Once upon a time, Evolve wanted to grow our business and needed extra tech talent to make this happen. However, as we started our search locally in the Midlands, we faced a huge challenge of finding seasoned tech specialists we badly needed on our product development team. Our local search turned out to be very fruitless so we were about to lose hope several months later.
The decision to look for talent beyond the Midlands and UK, in particular, was made as a response to local talent shortage and a long time to hire candidates. Having explored several IT outsourcing destinations like India and Armenia, we eventually came to Ukraine and made a stop here, as this destination gave us all we were struggling to get back home: highly-qualified talent, 2-3x faster time to hire, affordable rates, and no compromise on the quality of deliverables.
Since then, Ukraine has become our second home and we’ve become the country’s advocates, as its technology potential is so powerful it can fuel the growth of foreign businesses and help hundreds of companies undergo successful digital transformation faster and more efficiently than in their home countries.
Having analyzed the latest research on the Ukrainian IT industry, we’ve compiled a list of facts you should know before considering to outsource your software development or build an Extended Team in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Tech Talent Pool 2020
According to Forbes, the Ukrainian IT industry is growing by around 25,000 – 30,000 specialists per year. To increase this number, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has recently established the IT Creative Fund that will be training new tech experts and re-skilling people from adjacent disciplines.
Fig. 1: Ukrainian Tech Talent Pool Growth, In Thousands of People
According to the Ukrainian Prime Minister, this Fund will operate to finance three directions: 1) the launch of IT courses in line with real-world business requirements, 2) scholarships for STEM students and 3) grants for young scientists and researchers.
When it comes to the structure of the IT talent pool in Ukraine, it has the following skills distribution: 68% of software engineers and QA/testing specialists, 26% of DevOps, Business Analysts, security experts and UX/UI designers, and 6% of PM resources.
Fig. 2: Skills Distribution In Ukrainian Tech Industry
Ukrainian IT Exports 2020
Between 2013 and 2019, the IT industry in Ukraine has grown more than 50 times, from 0.06% to 3.3% of GDP. In 2018, the volume of IT exports reached $5 billion; it’s expected to exceed $8 billion by 2025, according to UnitCity. As of now, Ukraine is the largest exporter of IT services in Europe.
Fig. 3: Ukrainian IT Exports, In Billion USD
Average Tech Salaries in Kyiv, Ukraine
When outsourcing buyers build their own Extended Teams in Ukraine, they’re used to paying a monthly bill comprised of each team member’s salary and the provider’s management fee on top of each. This clear structure eliminates/minimizes any hidden agenda or overheads at the post-release stage.
While the range of tech salaries per each skill in Ukraine can vary depending on factors such as the city of development (prices in Kyiv are always 15%-20% higher than in other cities), seniority level, the overall experience, and qualification, the average rates look as follows (see Fig. 4):
Fig. 4: Average Software Developer & QA Engineer Salaries in Kyiv, In USD, Monthly Gross (incl. taxes and social benefits):
Fig 5: Average Tech Salaries in Kyiv, In USD, Monthly Gross (incl. taxes and social benefits):
Top Sought-After Tech Skills In Ukraine
The Ukrainian community of IT specialists, DOU.ua has analyzed the current demand for tech skills in Ukraine based on the average number of relevant vacancies posted by IT outsourcing providers and bespoke software houses last year.
“Ukraine’s IT industry has started gradually switching from a pure outsourcing destination to a place that provides tech services,” Kyiv Post
Top 10 Sought-After Skills:
- Front-end development
- Software testing and QA
- PHP
- .NET
- Java
- DevOps
- UI Design
- Python
- Node.js
- C++
Global Recognition of the Ukrainian Tech Capabilities
The “country that codes” is how Ukraine is referred to in foreign media. Global b2b research positions Ukraine as “a sleeping Tiger” with a lot of disruptive potentials to be yet unfolded.
Here’s a list of industry recognition awards Ukraine has won so far:
- Ukraine ranks #16 in the 2019 Global Outsourcing List by IAOP;
- Ukraine ranks 2nd largest export of services industry as of 2018, according to the IT Ukraine Association;
- Ukraine ranks 2nd in the Lower-Middle Income Category in the Global Innovation Index 2019;
- Ukraine ranks #20 out of 50 in the 2019 Kearney Global Services Location Index (up 4 points from the 2018 Index);
- Ukraine enters the Top 50 Countries in the Human Capital Index by the World Bank
At Evolve, we build highly-efficient client-tailored Extended Teams and deliver bespoke software solutions out of our Ukraine-based R&D Centre. Would you like to learn more about how to hire and leverage best-vetted IT talent from nearshore? Request our callback now!