It was announced today that Rent the Runway has selected Galway for its first-ever international technology office. The company created the world’s first living, sustainable closet by enabling women to rent versus buy their clothing.
The centre in Galway will be the first operation for Rent the Runway outside of the US. The privately owned company has five physical locations in the US, 11 million members, and 1,800 employees.
Rent the Runway aims to hire 150 engineers and tech developers over the next three years. The prospective team, to be based in the Claddagh area of Galway city centre, will tackle core technology challenges that are critical to Rent the Runway’s overall success and will influence the future of the next generation of services.
The new international office in Galway will enable the company to expand its engineering and product development footprint and new Rent the Runway employees will have the opportunity to launch or grow their careers across a number of roles in software engineering and development.
The team in Galway will be undertaking in-house software development unique to RTR as well as supporting US operations by working on existing technological activity supporting RTR’s mobile and desktop platform through which new and current users and subscribers access their services.
The Irish teams will also be working on projects to expand and enable RTR’s unique fulfilment network, leverage data science to bring personalization and insight to all aspects of RTR’s systems, and experiment with new data driven applications. The team will work hand-in-hand with the US-based R&D teams.
Rent the Runway’s Galway office will be temporarily located at the Portershed. The company expects to relocate to a more permanent home late Summer 2019 at the newly-renovated Piscatorial School building, a prime waterfront location overlooking the Claddagh in Galway City Centre.
Welcoming the news, Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation, Heather Humphreys said, "I am delighted to see Rent the Runway choose the West of Ireland to open their first ever international office and create 150 new high-tech jobs. Galway City will be a natural fit for this innovative, progressive and creative company. Ireland warmly welcomes new firms in niche, highly skilled areas and Rent the Runway will join a growing number of disruptive companies based here. I wish them well for the future."
Rent the Runway Chief Technology Officer, Josh Builder added, "We are thrilled to open our first-ever international office in Galway, where we’ve had overwhelming support from the Irish Government and the IDA. From the start, it was clear that Galway was the perfect location for our new office - the city has an atmosphere of creativity, mirrors Rent the Runway’s cultural values, and excitingly, will be the European Capital of Culture in 2020. There’s an incredible opportunity to tap into the growing STEM talent in the region, and we’re eager to begin establishing our Irish footprint."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
