Minister announces new jobs as US firm opens new Global Security Operations Centre

Date published: 19 May 2020

The company is one of Northern Ireland’s first dedicated Cybersecurity-as-a-Service providers. Its new Global Security Operation Centre (SOC) in Belfast will provide security monitoring services to approximately 200 customers through a combination of automated tools and personalised advice.

Announcing the company’s investment, the Minister said:

“In these challenging times it is welcome news to be able to announce new cybersecurity jobs for Northern Ireland.

“Cygilant provides a cloud-based security monitoring service for mid-sized enterprises, essentially becoming their ‘eyes and ears’ for cybersecurity monitoring and compliance.

“This is an important endorsement of Northern Ireland’s growing reputation for excellence in cybersecurity.

“The company’s new SOC will house an information security team responsible for monitoring, analysing and responding to cybersecurity incidents on customers’ behalf. The new team will include SOC engineers and Cybersecurity Advisors (CSA) at different levels of experience, with salaries that are competitive in the market.”

The team of dedicated CSAs will work directly with customers as an extension of their team, using the latest threat hunting, detection, patch management and incident response technologies to quickly identify and respond to threats.

“The company has already secured its permanent base in Belfast’s city centre and recruited 25 of the roles, with hiring efforts continuing over the next few years. When fully operational, this investment will deliver nearly £2.8million in annual salaries to the NI economy. The project will also make a significant contribution to the technology, and in particular the growing cybersecurity sector, in Northern Ireland,” added the Minister.

Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) helped secure the investment for Northern Ireland, facilitating multiple visits by the company to meet with a range of stakeholders, including existing investors, the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) and our two universities. Invest NI also helped the company secure its new property, and has offered £455,000 of support towards the new jobs.

Cygilant CEO Rob Scott said:

“Opening this SOC is our first foray into the European market and thanks to the support of Invest NI, we made the decision to invest here in Belfast.

“When we decided to expand globally, we selected Northern Ireland and, specifically, Belfast for its incredibly skilled talent pool, strong academic links, and the accessibility of the city within Europe and to our home in Boston. The city is also quickly becoming an innovation hub for technology companies including a growing cybersecurity sector, so all the pieces just fit nicely together. We are thrilled to be here in Belfast and in the short time since we’ve started operations, we are already seeing the impact the team is having on our business.”

Cygilant currently employs over 100 staff globally. Its key sectors include finance, education, healthcare and retail, to name a few.

All Cygilant NI employees are currently working remotely from home. Any new employees recruited during the current situation will be on-boarded remotely and will work from home. Details on the roles and recruitment can be found at the Cygilant website