London Calling For Facebook Engineering Team

Facebook has announced its first ever engineering team outside of the US, choosing London to set up shop, alongside a series of tech firms locating in the city.

The company is looking for a number of software engineers in England’s capital city, including those with Android skills, alongside partner engineers focused on games and mobile. The Facebook London announcement follows hot on the heels of Amazon’s plans to locate a digital media development centre in London.

Facebook London

“London is a perfect fit for Facebook engineering – it’s a global hub, and it has a vibrant local startup community with lots of great technical talent. Our team in London will start small, focusing on building a core of great engineers, and then grow over time and eventually focus on building products in key areas like mobile and platform,” said Philip Su, a software engineer at Facebook, who will lead the team in the city.

“Our engineers in London – like those in Menlo Park, New York, and Seattle – will be able to pursue great ideas and ship products quickly.”

In a separate statement sent to TechWeekEurope, Su said London was “the centre of Europe’s vibrant technology scene”. “We hope to capture that energy and creativity. While we will start work with a small group of engineers, we have lofty ambitions and it won’t be long before millions of people around the world are using Facebook features that are made in the UK,” he added.

For anyone interested in Facebook jobs in London, head here. The team will be working out of Facebook’s Covent Garden offices (pictured left).

Europe’s tech capital

The government is hopeful of making London the capital of Europe’s tech scene and the capital’s burgeoning presence on the international stage has been notable.

The Facebook announcement comes just days after Amazon announced plans for a digital media development centre in London, which will be based close to the Barbican Underground station, which is itself located near the growing Tech City development.

Following Amazon’s news, mayor of London Boris Johnson uttered his delight at London’s growing prominence, which is now home to important facilities belonging to the world’s tech heavyweights, including Google’s Campus centre opened by chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne in March.

“Amazon’s investment propels us well up the league table of global tech cities and we thank them for their vote of confidence,” Johnson said.

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