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How Fintech Companies Hire Java Developers in Ukraine?

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Kateryna Bilkovets interview

Wondering how to hire a Java developer in Ukraine? We've asked Kateryna Bilkovets, an experienced recruiter from Daxx who’s been helping fintech companies find and hire Java developers in Ukraine for more than three years in a row, to share insights about Java developers in Ukraine and practical tips that fintech companies can use to hire Java developers in Ukraine quickly and easily. 

Q: Kateryna, how would you describe the Java developer talent market in Ukraine?

A: There are about 8 million Java developers in the world and, according to a 2020 research, there were approximately 8 thousand profiles of Java developers in Ukraine registered on Linkedin.

In reality, though, there are many more of them because the language is still in demand. For instance, in Ukraine, the majority of Java developers work for German, American, English, Swedish, and other clients from fintech, e-commerce, medtech, and digital marketing industries.

While Ukraine has only a much smaller share of Java programmers compared to India and the Philippines, the quality of Java developers in Ukraine is higher.

Hire Java Developers Ukraine

8,000 Java Developers in Ukraine in 2020

Q: Where can we find the largest number of Java developers in Ukraine in 2021?

A: The Ukrainian tech talent market has a great supply of Java developers, but the demand for them is high as well. These days, Java developers in Ukraine are consolidated around the IT outsourcing sector.

The majority of Java developers in Ukraine work on projects which are outsourced by tech businesses from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and other countries.

So the first place I go to  when searching for Java developers in Ukraine are Ukrainian IT outsourcing and IT outstaffing companies in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Dnipro — Ukraine’s top IT hubs.

Q: What’s the usual background for a Java developer in Ukraine?

A: As a rule, Java developers begin their careers by learning Java. But there are also Java developers in Ukraine who switched to Java from C#. You can also find many Java developers moving to Kotlin and Scala, but they’re far less numerous than developers using Java only.

Q: Do you have any tips you could share with fintech companies that want to hire Java developers in Ukraine?

A: Sure, I have plenty! The hiring process in the tech industry is quite simple, but there are some things you should know when hiring a Java developer in Ukraine. From my observations, you can easily find a Java developer and invite them to an interview, but you should remember the following aspects:

  1. Pay attention to seasonality. Judging from statistics from previous years, there are two seasons a year when it’s easier to hire a Java developer in Ukraine. The first season is between February and April, when te foreign tech companies have their budgets settled and actively search for tech vendors in Ukraine. That’s when Ukrainian recruiters actively seek Java developers and offer interesting projects. The second season is between August and October.
  2. Optimize your recruitment process. Daxx is an IT company based in Ukraine. Our model allows our clients to conduct interviews by themselves. They can arrange as many phases of recruitment as they need to find suitable candidates. This, however, doesn’t mean that the more phases there are, the more effective the recruitment process is. In contrast, the more optimal the hiring process is, the more likely it is that a Java developer will choose your company. “But why?” you may ask. Because there’s a high demand for Java developers, which means that they can get through the hiring process at another company faster than at yours. For instance, at one company, a Java developer has to do a test task, go through an interview with an HR manager, then get interviewed by a technical expert, and then (optionally) get through a final interview. This 4-stage hiring process is tiring and time-consuming. You can simply lose a suitable candidate to another company with a more efficient hiring process. Do this instead: spare some time for an online coding session and look how a candidate resolves problems by yourself.
  3. Discuss in detail the responsibilities of a candidate. Share as many details about the project as possible (tech stack and number of teammates). Feel free to talk about the candidate’s opportunities for growth within the company.

Q: Are there many Java developers in Ukraine working in fintech projects?

A: Yes, and this makes it so easy for fintech companies to hire Java developers in Ukraine. Only a small share of Java developers in Ukraine are engaged in building online banking solutions. For instance, Ukrainian developers have built digital solutions for PrivatBank — a Ukrainian bank which has been acknowledged as one of the most progressive online banking service providers in Europe.

Of course, there are large teams of Java developers who work for Deutsche Bank and other fintech giants, but the rest of Java developers create digital solutions for small and middle-sized fintech companies from Western European countries and the US.  

Vive is one of the fintech companies that hired Java developers in Ukraine to build their product. The product’s aim is to help freelancers and other professionals to get control over their finances and become more financially aware. Vive is a perfect tool for those who want to plan their finances more efficiently and reach their life goals.

In an interview, Vive CTO Rogier Roukens said that he decided to hire Java developers in Ukraine because of close cultural proximity, good English skills, reasonable salaries, great technical education, and high availability of Java developers.

The most impressive part of working with Java developers in Ukraine is that engineers have top-notch technical skills, especially the senior Java developers offered by Daxx. The majority of Java developers in Ukraine show initiative and share their ideas for product improvement.

The personal qualities of developers deeply surprised me. I remember assigning a task to one of them. Later on, I realized that I had forgotten to mention some important details. So I thought that he would not be able to cope with the task in the way I had initially planned. The next day, I took a look at the solution and was surprised that he filled in the gaps exactly how I would have done it. That was remarkable” says Rogier in an interview with Daxx.

Q: What is the average Java developer salary in Ukraine?

A: The average monthly salary of a Java developer in Ukraine varies depending on years of experience. For instance, the average salary of a junior Java developer in Ukraine is around $1,100 - 1,900 a month. A middle Java developer earns about $1,900 - 3,200 a month, and a senior Java developer gets $3,200 - 4,800.

  • Junior    $1100–$1900
  • Middle    $1900–$3200
  • Senior    $3200–$4800

Considering the skills and level of expertise, on average, Java developer salaries in Ukraine is lower than in countries like the US, Switzerland, Israel, and many others.

Average Salary Java developers in Ukraine

The Average Salary Java developers in the World

Q: What three things you’d like our readers to remember about hiring Java developers for a fintech company in Ukraine?

A: Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. There are plenty of Java developers in Ukraine for hire even if you need an engineer with experience of working in a fintech project.
  2. Ukrainian Java developers have sufficiently lower average salaries than their colleagues from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and other tech-savvy countries, yet they possess superior technical skills.
  3. As a rule, Java developers in Ukraine show interest in new job opportunities, and your role is to advertise your projects as well as you can. You want to be transparent about their professional growth within your company and your project as such.



Kateryna Kachkovska

Content Marketing Manager

Kateryna is a Content Marketing Manager at Daxx driven to help business owners make data-based decisions. Feel free to contact her with offers on content promotion and collaboration.

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