Argos wants to recruit for 150 new tech roles

Argos is looking to add 150 new employees to its tech division to ramp up its digital shopping operations.

The Sainsbury's-owned retailer will expand its tech team with roles based at its London Victoria tech hub and a handful of positions based at its head office in Milton Keynes.

The roles range from graduate positions all the way up to the principal level and cover software development, software engineering, machine learning and big data management as Argos looks to capitalise on emerging technologies like machine learning.

Its recruitment drive would grow the total number of tech staff working at its Victoria tech hub by 50%, with the headquarters boasting 300 tech staff since 2014.

With 60% of Argos customers browsing its catalogue online, and 70% of those sales coming via mobile devices, Argos chief executive officer John Rogers sees the investment as key to keeping the company at the forefront of retail technology.

"Creating 150 new permanent tech roles demonstrates the importance we place on growing and nurturing our own tech talent, ensuring Argos is a fantastic place to shop for our customers," he said.

Rogers hopes that by hiring more tech staff his business will be able to improve customer experience and even rethink it in the future.

"We're excited by what our teams are achieving so far and we're looking for more people who not only want to build today's tech, but also to think big and create new experiences and functionality that our customers don't even know they want yet," he added.

Argos will be trying to hire skilled IT staff in a competitive environment. A British Chambers of Commerce study last year found that three in four UK firms are struggling with a digital skills shortage.

However, a report by tech recruiter Hired found that London IT salaries have fallen 17% in the last three years.

Those interested in seeing the jobs available at Argos can click here.

Picture: Shutterstock

According to a studyconducted by the British Chambers of Commerce, this growing epidemic is affecting productivity within companies, with three in four firms profiled saying they're struggling with digital skills shortages.

Bobby Hellard

Bobby Hellard is ITPro's Reviews Editor and has worked on CloudPro and ChannelPro since 2018. In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next.

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