Overview
Thales has been present in Romania for more than 40 years, but the local industrial presence was set in 2007, in order to provide electronic signaling solutions for railways; currently Thales have a 30% share of this market in Romania. Due to the development of its SW Engineering capabilities, Thales in Romania is today the sole signaling provider company able to deliver by itself end-to-end interlocking solutions.
Since 2019, the Romanian Engineering Competence Center was qualified by the Group as a Transverse Engineering Competence Center, successfully cooperating with all Group GBUs (except Avionics) in delivering competitive solutions. By the end of 2021 the Romanian ECC will employ 800 software engineers (growing from 250 at the end of 2018). The continuous footprint growth, quality improvement and increase of the maturity of the teams is our main mission in support of the Group.
Local cooperation
Thales’ strategy is to boost its local presence by establishing industrial capabilities and cooperating with local partners, scientific institutes and Universities.
Aside the strong presence on the local Transportation market, our efforts are focusing on facilitating Thales Business Lines the access to local opportunities. If successful, the Romanian team is prepared to contribute by developing local competencies and capabilities that could enforce customer intimacy and improve competitiveness of Thales solutions.
As an example, Thales LAS succeeded in Romania, to deliver the most powerful LASER SYSTEM in the world (2x 10 PetaWats). Thales Romania teams received the appropriate training and contributed to the installation, PIO and currently a mixed French-Romanian team are operating this unique scientific instrument, for the benefit of the customer.
Thales is committed to become the national technological leader by helping the Romanian Government to master every decisive moment. Currently, the focus is to facilitate Thales GBUs positioning as an important defence partner for Romania, by a successful participation into the large military ongoing programs in Naval, Space, Air and Land defense, as well cybersecurity and biometrics. By building the best local partnerships, customer intimacy and preparing the local industrial capabilities, Thales Romania will contribute to the success of this strategy.
Defence
As a trusted partner of the Romanian armed forces, Thales has supplied various military systems, from tactical radios to encrypted military tele-communications solutions or underwater technologies embedded into naval, land and air platforms.
Transportation
With more than 20 years’ of experience on the Romanian market, Thales rail signaling solutions revitalize existing rail networks and ensure greenfield installations start off right.
Digital Identity & Security
In the civil identity sector, Thales offers end-to-end Identity and Biometric Solutions.
Science & Technology
Thales's international growth strategy is based on the development of world-class expertise as close as possible to its customers.
Thales is expanding its presence in Romania through the development of a Group Engineering Competence Centre (ECC), reinforcing its position as a leader in all its markets. The ECC will deliver solutions beyond ground transportation, in a number of core Thales business areas, from space and defence, to security and aeronautics.
The ECC delivers a first class Thales engineering capability in Romania thanks to the existing ecosystem of skilled engineers and the agile environment that Bucharest has to offer. Both the needs of the local market and export markets will be catered for, meaning those who join Thales will have the opportunity of working on diverse projects with a high level of complexity, innovating in all the different markets we are present in.
As a global technology leader, Thales has the capabilities, the strength and desire to address new challenges and new opportunities ahead in Romania. With our engineers and researchers, we have unparalleled capability to design and deploy equipment, systems, and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Thanks to the Bucharest-based Competence Centre, we will have a greater capability to serve Romania’s ambitions.
Building on its position as a leader in the rail transport industry, Thales in Romania is diversifying its activities to become a front runner in all of our core markets. Our Engineering Centre in Bucharest is becoming a strategic site in Thales Group, with high-level projects and career opportunities across all of our businesses: Defense, Security, Space, Aerospace and Ground Transportation. The highly skilled engineers and talented researchers Romania has to offer will provide the capability to deliver the best, innovative and digital solutions to our customers, both locally and globally.
Pierre-Eric Pommellet,ex-Chief Operating Officer, Thales Group.
As of January 2019, Thales in Romania has moved to a brand new state of the art office in the Orhideea Towers, one of the most modern and popular office complexes in the Western part of Bucharest city centre. This move represents the fast pace at which Thales in Romania is growing and the desire to provide employees with the best working environment possible. One of the advantages of being in this area is the close proximity to the Politechnica University of Bucharest, one of our key university partners.
Thales Romania is not just growing fast, but is also gaining a central role within the Thales group. We need a working space that stimulates creativity and networking, which is adapted to the young professional's expectations. This is very much in our philosophy that people need a comfortable and friendly working environment. The new premises are spacious, ideally located near the City's center, easily accessible and featuring all the modern day amenities. We are looking forward to welcoming you to our new offices.
Silviu Agapi, Country Director for Thales in Romania
