BT is planning to create up to 170 jobs in Bristol over the next two years as it grows its presence in the city.
The telecoms giant is due to open its huge new state-of-the-art offices, on the waterfront near Temple Meads, later in 2022 - and is hoping to bolster its workforce to boot.
The company is looking for in-house digital workers, it said, and is planning to bring the majority of new staff in by April 2024. The jobs on offer include product management, software engineering, cloud, design, artificial intelligence, machine learning and agile delivery.
The announcement comes as BT moves to expand its digital arm, which is responsible for leading its digital transformation and creating new products and services.
Harmeen Mehta, chief digital and innovation officer at BT, said: “Digital was founded to accelerate BT’s transformation, innovation and return to growth. To succeed, we need to bring in and upskill the top digital talent, and our efforts will boost the tech communities along the way.”
The new Bristol roles form part of a 1,000-strong recruitment drive across the UK, focused on BT’s key regional hubs in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Belfast, Ipswich and London. As part of the process BT is concentrating on so-called "entry talent", it said, including apprentices, graduates, women returners and others starting careers in digital.
Ms Mehta added: “Diversity is a key focus in our recruitment efforts as we need a broad set of temperaments, mindsets and abilities to drive through the cultural transformation that comes hand-in-hand with this talent drive.”
BT first announced plans to open a huge new multi-million pound office in Bristol city centre in 2020. Last year, the mayor of the West of England, Dan Norris, and BT apprentices and graduates were given a sneak peek of the new building - the Assembly Bristol, which will house some 2,500 staff in total.
Construction started in early 2019 on the derelict site off Temple Way as part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone – a £17m Bristol City Council scheme which will include homes and offices. The Assembly Bristol site had been empty since the 2008 demolition of a 1970s orange glass office block, once the home of pensions and investment firm Clerical Medical.
Last year, BT released images of the new office. The pictures show views of and from the terraces of the Narrow Plain development, including what the telecom giant describes as a "rooftop wildflower meadow".
