The Israeli cyber-security company CyberArk is expanding its Research and Development (R&D) center at the Gav-Yam Negev Tech Park in Beersheba, the company announced on Monday. The company also said that it will continue hiring employees for a range of technical positions, aiming to reach 100 employees in the city over the next two years.
The center, which was inaugurated in May 2021 and is located near the IDF’s new C4I Corps (Teleprocessing Corps) Park and Ben Gurion University, will now occupy some 720 sq.m., the company said.
CyberArk describes itself as a global leader in Identity Security centered on privileged access management. It provides comprehensive security offering for both human and machine identities across business applications, distributed workforces, hybrid cloud workloads and throughout the DevOps lifecycle.
"The employees in our new R&D center form an integral part of the company's general R&D operations," said Udi Mokady, CyberArk CEO and founder. "In addition, their work accounts for a significant part of CyberArk's professional core. We opened the Beersheba center at the height of the COVID pandemic based on our conviction that this was the right move to make, both on the company level and the national level, of promoting hi-tech in southern Israel. Given the successful results, we look forward to expanding our operations further, to having more employees who help CyberArk's Israeli innovation reach over 7,000 customers worldwide," he said.
Other players in the park include Israel's cyber campus, the National Cyber Directorate’s CERT center, and over 70 development centers and startups.
"We see great value in making the Israeli hi-tech accessible to high-quality employees who do not live in central Israel. We also take pride in being an Israeli company that runs a development center in southern Israel in addition to our R&D center in the center of the country," said Chen Bitan, GM of CyberArk Israel and the company's Chief Product Officer. "CyberArk is excited to play a part in growing the technological ecosystem in Beersheba, for Zionist reasons and practical considerations, as the expansion helps us tap more hiring sources during a challenging time of development engineer scarcity," he said.
Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovich also praised the move.
"The news reflects the strong confidence companies have in Beersheba, as evidenced from a major global company such as CyberArk," Danilovich said. "They see the opportunity in Beersheba as an international hub leading knowhow, hi-tech and innovation. CyberArk inaugurated its center in our city based on a sincere outlook to help develop the Negev region. It is now growing and expanding its operations here, knowing that the next cyber and technological breakthroughs will emerge from Beersheba's innovation quarter," he said.