Hiring Ukrainian developers in 2023: opportunities and risks

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Victoria Belyaeva

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If you are interested in startups and quality software development, if you are a project manager or a deal maker, this article is for you.
Today,  we’ll speak about the actual situation in the Ukrainian IT market in 2023. We will show how the market of IT outsourcing services has changed in Ukraine after the Russian invasion; which factors make Ukraine one of the most attractive options for starting outsourcing software development.

The key benefits of IT outsourcing in Ukraine

Outsourcing is one of the most sought-after services in some areas of business. At the same time, for some countries, it is one of the main sources of foreign trade revenue. 
Over the years, the Ukrainian IT industry has been able to gain attention and interest from employers far beyond Ukraine. The formula for success here is quite simple — good training of specialists, their conscientiousness and diligence, and relatively lower salary expectations compared to programmers from the USA, Great Britain, and Western Europe.
However, the war and economic crisis made adjustments to this beautiful picture. The top management community of IT companies is increasingly talking about the need to allow programmers to travel abroad, and at the same time warning that this may threaten the economy and lead to an irreversible flow of IT emigration.

Reasons for outsourcing: Why hire software developers in Ukraine? 

Let’s start with a few facts:

  • The majority of Ukrainian clients are from the USA, Western Europe, and Great Britain
  • There are more than 200,000 highly skilled IT specialists in Ukraine
  • There are around 100 R&D centers that represent or partner with such companies as Siemens, Samsung, Oracle, eBay, Google, etc
  • 50% of Ukrainian developers have 2–5 years of experience on average
  • More than 100 Fortune 500 companies used Ukrainian IT services
  • Ukraine has around 40 universities providing computer science education
  • IT services exported from Ukraine in 2020 equal more than $5 billion

A year ago, the number of vacancies in the Ukrainian IT industry significantly exceeded the supply of specialists. According to the IT Ukraine Association, every year Ukrainian educational institutions graduate up to 20 thousand technical specialists, but the market needs at least 55 thousand.

In 2013, the Ukrainian IT industry ranked fourth in the world, after the United States and India, in terms of the number of certified programmers. In 2016, Ukraine was ranked 11th among the top 50 countries with the best programmers (HackerRank resource rating). At the same time, according to the DOU.ua, there were 90,000 IT specialists in Ukraine. Every year, their number increases by about 20%. 

Annually, the demand for IT specialists in Ukraine grows by 30%, primarily due to the colossal growth in requests for IT services.
Ukraine is an excellent destination for startup development because of the large pool of talent, good level of English proficiency, strong education, reasonable pricing, high flexibility, high level of stress tolerance, convenient time zone, high quality, flexible environment, culture fit, skill diversity, development center. 

Despite Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Ukrainian IT industry continues to function and develop. Foreign companies can hire Ukrainian developers with acceptable risks, build an awesome product together, and support the entire Ukrainian economy.

These facts are confirmed by TBR Group, which worked throughout the war period and based in Ukraine.

Ukrainian developers continue not only to perform their work at a high level and constantly improve their skills and develop. According to DOU.ua, Ukrainian developers are proficient in the following programming languages: JavaScript, Java, C#, Python, PHP, TypeScript, Swift, Ruby, Kotlin.

Multiple world-recognized startups have been born in Ukraine, including Grammarly, Reface, and AirSlate.
Now many startup founders and potential clients of Ukrainian IT companies have concerns about hiring software developers from Ukraine for their startups due to the risks associated with wartime. 

Risks of hiring developers in Ukraine in 2023?

Before the war, many companies worldwide wanted to work with Ukrainian developers because they found many strengths in this collaboration.

The current situation has changed due to new risks. So do attitudes — some of the potential clients prefer hiring developers beyond Ukraine. 
According to the IT Ukraine Association report, most of the IT companies retained customers and contracts during the war, despite all the risks stated by customers. 

About 52% of companies kept 100% of their contracts, 32% of companies — 90–99% of contracts, and only 16% of companies lost 10% or more of their contracts. Yet, the main factors of maintaining customers are:

  • high level of customer loyalty
  • long-term partnership
  • delivery stability
  • constant communication with clients
  • rapid stabilization of business processes
  • quick relocation of the employees
  • high quality of services, even in wartime

Currently, about 2% of the IT market has been drafted into the military service, which is approximately equal to the percentage of failure to pass the probationary period in the niche. This leads to the conclusion that the risk of mobilization of critical specialists is not that high.

At the beginning of the war, IT companies evacuated employees to safer regions.  There are still some work disruptions like blackouts, electricity cuts and Internet outage. 

All this can lead to work disruption, violation of deadlines and team composition alterations. 

Despite the existing risks, the Ukrainian IT industry showed record growth in export earnings in the first quarter of 2022. 

The volume of computer services in Ukraine for 10 months increased by 13%, and exports — by 23%. This was reported by the press services of the Ministry of Economy.

According to the Association “IT Ukraine”, the IT sector showed an increase of 13%.

“Enterprises of the sphere paid UAH 48 billion in taxes for this period. More than half a billion dollars are aimed at supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the humanitarian sphere,” the report said.

Exports of computer services grew by 23% compared to the previous year. Ukrainian IT companies attracted $350 million of investments, even in military conditions, more than 80% of companies retained about 100% of their contracts.

TBR Group — an experienced Ukraine-based development company

Despite the wartime, our company continues to work productively. TBR Group is about flexibility, trust and meaningful choices.

Working at TBR Group means being a part of a community that values growth, mutual trust and respect. We care about creating sustainable software, the effect our activity has on the world, and each employee’s experience. 

TBR Group helps startups and established business evolve through design and development and overcome emerging challenges. We’ll give your product idea an efficient shape and functionality.

We work with world-class clients and get outstanding experience as a part of TBR Group from the various niches: social network platforms, TTS readers, healthcare, vet business, micropayments, etc. 
The products we build may be completed, but the cooperation is never finished. We offer post-launch support and maintenance to help clients continually improve the quality and enlarge the scope of their products. We’re open for long-term collaboration.

Summary

Despite the difficult times, Ukrainian IT specialists continue to work fruitfully.  Our business approach follows the best industry practices. TBR Group — an experienced Ukraine-based development company. Our company continues to provide services of various kinds: mobile development, web development, product design, support and management. We understand that there may be risks of a different nature, but our company, and team is ready for them.

You are welcome to contact TBR Group and discuss your product
idea. We are always here to help.

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