Amazon to double high-tech staff in London

E-commerce giant Amazon has opened its new London headquarters, a 15-storey building in Shoreditch, and has announced that it is set to increase the number of research and development roles based in the capital from 450 to 900.

Amazon has taken all the floors of the Principal Place building that spans 600,000 square feet, and the move is part of the e-tailers commitment to create 5,000 new jobs in the UK to reach 24,000 permanent employees across the country by the end of the year.

The move to the larger headquarters means that the London Development Centre will be able to expand, growing from 450 to 900 high tech roles, and overall by the end of the year, Amazon will have over 5,000 corporate and research and development roles in London across three offices in Shoreditch, Holborn and Barbican supporting its retail, digital entertainment, devices and AWS businesses.

"London is one of the world's truly great cities and home to some of the most talented, creative people on the planet, and we are delighted to provide our teams of innovators with a new, purpose-built workplace," said Doug Gurr, UK country manager, Amazon. "While we open a new development centre to house today's innovators, we also want to help foster the next generation of inventors by funding a million healthy breakfasts to give schoolchildren the fuel to learn, and expand our bursary programme to help more women get university educations for high tech roles."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan added: “This is the latest in a long line of recent major investments in London by global tech firms over the last year, and shows once more that our great city is the tech capital of Europe.”

The Amazon headquarters, between Liverpool Street and Shoreditch High Street stations, offers employees extensive amenities, such as several cafes and restaurants, open plan work spaces with adjustable sitting/standing desks for all employees, a large auditorium for employee events, and two large outdoor spaces offering views over London.