Online retailer Amazon.com has opened a software development centre in Cape Town, a statement issued by the company said on Tuesday.
The centre will create innovative web services and help software developers build innovative applications using Amazon technology.
It is the third centre of its kind in the world, with the other two in Scotland and India.
Chris Pinkham, managing director of the centre, co-founded South Africa’s first internet service provider, UUNET, in 1993. In 2000 he joined Amazon.com in Seattle as director for the network engineering group and later as vice president responsible for worldwide IT systems infrastructure.
The launch of the Amazon centre in Cape Town is “testament to the calibre of the highly-skilled talent pool in South Africa”, according to Pinkham.
The centre will deal with idea generation and technical design and will expand Amazon.com’s global web services offering, allowing software developers around the world to develop and launch their own services built around the company’s infrastructure and product data.
“We want to build a team of the most talented individuals that South Africa has to offer,” Pinkham said in the statement. The centre is looking for computer scientists and software engineers with entrepreneurial spirit to join the start-up team. – I-Net Bridge