Overview
Thales has been present in Romania for more than 20 years, which began decades ago as a supplier to the Romanian armed forces. Over the years, the Group has grown and diversified its portfolio of activities to cover other major markets of the Group. In 2007, Thales established an industrial presence in order to provide electronic signalling solutions railways, where today Thales has a 30% share of this market. Thanks to our own Software Engineering capabilities, Thales in Romania is today the sole signalling provider company able to deliver end-to-end interlocking solutions without any external partners.
Thales expanded its local expertise through the creation in 2019 of the Romanian Engineering Competence Centre (ECC), a transversal entity supporting most of the Group businesses in delivering competitive solutions. The Romania ECC has progressively grown from 250 engineers to approximately 800 engineers in 2021. Today it serves as a regional hub for the Group’s software development needs, as well as activities in hardware, operations, maintenance and training.
Local cooperation
Thales is committed to becoming an important technological partner for Romania, through a successful participation in the ongoing large programs in Naval, Space, Land & Air defence, as well as cybersecurity and biometrics.
Thales in Romania has established strategic partnerships with Politehnica University and CAMPUS Research Institute in Bucharest since 2019, focusing on R&D programmes, CSR projects (Education) developing young talents while building technical competences and skills for the future. The purpose of these partnerships is to support the large ECC Internship Programme and to position Thales as an employer of choice among students and graduates.
By building the best local partnerships, customer intimacy and delivering competitive local industrial and development capabilities, Thales Romania has and will continue to decisively contribute to the success of this strategy. As an example, Thales delivered the most powerful laser system in the world (2x 10 PetaWats) to the Defence. Thales Romania directly contributed to the installation of the system and today a mixed French-Romanian team is operating this unique scientific instrument.
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
Countries, cities and transport operators rely on Thales’ ground transportation solutions to adapt to rapid urbanisation and meet new mobility demands – locally, between cities and across national frontiers.
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.
In 2007, Thales set up Thales Systems Romania (TSR) to meet the development needs of the local rail sector. Furthermore, Thales established an Engineering Competence Centre mainly covering the needs towards the Romanian Transportation sector.
In 2018, Thales Group decided to further expand its presence in Romania through the development of a Groupwide Engineering Competence Centre (ECC) as part of Thales Systems Romania, reinforcing its position as a leader in all its markets. The ECC delivers software development solutions beyond ground transportation, in a number of core Thales business areas, from space and defence, to security and aeronautics.
The Romanian ECC’s main focus is delivering on projects and improving existing solutions. With cybersecurity being a very important asset in any application, whether public, private or hybrid, Thales’ engineers are focusing their attention on this aspect, now, more than ever. As a long-term target, Thales Romania aims to be a key contributor within AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things) and Digitalisation.
The ECC delivers a first-class Thales engineering capability in Romania thanks to the existing ecosystem of skilled engineers and the agile environment, which Bucharest has to offer.
As a global technology leader, Thales has the capabilities to address new challenges and new opportunities ahead in Romania. With our engineers and researchers, Thales has unparalleled capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements.
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
