PITTSBURGH, Pa., June 11, 2020 – UPMC, a leading integrated healthcare provider and insurer, announced today that it is establishing the UPMC Global Technology Operations Centre in Kilkenny to support the health system’s continuing international expansion. The new centre—to be located in MacDonagh Junction, a historically significant mixed-use development—is expected to employ up to 60 skilled technology workers and other support staff over the next three years, adding to the more than 475 staff already in Ireland.
The project is supported by the Irish government through IDA Ireland.
Kilkenny was chosen because of its proximity to other key UPMC facilities, including hospitals, cancer centres and an outpatient site in Waterford, Cork, Carlow and Kildare, as well as for the country’s strong tech talent pool, business-friendly environment, significant presence of major tech companies and its active innovation community supporting tech start-ups and incubators.
“Our multinational business requires a technology platform that allows us to consistently provide the highest quality care at the lowest cost, regardless of location,” said Ed McCallister, chief information officer of UPMC. “As we considered locations worldwide that would best meet our needs, Ireland—and its centrally located, multi-cultural workforce—quickly rose to the top.”
UPMC International Senior Vice President David Beirne, who also is managing director in Ireland, noted that support from IDA Ireland, which encourages foreign investment and job creation, was one of many advantages that UPMC weighed. “This new centre will give us the unique ability to accommodate regulatory, cultural and language requirements across our international sites, including in Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan and China.”
Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys TD said, “I am delighted to see UPMC expand their presence in Ireland with the opening of a new Global Technology Operations Centre in Kilkenny. This will result in the creation of 60 highly skilled jobs, which will support the company’s international expansion. This is very welcome news for the county and will be a significant boost to the wider region. This demonstrates, once again, that the South East is an attractive location with much to offer investors.”
IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said, “This investment by UPMC demonstrates a huge vote of confidence in Ireland, our strong value proposition and our agile and adaptable business environment that we’ve sustained despite the unprecedented changes imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Kilkenny is an ideal choice of location, given the availability of highly skilled creative talent there. The new jobs being created are a welcome boost to the economy of the South East. I wish UPMC every success with this latest expansion.”
To prepare for the opening of its new centre in Kilkenny, UPMC already is hiring network, systems and security engineers, security and privacy analysts and other information technology managers. Candidates can watch for available positions here. The Global Technology Operations Centre staff will initially be housed in temporary space at MacDonagh Junction, adjacent to UPMC Nowlan Park, while the new UPMC offices are completed. UPMC will be the first healthcare tenant in this redevelopment project, which during its long history has been the site of a hospital and a workhouse for the poor.
With multiple healthcare facilities in Italy and Ireland, an advisory agreement to support an academic medical centre in Kazakhstan and a planned partnership to manage a network of new hospitals in China, UPMC has one of the largest and most experienced international divisions of any academic medical centre. With a focus on offering patients the best care close to home—wherever that may be—UPMC collaborates with healthcare providers, governments and other partners in its four focus countries to create sustainable, high-quality medical services.