How to Hire a Programmer in Ukraine: Tips from Experts

Despite the challenges of the ongoing full-scale war, the IT sector in Ukraine remains resilient, with many global companies continuing to operate within the country and hiring Ukrainian developers. The industry continues to make a significant impact on the Ukrainian economy, solidifying its status as the most profitable industry during wartime.

Between 2021 and 2023, the number of programmers in Ukraine reached an impressive figure of 270,000. This is the second-largest pool of tech talent in Eastern Europe, exceeded only by Poland. If you want to weave Ukrainian programmers into your organization, it’ll be helpful to learn about the ways you can source the best-in-class developers in Ukraine. As a company that augments European and North American companies with programmers in Ukraine, we thought it’d be a good idea to share some bits of advice to help you tap into the pool of developers in Ukraine.

The best way to hire a programmer in Ukraine

We may admittedly be a bit biased here, but we believe that the best way to source programmers in Ukraine is through a staff augmentation firm like nCube. As experts in this model, we can say that staff augmentation allows the client to reap all the benefits of working with programmers in Ukraine. The key benefit of this model is that you won’t have to go through the trouble of the recruitment process, as the firm will take care of providing candidates. Moreover, the model assumes direct access to all programmers on your team. An approach like this puts you in the driver’s seat in terms of the software development process and team management. As a result of such collaboration, you’ll always know what you’ll receive and when, which lends itself to predictable results and transparency.

So how do you hire a programmer in Ukraine? To give you an idea, we will reveal several channels that our specialists dive into when helping our clients hire a programmer in Ukraine. 

• Local job searching resources
• Invite-only channels 
• Forums for developers
• LinkedIn (Ukrainian region)
• Technological events and conferences

Local job searching resources

Searching for developers in Ukraine would be impossible without specific tools that let us offer positions our clients approach us with. We often use candidate search platforms to top into vast talents pool, such as Java, .NET, JavaScript, to name a few. We are an established brand on the market with an impeccable reputation, which allows us to attract the best programmers in Ukraine and help organizations set up reliable and stable teams.

Developer communities

Ukraine boasts a vibrant tech community where developers can communicate and exchange experiences. Thus, the most significant resources for sourcing developers are also programmer communities, such as GitHub and DOU (Developers of Ukraine). In these communities not only can you find specialists with generic backgrounds such as PHP, Python, JavaScript, etc but most importantly source developers with sought-after skills, including Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, IoT, Big Data, and more.

Invite-only channels

Many programmers in Ukraine create groups in social media messengers, such as Facebook and Telegram, to communicate and seek professional advice. Typically these groups are invite-only, but we can pull some strings, as our managers are acquainted with many developers who can match us up with the right kind of specialists. This helps us a lot when our clients have a request for a developer in Ukraine with a rare set of skills.

LinkedIn (Ukraine region)

LinkedIn is a common way to source a programmer in Ukraine. Our managers post vacancies for programmers regularly, duplicating them on our Careers page that you can check out and see for yourself that we are actively hiring developers in Ukraine for global organizations. As of November 2021, 90,000 members identify themselves as “developers in Ukraine,” which makes it a valuable source for backfilling vacancies. However, relying solely on LinkedIn may not be the best strategy, as the competition is fierce in this channel.

Conferences and events

Programmers in Ukraine like to get together to share ideas and engineering practices they harbored on their career paths. We at nCube go over the lists of upcoming tech events and organize visits in the hopes of establishing connections with domain experts and senior-level specialists who are mainly among key speakers. Moreover, such events are great sources of solid programmers in Ukraine.

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Hiring a programmer Ukraine: 5 essential things to consider

Since we have the needed expertise, we want to shed light on the key things we pay attention to when helping our clients hire developers in Ukraine.

We prioritize candidates with a STEM degree

Although Ukraine has plenty of educational opportunities, both formal and informal, we believe that a pro developer should undergo formal training. In fact, 95% of developers at nCube have a university degree in one of the tech disciplines. In general, 80% of programmers in Ukraine hold a STEM degree. The local educational system yields up to 35,000 tech graduates per year, so hiring a developer in Ukraine with a strong educational background has become easier than ever.

We only target English-speaking programmers in Ukraine

The language barrier can factor in your processes when you’re working with developers from non-English speaking countries. We do our best to ensure that it doesn’t become a hindrance when it comes to communication. With that in mind, we test each candidate to make sure they can read, write and speak English adequately. English is the lingua franca of the IT sector in Ukraine, with 80% of programmers in Ukraine maintaining an Upper-Intermediate English proficiency level.

We look beyond CVs

Portfolios and CVs of programmers in Ukraine will tell you no more than the names of the projects they have worked on in the past. If you want to really evaluate the skills of developers in Ukraine you want to hire, it’s best to dive into other resources as well, such as GitHub or Stack Overflow profiles or any other code repositories. Thus, we always ask candidates to tell us about apps/websites they have worked on to better evaluate a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

The hiring decision is always yours

We believe that the client should know who they are going to work with. Moreover, we provide each client with direct access to each team member who will work under your leadership and report to you. That way, we contribute to the transparency of collaboration, ensuring a predictable outcome.

We prescreen all candidates for soft skills and culture fit

We believe that communication, teamwork, and problem-solving matter most in your collaboration with programmers in Ukraine. Here’re several signs that a developer from Ukraine is likely a good fit for your organization: 

• They have experience working for a company of a similar size;
• They have a passion for innovation and bringing the best possible experience to users;
• They can resolve arguments, discuss feedback with others, and clearly express ideas and opinions;
• They have experience collaborating with different units across the company. 

Additionally, we always ask clients to share their vision of the ideal candidate so they lose no time speaking with irrelevant candidates. 

Why should you hire a Ukrainian development team?

With over a decade of experience in building tech teams in Ukraine (and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe), we can attest that our clients are extremely satisfied when hiring a Ukrainian development team. There are several reasons why companies worldwide choose to hire developers in Ukraine. To understand what kind of talent you can source here, let’s review several key characteristics of Ukrainian programmers.

A diverse skillset

Ukrainian programmers are known for their versatility. They are often proficient in multiple programming languages, including in-demand ones like Java, JavaScript, React, Swift, and Kotlin. Moreover, you can hire developers in Ukraine with expertise in your domain, as the most popular verticals Ukraian programmers specialize in are Fintech, Healthcare, Automotive, Telecom, and e-Commerce. 

Ukrainian programmers also provide a wide range of services thanks to their extensive expertise – from web and mobile development, UI/UX design, and quality assurance (QA) services to game design & development, project management, analytics, research and development (R&D), IT consulting, and more. 

High-quality education 

IT is all the rage among graduates in Ukraine, capturing the attention and interest of many aspiring professionals. Ukraine provides solid STEM education, with universities churning out up to 20,000 IT graduates each year. Ukrainian students typically engage in part-time employment to gain valuable experience in the industry. As a result, when you hire developers in Ukraine, you will work with professionals who have gained commercial experience in software development, even if they are at a junior level. 

Effective communication

Ukrainian programmers are appreciated for their excellent communication. Most specialists have years of experience interacting in an English-speaking environment, being a part of North American and Western European companies. When it comes to English proficiency, most Ukrainian programmers are strong English speakers, with Upper-Intermediate or Advanced levels. 

Suitable time zone alignment

If you’re based in North America and plan to hire a Ukrainian development team, you can be sure that Ukrainian programmers will be flexible to adapt their work processes for uninterrupted workflow across time zones. By the time your US team calls it a day, your Ukrainian programmers will start working, bringing you the benefit of two teams delivering results in a 24-hour timeline. When it comes to European countries, hiring Ukrainian developers is a suitable solution for flawless nearshoring thanks to the 1-2 hour time difference. 

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Teamwork

Ukrainian programmers can be a valuable addition to your team both as team players and as independent contributors. When you hire Ukrainian developers, you can be sure they will handle the most challenging tasks in tight collaboration with your core team. That way, you will get remote employees who will be deeply invested in your project and treat them as their own. They are not afraid to take personal ownership and measure their success by the success of the project. When you hire a Ukrainian development team with such a level of commitment, you can be sure that it will go the extra mile to deliver exceptional results.

Hire developers in Ukraine with nCube

If you have a project you need to bring up to speed and you are looking for a programmer in Ukraine, we are ready to step in and help you source high-quality specialists in line with your requirements. We always aim to build teams of developers in Ukraine you’ll work with for as long as you need. Contact us and let’s discuss your needs.