Kainos, one of Northern Ireland’s largest locally owned IT services companies, plans to create more than 80 new jobs in Belfast on the back of “ambitious growth plans”.

The company, which celebrates 25 years in business this year, was set up as a joint venture between Fujitsu and Queen’s University’s business incubation unit.

It employs 180 people in Belfast but plans to expand its operation in an Invest NI-backed project that will create new software engineering, project management and sales jobs.

Kainos, which is headquartered in Belfast with offices in Dublin, London and Gdansk, has been offered £984,000 of financial support for the new posts from Invest NI.