In 2025, technical expertise and engineering excellence are essential for organizations looking to drive digital transformation and meet their strategic objectives. As a result, the demand for skilled IT professionals continues to rise. However, securing top talent with the necessary capabilities remains a complex and resource-intensive challenge. According to Deloitte, the demand for tech talent in the US will grow to 7.1M tech jobs by 2034 from an estimated 6M in 2023.
A possible way to find qualified IT professionals and quickly extend your engineering capabilities is offshoring development services to Eastern Europe, one of the world’s popular IT outsourcing destinations. In this article, we will overview the current state of the tech market in the region as well as outline a portrait of an average software developer from Eastern Europe.
Why should you offshore IT services to Eastern Europe?
By definition, offshore software development presupposes delegating your project to IT experts from distant locations. While offshoring, businesses can staff ICT specialists worldwide and reach tech talent with expertise unavailable in their country. But why offshore your software development to Eastern Europe rather than look for tech specialists in other destinations? We listed the key advantages of partnering with the Eastern European engineering team:
- Access to a skilled workforce. Eastern Europe is one of the richest regions on the outsourcing map in terms of talent availability. According to the Emerging Europe report, the area is home to more than 1.7M tech specialists. Moreover, developers from Eastern Europe provide high-quality engineering services: engineers from the region scored high positions in the skill evaluation rankings. For instance, Poland ranks 6th in the Topcoder research that assesses the developers’ technology acquisition. The country is followed by its closest neighbor, Ukraine, which holds the 7th position in the ranking among more than 80 countries.
- Prompt project launch. Clutch lists more than 330 midsize and large engineering companies in Eastern Europe. Rather than small vendors, larger companies have access to more tech talent and optimized development processes. When partnering with an offshoring vendor from Eastern Europe, you will be able to set up the project within a shorter time period due to higher talent accessibility.
- Cultural compatibility. When handling business with a partner that shares similar values, you minimize the risk of miscommunication at work. Due to globalization, Eastern European countries are well-integrated into Western business ethics. The region’s developers possess strong work ethic and excellent communication skills, making them a great cultural fit for North American businesses.
Related: How to find the best IT outsourcing company in Eastern Europe
5 reasons to offshore software development to Eastern Europe
1. Software developers in Eastern Europe: The extensive talent pool
The talent capacity of your potential outsourcing destination is the key aspect to consider. In these terms, Eastern Europe is an alluring option—the region is home to an extensive talent pool of more than 1.7M ICT specialists. With over 525K of them residing in Poland, the country is the EE leader in terms of talent working in digital. To compare, the joint talent pool of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia constitutes over 124K ICT employees.
The offshoring destination has a vast talent pool of skilled developers. Europe boasts a pool of 6.1M engineers, CodeNinja reports. And according to LinkedIn, the number of software developers in Eastern Europe is roughly estimated at 544K. Poland, Ukraine, and Romania are the locations with the largest numbers of specialists providing software development services.
2. Multidimensional tech specializations of Eastern European developers
Offshoring to Eastern Europe allows you to access tech experts of all specializations and qualification levels. The local labor market is diverse, so you will be able to quickly find a candidate for a managing or technical role in your team. According to LinkedIn, there are around 55,000 Technical Leads in the region who have expertise in driving engineering projects. Moreover, Senior specialists make up a considerable share of developers in Eastern Europe. There are over 138,000 Senior Software Developers in the region.
A large number of software developers in Eastern Europe have expertise in cloud services and DevOps. Around 37K EE engineers are well-versed in configuration management, infrastructure automation, and cloud adoption. More than half of the region’s DevOps experts reside in Poland. Ukraine and Romania follow the country with talent pools of about 7,500 and 5,900 DevOps engineers, respectively.
In addition, Eastern Europe is rich in QA engineers who have experience in both manual and automated testing. The destination is home to more than 99K QA professionals who are experts in test strategy definition and planning, test execution, as well as quality analysis, and defect management.
3. Wide expertise range of software developers in Eastern Europe
No matter what technology stack you require for your project, Eastern European developers have diverse expertise to cover your needs. Let's take a look at the most widespread technologies used in the region, according to LinkedIn. JavaScript, primarily used to implement web applications, is the most popular programming language in Eastern Europe. The region’s talent pool of JavaScript engineers counts over 359K software developers. The largest hubs of JavaScript experts are located in Ukraine and Poland.
The second most popular stack in Eastern Europe is Java. More than 283,000 developers use the technology to build enterprise software, mobile applications, Big Data solutions, and other apps. The top three countries with the biggest Java talent pools are Ukraine, Romania, and Poland. The latter is the EE leader in terms of developers skilled in the technology: over 34K local engineers code with the Java stack.
Python closes the top three most common technologies among software developers in Eastern Europe. Every sixth tech specialist in the region knows Python. Along with Ukraine and Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Hungary are other countries that house most Python developers.
Moreover, data engineers and data scientists make up a considerable part of the Eastern European talent pool. According to LinkedIn, the region boasts around 93K of data-related specialists in total. You may find assistance with any kind of data-related projects in Eastern Europe: developers offshore data warehousing, data analytics, data strategy consulting, and more. In addition, Eastern Europe houses around 214K cloud specialists.
4. High English level among software developers in Eastern Europe
English proficiency is a vital aspect of successful intercultural cooperation. Eastern European developers have a good knowledge of English and effectively use it in corporate communication. EE countries excel in the EF EPI ranking of English proficiency. Romania and Poland are the region’s leaders, reaching 12th and 15th positions on the list. Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic also enter the top 30 in the rating, with an average level of English estimated as high. ICT specialists in Moldova and Ukraine have moderate knowledge of the language. However, according to DOU, the vast majority of developers in Ukraine (59.4%) have advanced and upper-intermediate levels, which facilitates effective business communication. Moreover, tech experts in Eastern Europe have access to language courses that help them advance their English skills. As a result, Ukraine has gone nine positions up on the EF EPI list since 2019.
5. Education possibilities for software developers in Eastern Europe
The dynamic educational background sets the foundation for continuous workforce increase and vibrant industry development. Eastern Europe boasts many technical universities and strong STEM education. AGH University of Science and Technology (Poland), Ukrainian Catholic University (Ukraine), and Babes-Bolyai University (Romania) are only some of the prominent higher education institutions that offer CS programs.
The number of ICT students in Eastern Europe is roughly estimated at 298K. Ukraine houses 40% of the region’s computer science students. With more than 23,000 CS students getting their degrees each year, the country is the leader in the number of tech course graduates. In these terms, Poland and Romania follow Ukraine with over 13,500 and 9,300 graduates, respectively.
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Eastern Europe: Key offshoring destinations
Poland
Poland has one of the most stable economies in Eastern Europe, which makes the country an alluring choice for investment. Due to the favorable economic environment, there are many software development companies in the local market. As of January 2025, Clutch lists more than 1,470 Polish engineering vendors. Most of the country’s ICT specialists are involved in IT projects for finance, healthcare, business services, finance, and ecommerce domains.
Keep reading: Software development in Poland: major IT hubs, developers, and more
Ukraine
Over the last two decades, Ukraine has earned a reputation as one of the most attractive Eastern European outsourcing destinations and remains one even despite the full-scale russian invasion. While facing a temporary slowdown at first, the Ukrainian IT industry demonstrated exceptional resilience in the long run. By opening new offices and relocating teams to safer areas, most Ukrainian tech companies maintained a 95% service delivery rate. As of January 2025, there are more than 1,000 software development vendors in the country. Ukraine is a well-known hub of Eastern European developers that mostly apply their engineering expertise to help clients from financial services, education, business services, healthcare, ecommerce, and real estate industries.
Romania
Another location that houses a considerable number of Eastern European software developers is Romania. According to Clutch, there are around 510 IT vendors in the country. The main industry vectors among Romanian developers are business services, ecommerce, education, healthcare, as well as supply chain and logistics.
Bulgaria
The Bulgarian government has made considerable efforts to attract more investments in the local market. As a result, many international corporations such as HP, Oracle, and VMware have opened R&D centers in the country. Bulgaria is home to over 260 engineering vendors specializing in delivering tech solutions predominantly for healthcare, manufacturing, finance, telecommunication, education, and ecommerce domains.
The Czech Republic
The key industries serviced in the Czech Republic are ecommerce, automotive, telecommunications, and supply chain, besides the most popular finance, business services, and healthcare. Local developers mostly use JavaScript, Java, PHP, and Python stacks for their projects. All in all, there are more than 160 IT outsourcing companies in the country.
Hungary
The tech industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the Hungarian economy. As of January 2025, there are more than 150 tech companies in the local market. However, 95% of them are small companies that employ less than 250 Eastern European developers. Besides business and financial services, the key industries Hungarian vendors cater to are healthcare, consumer products and services, telecommunications, and manufacturing.
Slovakia
Slovakia has greatly boosted its engineering potential since it joined the EU in 2004, which attracted Volkswagen, Kia, and Siemens to establish their R&D centers in the country. Moreover, Slovakia has earned a reputation for the high quality of the local engineering services. According to Topcoder, the country is the fourth in the region in terms of developers’ programming skills, losing only to Poland, Ukraine, and Romania. There are over 100 engineering vendors in the local market that provide IT outsourcing services.
Moldova
There are around 80 software development enterprises in the Moldavian market, with only 11 of which staff more than 250 employees. Moldavian developers have considerable experience in delivering solutions for ecommerce, retail, and healthcare industries.
Why should you choose N-iX as your trusted tech partner in Eastern Europe?
Eastern Europe has established itself as a top destination for offshoring software development services, offering a strong talent pool, technical excellence, and cost efficiency. Among the many vendors in the region, N-iX stands out as a reliable and experienced software development partner:
Proven expertise and global talent access
With over 22 years in the industry and 2,200 top tech experts on board, N-iX has built a strong reputation for delivering high-quality engineering solutions across cloud, data analytics, AI, IoT, Machine Learning, and embedded software. Our global presence across Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden, UK, Malta) and Latin America (Colombia) allows us to source top-tier tech talent quickly and efficiently, ensuring the right expertise for every project.
Strong track record with industry leaders
N-iX has successfully partnered with leading enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, including Lebara, Gogo, Currencycloud, OpenText, Fluke Corporation, and many others. Our teams have delivered innovative solutions that drive tangible business outcomes, making us a trusted partner for delivering long-lasting business value across different domains.
Commitment to security and compliance
At N-iX, we prioritize data security and compliance to protect your business and intellectual property. Our security framework follows industry best practices and adheres to internationally recognized standards, including ISO 27001:2013, PCI DSS, ISO 9001:2015, and GDPR. By implementing robust security protocols, we ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and resilience of your digital assets.
Industry recognition
N-iX has earned recognition from leading industry organizations, reinforcing our reputation as a trusted technology partner. We have been acknowledged by GSA UK, IAOP’s Global Outsourcing 100, and other respected associations for our excellence in IT outsourcing and software engineering.
Choosing N-iX means gaining a strategic partner with a deep understanding of technology, industry best practices, and a commitment to delivering measurable business value. Whether you need to build a custom solution, modernize your software, or accelerate digital transformation, we are here to help. Get in touch with our experts today to discuss how N-iX can support your business growth!
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