Databricks to invest over US$350 million in Singapore, more than double headcount

[SINGAPORE] Data-management firm Databricks on Wednesday (Sep 16) announced that it plans to invest over US$350 million in its Singapore operations over three years and double its workforce to more than 500.

The increased Singapore headcount will include more than 200 technical roles, such as forward-deployed engineers and technical specialists, in areas including R&D.

Nick Eayrs, vice-president of field engineering for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Databricks, said that demand for these roles is rising as the company seeks to expand its artificial intelligence-implementation capacity for customers.

As the demand for implementation steps up, Databricks needs to hire more talented engineers to onboard and build the systems.

The company chose to invest in Singapore for its trusted government and opportunities for partnership, as well as talent ecosystem, he added.

Eayrs told The Business Times that the country’s role extends beyond that of a regional sales hub, noting that the Republic has know-how in both commercial and technical operations such as marketing, engineering and machine learning.

“Part of what we do around our AI engineering actually happens here, in Singapore,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of Databricks’ Data + AI conference, held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Databricks currently employs more than 250 employees in Singapore and has over 1,500 employees based in Apac. Globally, the company has a headcount of more than 10,000.

The firm’s platform allows enterprises to organise and govern the data used by AI models, usually resulting in better outputs by the same models.

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Forward-deployed engineering is a new field of engineering which connects customers and engineers so that products can be tailored to suit client needs.

While Eayrs noted that Databricks will hire experienced engineers to fill the forward-deployed engineer headcount, he added that it will also hire fresh graduates who can then be trained by senior engineers to take up such roles.

“(Fresh graduates) have great engineering knowledge; they just lack the experience, and we can bridge that gap, and we can nurture them, and we can grow them into really capable engineers over time,” he noted.

To further support its Singapore ambitions and accommodate the additional workforce, part of the US$350 million investment will be used to quadruple the size of its headquarters in the city-state, with a new 32,000-square-foot office in IOI Central Boulevard Towers.

The headquarters, which serves as the hub for Apac and Japan, will include dedicated training and collaboration facilities for partners and clients.

The office will take up two floors and the company expects to officially launch the office in November this year.

Currently, Databricks is based at a co-working space along Battery Road.

AI skills for all

Speaking at a fireside chat, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo noted that Singapore’s next phase of AI development will shift from experimentation to production.

However, she acknowledged that organisations in the Republic have to overcome some “very serious impediments” such as a shortfall in skills and integrating AI with existing workflows.

To help address these issues, Databricks will partner with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to train 20,000 people in the country in industry-relevant data and AI skills.

Through the training, participants will develop skills in areas such as data engineering, analytics, generative AI and AI governance.

The company added that it will collaborate with the Singapore Management University to incorporate its industrial knowledge into the school’s curriculum.

“I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to expand into the other (universities),” said Eayrs, adding that Databricks has already worked with the National University of Singapore for a maritime analytics programme.