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Originally published on 28 Oct 2019.
From the moment you walk into the Autodesk Dublin office, you’re surrounded by a lively atmosphere and buzzing team energy. It’s hard to believe that just over 18 months ago, this team had started its journey as Autodesk’s EMEA hub.
We chose Dublin because of its global business environment, access to rich talent, ability to support European languages and quality of life for employees. We’ve learned some valuable lessons along the way, but the fact still remains that Dublin is a vibrant, multicultural and creative city and these qualities align well with Autodesk’s brand and culture.
We’ve grown to 230 employees in that time, and today we’re excited to announce that we’re opening a whole new floor in our office at 1 Windmill Lane – doubling our overall capacity to 400.
Earlier this year, we hosted Martin Shanahan, CEO IDA Ireland and Minister Patrick Breen for our official new office opening and ribbon cutting.
It’s a credit to the strength of this team and incredible talent the Irish market has to offer. Not to mention the city has global appeal to international talent. We have over 30 nationalities under one roof, collaborating with Autodeskers and our customers around the world. You can learn more about the office and joining the team here.
One witness to this exciting growth is Martin Gurren, a client services director and the site lead for Autodesk in Dublin. “It’s been an incredible journey so far watching the team grow together, cultivating a strong sense of community to welcome new colleagues from all types of cultures, background and ideas. This office plays a key role in supporting both our EMEA and global colleagues and customers, driving Autodesk’s mission to help people imagine, design and make a better world.”
Collaborating with IDA Ireland throughout our growth in Dublin has been invaluable. Martin Shanahan, CEO IDA Ireland commented: “International software companies like Autodesk continue to be attracted to Ireland due to the availability of a strong tech talent pool. This is testament to the fact that in just over 18 months, the company has decided to take another floor at their Windmill Lane office, enabling them to double their overall capacity to 400. On behalf of IDA Ireland, I would like to congratulate the Autodesk team on the expansion of their Dublin office, and wish them continued success.”
Leading the charge on local talent acquisition is Andrea Reger, a senior recruiter at the office. Her team’s success received a strong endorsement at the Irish HR Champion Awards 2019 by winning the award for Champion Talent Acquisition Programme. “We’ve had huge support from the IDA and Irish business community during our growth in Dublin. Understanding the demographics, talent pool, incentives and common practices in Ireland was important to ensure employees are getting the best working experience at Autodesk. Whether they’re an Irish local or moving from a different country, we make sure they feel at home and receive a positive induction when they join the team. What’s more, many employees like to get involved in local community initiatives, volunteering activities as well as education institutions. We look forward to building this collaborative and inclusive environment in the years to come!”
Over 100 employees from the office participated in celebrating Pride at the Dublin Parade in July 2019.
The HR team in Ireland, led by Michelle Rogers, is driving an employee engagement program fuelled by Autodesk’s culture evolution. They’ve successfully introduced several diverse programs focused on the physical, mental and social well-being of our staff. The wellbeing, engagement and inclusion of our employees is essential, and this program will continuously evolve with employee feedback and input.
The Dublin office is home to many functions within Autodesk. Ranging from R&D, engineering and localisation, to technical support, client services and inbound sales. Furthermore, finance and operations, as well as facilities, HR, and recruitment. Many of these teams will continue to grow over the coming years.
In addition, Autodesk is growing a new team of marketing and business development representatives (BDRs) in Dublin for construction solutions, supporting the EMEA business.
Employees drive our culture of impact. The team in Dublin participated in the Global Month of Impact in May with the Solar Buddy initiative.
Taking a chance on a career move to Autodesk Dublin was Raphael Racine, Senior Software Engineering Manager, who has been with Autodesk for 22 years. “Relocating to Dublin was a great opportunity both professionally and personally. Building international experience in the technology industry, establishing a new engineering team and bringing my family to experience this amazing country and exciting city has been an adventure.” Raphael’s team, among many others, have thrived in Dublin.
“There’s a strong business community in the city, plenty of collaboration opportunities, great access to talent and a fantastic environment to inspire people and foster innovation. By leveraging on emerging technologies such as machine learning and Neural Machine Translation, my global team continues to develop new solutions and services on our Forge ecosystem. As a customer-focused company, we also ensure that our users receive the same great experience in their native language when using Autodesk products.”
Each floor features familiar Autodesk office designs, while taking inspiration from iconic parts of Dublin’s city, such as the River Liffey, Georgian doors and creative street artists.
Both floors in the building were designed by Autodesk’s Jenny Lum using Autodesk Revit, which uses building information modelling (BIM) and allows her to digitally see the space before the work begins. Each floor features familiar Autodesk office designs, while taking inspiration from iconic parts of Dublin’s city, such as the River Liffey, Georgian doors and creative street artists.
One particular feature of the newly opened floor is a Product Experience Lab; a space where employees can fuel their creativity using Autodesk software and get closer to how our customers use it. Teams can participate in workshops and classes to experiment, observe and practice using different tools and software programs. It’s also a great collaboration experience, as teams can share their skills and knowledge with one another in this fantastic lab.
Employees will have the chance to experiment and practice using manufacturing tools such as 3D printing in the experience lab.
With our continued success in Ireland, EMEA and around the world, we’re excited to be growing the Dublin operation with more office space and new people to support these ambitions. Attracting and retaining the right talent to our team is our focus, so that Autodesk can help our customers solve the design and make challenges affecting Ireland and beyond.
