“Europe is different from the US and there are certain topics that are taken a lot more seriously here. Engineers from Europe will be more sensitive on these topics,” Nelson Mattos, Google’s newly appointed head of engineering for Europe, told the Financial Times.

“We are not seen correctly in Europe. We are investing significantly and are trying to hire as many people as we can to develop products in Europe, for Europe. We have to do a better job at explaining this,” he said.

A 50-strong team is charged with handling recruitment across the continent and the company is initiating outreach programmes to universities in an effort to lure talented graduates from around Europe.