US business analytics firm SAS is to create 150 jobs in Dublin as part of a €40 million investment in a new customer contact centre .

The inside sales and customer contact centre will initially be located at NexusUCD, University College Dublin’s industry partnership centre.

It will support sales of data analytics software into markets across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

SAS chief revenue officer Carl Farrell said “a democratisation of analytics” was occurring, where more and more organisations are investing in analytical software and services that don’t require a significant up-front investment.

“Our new centre will provide the extra capacity needed to support customers as they embark on this data analytics journey,” he said.

“As a global company with offices all over the world, we wanted to expand in a city as vibrant as Dublin which has such a thriving technology ecosystem,” he added.

He said the roles in Dublin will include multi-lingual business development and sales specialists, customer engagement specialists, data scientists and software engineers.

IDA Ireland chief executive Martin Shanahan said SAS is a highly recognisable brand name in the global software industry and a leading player in data analytics.

“The development of the Inside Sales and Customer Contact Centre in Dublin is the first of its kind for SAS within EMEA and as such, is an important win for Ireland.”

He said SAS’s decision to locate here will further highlight the country as a centre for big data and data analytics - a key emerging sector targeted by the IDA.

The new centre follows the investment SAS made last year with the opening of a research and development (R&D) centre in Scotland focused on combatting fraud and financial crimes.