Two years after it announced it would open a branch office in Halifax, international technology consultancy and services company Cognizant plans to double its presence in the city, adding another 1,000 jobs.

When Cognizant originally announced it was coming to Nova Scotia, it pledged to employ 1,250 people under a payroll rebate agreement with provincial business development agency Nova Scotia Business Inc., now Invest Nova Scotia. Since then, it has reached most of that target, and on Tuesday it announced a second, similar agreement to double that figure.

Most of the work Cognizant performs for clients tends to involve relatively simple tasks. But when the New Jersey company first moved into Atlantic Canada, innovation ecosystem observers including Halifax Partnership chief economist Ian Munro and then-Volta CEO Martha Casey predicted it could help provide an entry point into the industry for new workers, who could eventually move on to higher-skilled roles.

“Our collaboration with local universities, such as Dalhousie, underscores our dedication to nurturing local talent combined with our global expertise,” said the head of Cognizant’s Canadian operations, Jay MacIsaac, in a statement.

“We are grateful for the province’s support – together we're driving Nova Scotia’s ICT sector forward.”

Payroll rebate agreements are the process by which a government subsidizes some of a business’s payroll costs to incentivize job creation. In this case, Cognizant plans to pay its Nova Scotia employees $246.6 million over the next six years, for which it will receive a rebate of up to $20.7 million.