One hundred tech jobs to be created in Halifax

One of Europe’s fastest growing tech companies, AND Digital has chosen the town’s cultural quarter for the brand new office, or ‘Club’ as it has chosen to dub it.

Close to the Piece Hall and the Square Chapel Arts Centre, the club - officially named Club Spärck Jones - will be one of the first businesses to make their home at Leeds Beckett University’s Piece Mill conversion, now the University Business Centre, designed to support business growth.

The firm said that its latest club will bring new employment opportunities to the region, with AND actively recruiting across the full spectrum of digital roles - from UX designers, platform developers and full stack engineers to product analysts and Scrum masters.

Paramjit Uppal, founder of AND Digital, said: “We’re looking forward to playing our part in helping grow the digital economy across the North, and West Yorkshire in particular.

“AND was built to accelerate the digital capabilities of ambitious organisations, and we’ve done this with a variety of businesses already, including Covéa Insurance, TalkTalk and Matalan.

“We see a fantastic opportunity to help organisations in West Yorkshire build both remarkable digital products and discover the talent they need for themselves.

“I’m delighted that we’ll be adding over 100 tech and digital jobs in 2019 across West Yorkshire - from graduates looking for their very first roles in technology, to experienced practitioners.”

The company has enjoyed a successful recent history, winning a number of accolades.

It is ranked third in The Sunday Times 75 Best Companies to Work For in the North West and 15th nationally in the equivalent 100 Best Companies listing.

Andrew Wright, chair of Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Business, Innovations and Growth Panel said: “It’s great to welcome AND Digital to Halifax’s architecturally unique Cultural Quarter, and I’m delighted the LEP Trade and Investment team supported the process.

“The quality and number of jobs its creating demonstrates a real commitment to our region.

“I look forward to seeing it grow through its innovative work with Covéa Insurance, which is also increasing its presence in Halifax, and other leading brands.

“It’s a time of dynamism for our digital sector, which is experiencing significant growth - employing 102,000 people and contributing £6.5 billion to the economy.”

AND Digital serves as an enablement partner for global organisations including BA, Diageo, Whitbread, Taylor & Francis and the Telegraph Group,

Calderdale Council’s director for regeneration and strategy, Mark Thompson, said: “Halifax is fast becoming one of the key locations for business growth in the north, and it’s great news that AND Digital has chosen the town’s University Business Centre as the location for their expansion.

“The move will also create varied job opportunities to enable growth in our digital sector and complements our Vision 2024 aspiration for Calderdale to be a place where talent and enterprise can thrive.”

Club Spärck is named after the British computer scientist, Karen Spärck Jones.

Spärck Jones was a Professor of Computers and Information at Cambridge Computer Laboratory, where her research focussed on natural language processing. One of her most significant contributions was the idea of inverse document frequency (IDF) – a technology that underpins most modern search engines today.

In addition to her pioneering work, Spärck Jones was a vocal advocate of women in technology.

All of AND Digital’s clubs are named after famous pioneers from Laura Dekker, to Alan Turing and Tenzing Norgay.