A fortune 500 firm is to create 150 new jobs in Belfast with £1million support from Invest NI.
Georgia-headquartered Aflac Incorporated is the leading supplementary life and health insurance provider in the US and Japan.
Its new Global IT and Cybersecurity Innovation Centre in Northern Ireland will help support its 50million customers as well as market growth in both countries.
Alastair Hamilton, CEO, Invest NI said: "Aflac operates in the two largest insurance markets in the world, the U.S. and Japan. The increased safety of its customers is central to its business, and this new centre will ensure Aflac remains at the cutting edge of technology with access to global excellence in cybersecurity.
“The team here will provide technical expertise and operational support to complement its U.S. cybersecurity and IT operations. With a constant drive to innovate and exploit new emerging technologies, this will be an exciting addition to our cybersecurity and ICT sector.”
The new roles in IT and cybersecurity are to open up over the next five years and will have an average salary of around £45,000.
When fully operational, InvestNI say the jobs will contribute nearly £7million in wages to the Northern Ireland economy and help to establish it as a fintech hub.
Virgil Miller, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Aflac US and president of Aflac Group Insurance, said: "What is particularly attractive about Northern Ireland is the existing expertise in areas such as mobile and cloud development and intelligent surveillance technology.
"Investing in advanced technologies is at the heart of our strategy to deliver an exceptional service experience to our customers, and in Northern Ireland, we know that we can drive world-class innovation for our company.
"We are also pleased that the new centre will provide an additional time zone, enabling expanded threat monitoring and response.
"We conducted extensive research in Europe to identify a location that not only has the expertise in IT development and cybersecurity to support our business strategy, but also complements our company culture. We believe we have found that here."
Keith Farley, vice president of Aflac Northern Ireland, said: "It’s not every day that you can join a 64-year-old company on the ground floor, but that is exactly what we are offering. We are looking for great talent to help build a presence here in Belfast as a company that puts people first with a history as the leading innovator in our industry.
"At Aflac, we understand how our products provide solutions for our policyholders in their greatest times of need, which means that employees in Northern Ireland will be able to share in that satisfaction, taking pride in the work that they are doing each and every day."
Aflac currently has around 4,700 employees in the US and 11,000 globally. In 2018, Fortune magazine recognised it as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for the 20th consecutive year.
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