Ryanair Labs is Launched – and They’re Hiring

Ryanair today announced Ryanair Labs, “a state-of-the-art digital and IT innovation hub” based at its Dublin Office Campus in Swords, as it continues the recruitment of 200 new staff to develop “a world class online travel platform”.

It’s the latest step in the company’s embrace of the internet, which saw the replacement of their old “1990s-style” website last year with a new up-to date online experience. While they had initially reaped the benefit of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ offered by online ticket sales and check-in, their competitors had caught up, and ‘cheap-and-nasty’ was no longer a useful marketing gimmick.

The establishment of Ryanair Labs is clearly designed with recruitment in mind, and should help the airline to compete with the multinational tech and media companies trying to attract talent to work in Dublin.  “Interested in a brand new Digital Media Lab, with an airline attached?”, the website asks.

Today’s announcement outlines the current vacancies the airline seeks to fill, from Chief Technology Officer and Head of Digital Marketing, to Mobile Developers, UX and UI Specialists, Testers, Data Scientists, Social Media & Content personnel.

The blurb for the “Innovation Hacker” roles is clearly designed to appeal people with a startup mentality:

We need three Innovation Hackers to build the future of mobile travel apps. We don’t even know what they are yet. We’re building a small team to figure it out. Your job will be to pitch ideas for disruptive apps and build them.

Think of it as an incubator, within a startup, within an airline …

Ryanair’s Robin Kiely says that the airline is “seeking to hire the best of the best to reimagine the online travel sector”:

“Ryanair Labs will offer the perks and culture of a start-up without the downsides”.

For more information, and full details of all the jobs, visit labs.ryanair.com.