Thornaby tech firm increasing operations centre by 100

A global tech firm is creating more than 100 new jobs at its Thornaby operations centre, after the company won new contracts including a landmark £27m project in Sydney, to provide the industry’s most advanced technology for any major city transport network.

Cubic Transportation Systems – the company behind London’s Oystercard – is increasing its Thornaby headcount from 150 to 260, hiring for roles including Senior Systems Automation Engineers, Service Desk Technicians, Senior Software Engineers and Software Engineers.

The fast-growing Stockton centre tripled its workforce from 45 to 150 at the start of the year.

Cubic has also just signed a long-term lease on its two-year-old global operations centre at Teesdale, a move it says “demonstrates the company’s long-term investment within the local area”.

The Teesside centre provides round-the-clock support to Cubic’s UK and global projects.

Cubic creates and manages contactless travel ticketing systems like London’s Oyster and processes more than 24bn financial transactions each year.

More than 50m people use its technology every day and it manages city-wide transportation projects in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and New York.

The latest move will see Cubic providing cutting-edge “situation awareness technologies” for Sydney, to ensure safer and more reliable journeys for people living and working in the city.

Craig Walton, Cubic’s IT operations manager, said: “The landmark project in Sydney, which will provide the city with one of the world’s most advanced transport management systems, will be largely managed out of the Stockton office.

“Running global projects, continuing to work closely with local universities and the signing of the 10-year lease indicates the faith we have in the region as a strong base of operations now and in the future.”

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “I’ve been following Cubic’s work since first visiting its Global Operations Centre earlier this year.

“I have been massively impressed with their work and delighted to see that they’ll be employing 100 additional staff.

“All of their hard work and success has bore fruit with these announcements.

“They have provided another jobs boost and their new ten-year lease shows a huge vote of confidence in the Tees Valley and our economy.

“This firm is at the forefront of some really exciting travel innovation and I can’t wait to hear what they have planned for the next ten years – and beyond.”

Cubic’s recruitment plans come a day after another Stockton tech firm – Map Group (UK), based at Preston Farm, announced it is creating a further 150 jobs in fibre-optic broadband.