Google has today announced plans to hire for its first product development center in Africa which will be based in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, the product development center is set to open later this year.
In a blog post, Google says it is planning to hire Engineering Managers, Product Managers, Software Engineers, Senior UX Designers and UX Researchers to help create transformative products and services for people in Africa.
Recently, Microsoft opened the Africa Development Centre facility in Nairobi which hosts the engineering, design, research, and innovation teams, as well as the Microsoft Garage, a tech incubation hub that was developed as part of the continent’s continuous efforts to grow tech innovation. Visa also announced the opening of its first innovation center to collaborate with partners on payment and commerce solutions.
“We’re looking for talented, creative, and collaborative people who can help solve difficult and important technical challenges, such as improving the smartphone experience for people in Africa, or building products that will help everyone to thrive together.” Google noted in their announcement.
During the Google for Africa event last October, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest $1billion over the next five years in projects that aim to provide fast, reliable, affordable internet across the continent; build helpful, local products; and support the entrepreneurs and small businesses that underpin Africa’s economies.
The company also opened a Google AI research centre in Accra, Ghana to help drive useful innovations. The company says that the product development centre is a continuation of that commitment.
What does Google exactly want in the new hires?
Alongside great technical knowledge and a passion for solving hard problems together with others, you’ll need to understand how people across the continent use their phones every day and the challenges they face. How might searching for information and accessing entertainment be different in a context where internet connectivity can be challenging and devices and data plans can be expensive? Perhaps you have great ideas for how we can serve relevant and useful information to users just when they need it most? Or do you have a vision for how to reimagine the entire online experience, so it’s better, easier and more individually useful, particularly for first-time smartphone users?
If you are this person, you can check out the roles here, Google will be waiting to hear from you.
