Groupon, familiar to many from email alerts for online deals, says it's to recruit 20 new people for its Dublin operation. The new full-time positions will be based in the company's newly established Software Development Centre in the capital.

Experienced software engineers, computer programmers, data scientists and computational marketers, as well new college graduates, will be recruited to fill the roles over the next 6 months.

The new staff will work across a range of functions, including computational marketing - analysing data to personalise consumer offers, and help businesses to identity and retain customers.

With plans to move to new offices in Dublin’s city centre as part of the expansion plan, the company, which has more than 10,000 people in 48 countries, already employs about a dozen people in the city.

Groupon expects to further increase their investment in the months to come.

Rich Williams, Groupon Chief Marketing Officer says "Ireland is a strategic market in Groupon’s global operations - and we want the best and brightest technology and marketing minds to help us to continue to scale... Groupon is driving growth through Big Data analytics, and we want to hear from candidates with competencies across a range of areas, including maths, statistics computing, science and sociology."

Welcoming the company’s recruitment drive and investment, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, said "A key part of this Government’s plans for jobs and growth is our ambition to make Ireland the internet capital of Europe... Today’s announcement that it (Groupon) is adding to the long list of global giants in this sector in establishing an operation and recruiting 20 people in Dublin confirms that we are making major progress in this area".

Groupon is encouraging applicants to visit their website for more information about the positions.