will end up totaling a whopping £1 billion.
Facebook’s existing London offices
Facebook has already acquired Rathbone Place, just off Oxford Street in Central London, which opened in 2018 creating over 800 new jobs.
The 247,000 square foot office is made up of over seven floors and even has its own public square.
Facebook has used this space to build relationships with UK startups. It has offered space in its ‘Partner Centre’ as well as creating an incubator space for promising startups.