Kantar expands commitment to Porto with new Global Technology & Innovation Hub

27 April 2022

Kantar, the world’s leading data-driven analytics and brand consulting company today announces new plans to expand its presence in Porto. Kantar’s technology team, led by Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Alex Cesar, will open its first GTI Hub as part of a strategy to make advanced technology capabilities core to Kantar’s differentiation. 

Technology is recognised as a fundamental driver of Kantar’s transformation, the new GTI Hub will act as an incubator for the new technologies underpinning the products and platforms that will deliver the next phase of growth for Kantar and our clients. Initially, 150 Data and Software Engineering roles will be placed in Porto in 2022, with a plan to scale this to approximately 400 over the next four years. Today’s plan builds upon Kantar’s previous announcement of up to 200 new roles in 2022 in the new Regional Delivery Centre. 

The new GTI hub will initially focus on recruiting data and software engineers to work on Kantar’s Marketplace platform, as well as in the Global Security and Infrastructure Transformation teams. Over the medium term, capabilities will be expanded for Porto to serve as a centre of expertise for Cloud and Infrastructure Engineering and Application Support. Porto will also serve as the home base for Kantar’s ‘digital nomad’ community of senior technologists.

Discussing Kantar’s technology strategy and the decision to select Porto, Ms Cesar said “Advanced technology is core to Kantar’s product roadmap and our growth ambitions, and I am dedicated to making Kantar the employer of choice for tech professionals. The culture we are building within our tech community is unique; we break the stereotypes about how technology and business work together, innovation thrives, and we develop our talent in an inclusive environment. 

My role is to build a technology landscape and team that accelerates Kantar’s growth securely. Our selection of Porto for our first global technology & innovation hub, is an important step in achieving that goal and is reflective of the culture we are building. It is a beautiful place to live and work, and it provides us access to a growing pool of tech talent close to the business they support. Beyond the advanced projects we have going on inside Kantar, being in Porto further adds to the attraction of Kantar as a great place to be for technologists.”