Multinational Rubrik fuels growth from its Cork base

Having planned to hire 50 staff in Cork, Rubrik has doubled that headcount — and a senior executive credits that success on the quality of graduates from institutions such as MTU

Rubrik management and staff welcomed Finance Minister Michael McGrath, who performed the official opening of the firm's second Cork office. Picture: Daragh McSweeney/Provision

The symbiotic relationship between a leading Californian tech firm and Munster’s universities has been hailed as key to it vastly exceeding expansion targets over five years in Cork.

Data security firm Rubrik — which counts the likes of PepsiCo, Honda, Estée Lauder, Harvard, and GSK among its clients — announced ambitions for 50 roles in Cork when it opened its offices in 2018 at the IDA’s Bishopstown site. 

Having doubled that job target since, the firm has moved to a larger space in Ballincollig to accommodate its sustained growth in Ireland and Europe.

Finance Minister Michael McGrath, who officially launched the new offices, praised the firm’s commitment to growth in Cork, and said its overachievement in its ambitions was a symbol of Cork’s talent pipeline.

“To see the company grow from essentially zero six years ago to now 100 people working in state-of-the-art offices in Ballincollig is a great boost,” Mr McGrath said. 

Rubrik vice president for customer support Emmet Hoare, Finance Minister Michael McGrath, and Rubrik chief customer officer Giri Iyer at the opening of Rubrik’s second Cork office. Picture: Daragh McSweeney/Provision

"It also reminds all of us that while the global players that have major operations here are important, other global players such as Rubrik are also looking to Ireland as a location for growth and further investment."

“It’s heartening to see it continue it grow and scale and especially the especially strong links it has with both University College Cork [UCC] and Munster Technological University [MTU]."  

Interns who began in 2018 are still with the firm today and are now providing their expertise and knowledge to new staff coming in — “a fantastic model and great success story, with much more to come”, Mr McGrath added. Rubrik’s vice president for customer support, Emmet Hoare, who heads up the Ballincollig office, said the firm’s relationship with MTU and UCC was bolstered through top talent coming out of university ready for high-level roles.

Mr Hoare said having a pipeline and access to leaders in third-level institutions such as MTU’s programme director Pat McCarthy ensured that the highest quality candidates are on the doorstep of firms such as Rubrik. He added: 

He and his colleagues have shown why Cork, and Munster as a whole, are fertile grounds for top talent in the IT sector.

Mr McCarthy said the relationship goes both ways, with firms such as Rubrik keen to hire talent from local institutions.

“We are extremely focused on closing the cybersecurity and multi-cloud skills gaps," he said. 

"Our collaboration with an industry-leading organisation like Rubrik in achieving these objectives and developing the next generation of local talent in these areas is critical, both within the region and beyond." 

Rubrik’s chief customer officer Giri Iyer, who came from California to see the new offices in both Bishopstown and Ballincollig open, said the “depth of talent we are able to access in Ireland” has driven significant local growth.

When we originally announced expansion to the region in 2018, we had plans for 50 new jobs in Cork. Since then, we have nearly doubled this headcount across engineering, customer support, and sales. 

"The expansion of our customer services hub and other critical functions means we can help even more enterprises in EMEA tackle the ongoing threat of ransomware.”

 Rubrik’s Zero Labs report recently revealed that 94% of EMEA organisations are concerned they will be unable to maintain business continuity if they experience a cyberattack.

The IDA’s chief executive Michael Lohan said: “It’s great to see a leading global company like Rubrik investing in Ireland, adding to the established cluster of expertise in data and cyber security. I wish them every success as they continue to grow their footprint here in Ireland.” 

Rubrik was founded in California in 2014 by Bipul Sinha, Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar, and Arvind Nithrakashyap.

Having secured more than $560m (€507m) in investor funding in its early years, the Palo Alto-headquartered firm was valued by analysts at $4bn in 2021.