There was a double good news on the jobs front for Galway this week with two major employers revealing the creation of almost 200 prime posts for the city between them.

Complete Laboratory Solutions plans to create up to 140 new impact driven roles at their Galway city facility over the next three years – marking one of the most significant expansions in its 30-year history.

And Datavant – the health information technology company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona – revealed that more than 40 people have joined its Irish team in the six months since it announced its expansion into Galway.

This is well ahead of its hiring target and it has already hit its goal for 2025, three months ahead of time. But because of what the company called ‘this incredible talent response’, Datavant will continue to hire at pace in Galway.

CLS, the contract laboratory provider founded in Connemara in 1994, made its expansion announcement following a €9m upskilling programme, supported by IDA Ireland, which has accelerated CLS’s transformation from a successful medium-sized enterprise into a fully Irish-led multinational, equipping its workforce to deliver an expanded portfolio of end-to-end solutions.

The creation of 140 new roles at the Galway city facility over the next three years is underpinned by sustained business growth, an expanded portfolio of solutions, and strategic transformation from a medium-sized enterprise into a multinational organisation. This will bring the total CLS workforce to 400.

Founder and CEO of CLS Evelyn O’Toole said that this marked ‘one of the most exciting phases in CLS’s journey, as we scale from a national success story to a global player’.

“Our €9 million investment in people and capability is enabling us to deliver end-to-end solutions in quality assurance, lean transformation, and quality control laboratory services; supporting clients at every stage of their lifecycle,” she said.

“This strategic expansion reflects both the evolving needs of industry and our ambition for sustainable growth.

“With new capabilities, accelerators, and a highly skilled workforce in place, CLS is well-positioned to drive innovation and resilience across dynamic, fast-moving sectors.”

Building on three decades of growth, CLS has now extend its solutions beyond laboratory testing to include quality assurance, lean transformations, specialised training, and managed talent resourcing, offering clients a 360° quality management partner.

Recruitment for the new positions across all experience levels including new graduates spanning science, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, engineering and business analytics will begin immediately, strengthening CLS’s capacity to serve the dynamic pharmaceutical, MedTech, food, and environmental sectors.

At the end of March, Datavant had announced it was to hire 125 new roles at its global R&D centre in Galway before the end of 2027 – but already over one-third (43) of this overall figure has been hired.

The tech roles that have already been filled include software engineering, data science, test automation, product management, information technology and technical writing as the company builds a full end-to-end capability in Galway.

The next phase of hiring has already begun, focusing on Software Engineering, Full Stack and Front-End Engineers, Cloud Engineers, Test Engineers, IT Professional and, Data Scientists. The teams will be supported by Software Engineering Managers who also are being actively recruited at present.

Datavant Ireland is currently operating out of the PorterShed in Galway city centre but will soon be headquartered in a new 15,000 square foot office at the Bonham Quay campus overlooking the waterfront in early 2026.

Pictured: Good news…CLS founder and CEO, Evelyn O’Toole.