Although tech centers like Silicon Valley still dominate the software development industry, new global hotspots for brilliant tech talent rise through the ranks with Central Eastern Europe atop and on Index.dev’s sourcing radar.
Now the question is: do you want to hire the most talented developers in the world or those IT guys who happen to live near your office?
Explore this article to find out:
- How Index.dev is powering a boundaryless future for both tech companies and software talents?
- Why choosing to hire remote CEE developers is a time- and cost-effective option for US/UK/EU companies?
Let’s proceed.
The CEE engineers - a competitive advantage for any tech company
While cities like San Francisco have the highest concentrations of tech talent, emerging tech hubs like Central Eastern Europe (especially the Balkan countries) have seen a rapid growth of talent over the past few years.
For example, in HackerRank's Best Developers ranking, Poland ranks 3rd. Serbia places 5th on worldwide developer rankings. Ukraine is the 2nd largest IT outsourcing location in CEE. Romania holds strong software development rankings being the 2nd most spoken language at Microsoft.
Slovakia was named the number one country in the world for finding the best developers, while Poland, Hungary and Ukraine also featured in the top five.
The region is ripe for tech talent. And on top of that, 59% of businesses see outsourcing as an effective cost cutting tool according to Entrepreneur.
The CEE's biggest tech hubs like Poland, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania, and Ukraine benefit from the presence of top-tier STEM education, access to venture capital, larger employment opportunities, and lots of amenities.
More and more tech companies use CEE hubs for competitive advantage, thereby accelerating the innovation process.
The CEE clusters form around leading remote tech companies that consider these spots as cost-effective solutions to their tech recruitment needs. These companies typically draw other tech companies to the region leveraging an innovative ecosystem that spawns new entrepreneurs, startups, scaleups, and talent flow. The CEE clusters commonly tend to provide a steady flow of new tech workforce who prefer to work on international projects remotely.
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At Index.dev we use THREE factors to measure the CEE market’s:
- Depth for specific tech stacks, as some of the clusters may have more tech talents specialized in Python or Angular, Java, or Kotlin;
- Attractiveness to tech companies seeking tech talent for such things as labor costs, the concentration of tech talent, rates competitiveness, and time zone availability;
- Attractiveness to tech workers seeking employment, as some of the IT professionals have specific project or tech industry requirements.
What makes CEE remote tech talents attractive to EU, US & UK-based entreprises
The CEE region is known for its higher education in maths and computer science and is home to more than one million engineers - accounting for 6% of the total global pool and more competitive salaries compared to the US or UK markets. It makes sense then, that as organizations seek to expand their remote teams and international presence, CEE is a natural target.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the top factors why tech companies should consider hiring remote software engineers across CEE:
- Quality and variety: High level of English proficiency, cultural similarities, education, and convenient location;
- Cost optimizations: Cost-effective partnerships and business relations;
- Large talent pool: Quick access to a high percentage of educated and skilled tech talents in cutting-edge industries;
- Speed: Reduced time-to-market, increased scalability, and improved caliber due to good market practices and innovation;
- Profound expertise: Thriving IT ecosystem with governmental support, strong tech universities, many tech workshops, tech talks, and hackathons;
- Great communication: The cultural similarities and western mindset boost communication and collaboration and maintain effective business relationships;
- Convenience and security: Robust data privacy and security and a convenient time zone for offshore outsourcing.
Research projects that the CEE region will continue growing tech talent at a rapid pace in the year to come, making the fastest headway to becoming the next big outsourcing hub.
At Index.dev - Europe's leading tech recruitment platform, we screened thousands of CEE developers from around the world and matched them with most promising tech companies. Due to an international background, high adaptability and flawless ability to work remotely, they are the highest performers in our client’s teams. If you don’t have at least one developer in your team from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), you’re missing a trick.
How to onboard the most qualified CEE devs
The global tech talent shortage is projected to reach 85 million jobs by 2030. Companies are feeling this crunch when it comes to hiring tech talent. If you're willing to expand your search parameters, you'll increase your odds of hiring and retaining top-notch software developers.
Although Silicon Valley remains the world's top tech hub, many countries aim to compete on the global scene. With a tech talent shortage that is only expected to grow, companies looking to hire top tech talent need to expand their horizons and look outside their immediate surroundings. Many leading tech companies such as Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft opened software development centers in Eastern Europe.
When your tech company is ready to expand globally, working with a partner like Index can help to facilitate the process.
At Index.dev, we provide an end-to-end platform for sourcing, vetting, hiring, managing, and paying employees across the CEE region and beyond.
Let's partner now ->
The CEE developers are our strongest point. And it’s no surprise to see CEE countries taking the top spots in our internal research for the highest successful placements rate:
- Serbia - 98%
- Ukraine - 94%
- Northern Macedonia - 89%
We match untapped remote CEE software engineers (Full-Stack, Frontend and Backend Developers, QAs, UI/UX designers, Data Engineers, and Project Managers) with projects at some of the world’s leading startups and enterprises.
Every time we assign a software expert to a project, our reputation is at stake.
We simply can’t afford to fall short and provide bad matches. Our vetting process is tailored to evaluate candidate’s qualifications and eligibility and eliminate unqualified candidates from the pool of applicants, through:
- Background checks
- Screening interviews
- Technical assessments
- Availability for hire
- Culture fit
- Time zone overlap
- English level.
As a result, only the top 3% of applicants go through, which means that every software engineer we pair is guaranteed to be the best in terms of qualifications, quality, and performance.