Belfast MSP to almost double headcount after winning £100m deal

NHS contract triggers £20m expansion for Novosco

Novosco will add 150 employees to its headcount as part of a £20m expansion project, after winning a £107m NHS contract.

The Belfast-based cloud provider will boost its numbers to help facilitate the seven-year deal with Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Trust.

Novosco plans to bring 114 jobs to its Belfast HQ, with 32 new roles planned for its office in Daresbury, Cheshire, and the remaining positions set to be onsite with major customers. The firm's post-expansion headcount will be around 330.

Patrick McAliskey, managing director at Novosco, said: "Our latest contract with CUH will propel our growth in the English market and require us to significantly expand our Belfast headquarters.

"Expanding our workforce will be critical to driving the next phase of our business strategy and Invest Northern Ireland's (Invest NI) support will assist us to secure the right skills to ensure our continued growth."

Economic development agency Invest NI is providing Novosco with £1.2m towards the expansion.

Alastair Hamilton, chief executive at Invest NI, said: "To stimulate economic growth we need to support those businesses with potential for high growth to become the large companies of the future.

"To help achieve this we have a specific goal as part of our business strategy to double the number of companies participating in our scaling programme.

"Our support towards these new jobs will ensure Novosco has the additional resources it needs to grow its business. These highly skilled roles, to be recruited over the next three years, will contribute over £4.8m annually in additional salaries to the local economy."

Novosco said the newly created roles include IT infrastructure engineers, service delivery roles, project managers, cloud experts and cybersecurity specialists.