Dyson, known for its fans, hand dryers and hair care products, said it will open a new laboratory in the Philippines to develop software for a new generation of intelligent machines.
In an online media briefing on Thursday, the company said the new research and development (R&D) center will be on top its existing advanced motors manufacturing facility in Carmelray Industrial Park II in Calamba, Laguna.
The company, which is privately-held, did not state its investment figures but Scott Maguire, Dyson’s COO said, said the new facility will hire 400 people mostly in software engineering and development over the next three years.
The company said its new dedicated software research and development facility will be set up in Alabang.
Maguire noted that the country has a healthy pool of talents since there are many technical universities in the Philippines.
“The Philippines is home to bright, young engineers who share Dyson’s ambition to develop technologies for the future. Dyson has been growing in the Philippines for this reason and it is a nation that clearly celebrates both engineers and technology. We already have a brilliant team of engineers here and have manufactured over 20 million Dyson Hyperdymium™ motors from our advanced manufacturing facility in Calamba,” Maguire said.
“We will continue to invest in the Philippines and look forward to having more highly skilled Filipino engineers join our ranks to develop and manufacture exciting new technologies for the future, which will be used all around the world.”
The new laboratory is part of the company’s investment of 2.75 billion pounds in future technology.
Its Calamba facility builds mostly motors and are being shipped somewhere else for assembly. It employs about 600 people.
The new software lab reflects Dyson’s ambitions to double its portfolio of products and enter entirely new fields by 2025, as it accelerates research and development into robotics, software, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The software lab in the Philippines will form part of Dyson’s global research, design and development team, which it also has in the United States, United Kingdom, Shanghai in China, Singapore and Malaysia.
Roles in the software lab will include embedded software engineers, automation test engineers, scrum masters, product owners, program managers, release train engineers and team leaders.
“PEZA [Philippine Economic Zone Authority] lauds Dyson for its continuous good performance since the start of its registration with the Authority in 2016. Dyson significantly contributes to investment, export-income generation as well as jobs creation and we note that it received the PEZA ‘Outstanding Exporters Award’ in 2018 and 2019. As we promote Filipino-driven industrialization, we look forward to Dyson recruiting more Filipino engineers to be a part of Dyson’s software innovations,”Charito B. Plaza, PEZA director general said.
“Dyson’s planned software lab reflects the company’s long-term commitment to the Philippines, and is a validation of the skills and talents that our engineering workforce holds. This will create exciting career opportunities for the brightest of our engineers who wish to design and develop software for a renowned and fast-growing global technology company.”