New-York based tech firm Slice announced today that it will be creating an additional 20 jobs in Northern Ireland following its recent office expansion in Belfast.
Slice is a digital technology platform that connects pizza lovers with independent pizzerias right across the United States – it is currently the only one of its kind.
Through the Slice website or iOS and Android apps, people can easily order from their favourite family-owned pizzerias and support local shop owners in the process.
The business was founded in 2010 by Ilir Sela, who has multiple family members in the pizzeria business. To date it has driven over $600m in earnings for more than 12,000 independent pizzerias in the US. Sela said that the inspiration for the company was to empower and enable small businesses to “work for themselves, not by themselves.”
Slice committed to creating 50 jobs in 2018 when it established a new software engineering centre in Belfast. This was after receiving £400,000 in support from Invest NI. Slice has since recruited 35 people and is currently in the process of hiring for the 15 remaining roles.
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At the official opening of its new office in McAuley House on Castle Street in Belfast, Sela met staff to announce plans to boost the workforce by an additional 20 jobs over the next few years, bringing its Belfast headcount to 70.
The additional roles will be in engineering, product development, UX design, finance, marketing and analytics.
"Growing the Belfast office is a pivotal point"
Sela said: “We’re passionate about authenticity, not only with pizza, but also with our team and we’re pleased that we’ve found that in Belfast. Community is critical to the way that we build our business, which is why we want to expand the number and variety of roles available in Belfast. Growing the Belfast office is a pivotal point in Slice’s story, and our vision is that story will continue to unfold.
“Slice is about championing local, independent pizza restaurants in a way that supports the long-term growth of their business. In the same way, we want to invest in Belfast in a way that contributes to the overall growth of this vibrant city.”
Jason Ordway, CTO of Slice introduced Ilir and the Slice team to Belfast for the first time back in 2017. He said: “Like many US investors, we were initially attracted to Belfast for the strong engineering talent. However, since setting up in Belfast, we have discovered that strong talent pool extends beyond engineering to many of the other skills we need. We’re excited for what lies ahead for Slice in Belfast.”
