OpenAI Plans 200 New Roles and Second AI Lab at Dublin Headquarters

OpenAI plans to add 200 new roles in Dublin while building a second applied AI lab at its European headquarters. This move brings the total planned hiring for Ireland this year to 450 roles, following an earlier announcement of 250 positions in July. The company confirmed the details on Monday through a statement reported by Bloomberg.

The new jobs will be based at the EU headquarters located at the Tropical Fruit Warehouse in the Docklands, where staff plan to move in from December. OpenAI currently employs more than 120 people in Ireland and is seeking forward deployed engineers, solutions staff, privacy engineers, sales, and user operations workers. These roles aim to support the new Applied AI Lab which pairs engineers with customers building on existing models.

This new facility acts as a deployment unit rather than a research lab, following the model of the first applied AI lab that opened in Singapore in May. That initial location had a commitment valued at S$300 million and planned for roughly 200 staff members. OpenAI has not published an equivalent financial figure for the Dublin project.

Alongside the hiring, OpenAI is extending its programme to support startups and smaller firms through the OpenAI for Ireland initiative. A new partnership with Dogpatch Labs includes a Founder Cafe aiming to improve AI skills among 150 high-potential founders in areas like ChatGPT and Codex. The goal is to help Irish businesses grow and equip more people across the country to benefit from AI.

The timing coincides with Dublin hosting the International AI Summit while Ireland holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU until the end of December. Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the investment as a vote of confidence in the Irish economy during the event. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar noted that Ireland has been critical to the company's success in Europe since the headquarters opened three years ago.

OpenAI's Dublin entity also decides who can police the company in Europe after the Data Protection Commission recognized it as the single establishment in the bloc in February 2024. This recognition has already affected regulatory outcomes, with a Rome court annulling Italy's penalty against the company in March. Main establishment status requires the Irish office to take real decisions about how personal data is processed.

The announcement also arrives while Dublin is shedding tech jobs from other major companies in the region. TikTok proposed cutting about 300 roles in July, and Meta reduced 8,000 positions globally in May.