Deloitte will recruit up to 500 new staff for new Adelaide-based innovation centre
Professional services firm Deloitte has chosen Adelaide to host its first Centre for Innovation and Technology, with hundreds of jobs to be created.
Deloitte is looking to recruit up to 500 new staff for its Adelaide-based Centre for Innovation and Technology, to be announced on Monday.
The professional services firm will base its first Australian innovation hub in Adelaide, to take advantage of the state’s ecosystem of defence, space, and other technology companies, managing partner Adelaide Hendri Mentz said.
The centre will partner with research teams from South Australia’s universities, Deloitte said, with a focus on areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and cyber.
“Supporting the firm’s 9600 professionals across the country, it will then deploy these solutions, and others, in the delivery of large-scale technology transformation projects for Deloitte clients,’’ the firm said.
“In addition, we will be able to deploy market leading technology solutions to support our audit clients allowing us to improve efficiency and quality.’’
Mr Mentz said the firm would be looking for more space in the CBD to house its new workers, which would take its local headcount from about 300 to about 800.
Deloitte separately announced a couple of months ago that it would be hiring about 60 new staff in Adelaide to grow its consulting practice.
Mr Mentz said Adelaide was selected as the site for the new hub for a number of reasons.
“It’s because of the focus on technology and innovation in Adelaide,’’ he said.
“You’ve got that focal point of Lot Fourteen here, you are conglomerating skills and resources from different organisations, all of that is focused on technology, it’s focused on innovation.
“That ecosystem (including the defence and space sectors) is really attractive.
“This will be the first of these innovation centres in Australia.
“It’s going to cover quite a range of services, IT consulting, data analytics, but it goes right through to our traditional business offerings, we will have some audit services in there.’’
Mr Mentz said the local team would be tapped into its global networks to work on developing solutions for its clients.
“It’s not one-dimensional. We have to bring together different skill sets to be able to meet the needs of our clients and that’s where the innovation component comes in.
“We don’t think that the services we deliver now is necessarily going to be future-fit so we’ll need that innovation component in everything we do.
“If we want to solve the most complex problems then we need to bring those skill sets together.’’
The company would be recruiting widely, right down to the school-leaver level and graduates and was keen to present opportunities to former defence force personnel and people with indigenous backgrounds.
Premier Steven Marshall said the new centre was a good fit for the state’s defence and technology focus.
“The establishment of Deloitte’s Australian Centre for Innovation and Technology in Adelaide further highlights our economic growth in sectors underpinned by technology and innovation, such as defence, space, healthcare and the public sector.
“The expansion will mean more jobs for South Australia, tapping into our talent market and pipeline of skilled workers that are available to take up roles in cyber security and data science in our state.”
The announcement follows a number of moves by large tech and services firms to set up in Adelaide in recent times, with MTX announcing in May that it would establish its first regional service hub in SA as part of an expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, itself creating about 500 jobs over three to five years.
Global consulting firm Accenture announced as many as 2000 jobs would be created locally across five years for its new aerospace and defence-focused technology delivery hub.
Deloitte did not receive government support to attract it to base its centre in Adelaide, the firm said.
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