![\"manchestermap1-185x114-e26d5a6c0a1927460b09e9db1b1c8f587771e4bc\"](\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/www.v3.co_.ukw-imagesd7452c07-f5cf-46dd-b3ad-e286d49acd170manchestermap1-185x114-e26d5a6c0a1927460b09e9db1b1c8f587771e4bc.jpg\")
is to open a new R&D centre in Manchester next year and expand other offices, as it takes on 1,000 new highly skilled staff.<\/p>\nOnline retail giant Amazon\u00a0is to open a new R&D centre in Manchester next year and expand other offices, as it takes on 1,000 new highly skilled staff.<\/p>\n
The new Manchester office will house at least 600 R&D employees, and the retail giant will also expand its premises in Edinburgh and Cambridge.<\/p>\n
The new highly-skilled employees at the company\u2019s Manchester office will work on projects that will make the Amazon experience better for customers, including software development, machine learning and R&D, said Gurr.<\/p>\n
The Edinburgh office will create space for 250 more roles, and the revamped Cambridge site will take on 180 extra staff to work on developing Amazon\u2019s Alexa, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and machine learning capabilities.<\/p>\n
Doug Gurr, UK country manager for Amazon, said innovation is an important strategy for the firm. \u201cWe love to invent \u2013 our people love to invent for our customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe invent on behalf of the customers, and the beauty of inventing on behalf of the customer is that they are never satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gurr said part of Amazon\u2019s mission statement is to \u201ckeep inventing\u201d the next thing that a customer will need, even if the customer doesn\u2019t know what that is yet.<\/p>\n
But this can only be done through \u201cinvesting in great people\u201d, he added. \u201cIt comes down to one thing and one thing only, and\u00a0that\u2019s having great people.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amazon has several development centres, 17 fulfilment centres and 40 delivery stations across the UK, and has invested more than \u00a39.3bn in its UK operations since 2010.<\/p>\n
Gurr said the firm is also investing Europe-wide, with 25 development centres across the continent working on technologies such as payments, translation, transportation and Prime Air.<\/p>\n
But the company\u2019s customers are not only those who buy goods through Amazon.com \u2013 Gurr pointed out that about 990,000 European businesses receive support from Amazon in the form of tools and services, such as AWS.<\/p>\n
Because of Amazon, even small businesses can grow and reach customers worldwide, he said, which \u201cwould have been unimaginable a decade ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Gurr added: \u201cOf course, to really take advantage, to really get to the next million or even beyond that, you have to have the right skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gurr said Amazon is lucky to have access to \u201camazing talent\u201d, but he said the pace of change in the coming years will be much faster than in the 20 years the firm has been operating in Europe, as customers\u2019 needs continue to evolve.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0customers change, retailers are also being forced to change, he said, and Amazon strives to\u00a0push the boundaries of retail, forcing others to follow suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything we look at tells us there is more to come than we have seen already,\u201d said Gurr. \u201cIt really still is day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amazon expects to have about 27,500 employees in the UK by the end of next year, including more than 6,500 roles in its AWS and R&D divisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Online retail giant Amazon\u00a0is to open a new R&D centre in Manchester next year and expand other offices, as it takes on 1,000 new highly skilled staff. The new Manchester office will house at least 600 R&D employees, and the retail giant will also expand its premises in Edinburgh and Cambridge. The new highly-skilled employees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,31],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-1478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jobs","category-tech-sparx","tag-manchester"],"yoast_head":"\n