Sophos offers to hire sacked Symantec engineers

Axed Symantec engineers may find work a few blocks away at Sophos' North Sydney office.

Symantec would not disclose how many engineers will be cut.

But Sophos said it would offer to recruit redundant engineers as part of plans to expand its local operations.

"Sophos has an on-going campaign to recruit high-quality engineers to continue to expand local technical support together with [headcount] in our labs," Asia Pacific managing director Rob Forsyth told SC Magazine Australia.

"We feel providing customers with local support in Australia is important."

The losses are part of global cuts in Symantec's research and developement teams, Symantec said in a statement.

Forsyth, responding to reports in The Australian that Symantec's decision to cut staff was based on the strong Australian dollar, said higher staff wages balanced against stronger sales profits.

"Licensing costs and overheads in Australia are worth more - it is quid pro quo."

Symantec will finalise redundancies by the end of the year.

"Symantec is committed to its customers and partners in Australia and these changes do not affect its customer-facing teams in this region," the company said in a statement.

Copyright © SC Magazine, Australia