Google is to increase its staff by a third as part of a plan to drive expansion and increase its research and development operations in Europe.

The search company said that it planned to hire several thousand engineers in Europe, taking the company’s headcount to just under 20,000 people, a level it will have achieved in little more than a decade.

The California-based company said it hoped that an increased presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) would allow it to be more culturally sensitive. Only one in fourteen of the company’s 7,000 engineers are based in Europe, spread across 12 offices.

Nelson Mattos, Google’s new head of engineering, said that he expected Google’s 13,780-strong workforce to expand by several thousand in the next few years. “I aim to grow the EMEA engineering team as big as the one in North America. This is why I joined,” he said.

Mr Mattos added that he wanted to change the perception of Google in Europe: “My impression is that Google is seen as a big US company that is here to make money.”

The European Commission said in July that it would review the company’s $3.1 billion (£1.5 billion) acquisition of DoubleClick, the world’s largest broker of online advertisements. Several European governments have expressed concerns about Google’s privacy policies.

Mr Mattos said that the company, which is sent a CV every two seconds, judged candidates not only on technical skill but also on their “Googliness” – a characteristic referring to an employee’s ability to work collaboratively and with a “nonhierarchical” attitude.

The National Legal and Policy Centre has urged the US Congress to examine Google’s copyright controls after finding hundreds of apparently pirated movies available on the search leader’s website. The nonprofit ethics group, which said it was not financially connected to the film industry, is best known for helping to expose a 2003 corruption scandal involving the US Air Force and Boeing that landed two executives in prison.

The grievances, made in a letter sent to several members of Congress, focused exclusively on content on Google’s website rather than the company’s more popular YouTube subsidiary, which is being sued by Viacom for alleged copyright infringement.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax