reduction, rigid competition and the fall of salaries become a reality for many IT specialists. Tech LEAD and Architect lost in salaries, and General QA grew up in income. Who loses the most, and who managed to maintain income? What are the prospects for IT in 2025?
The Ukrainian IT industry is experiencing a difficult time: personnel reduction, increased competition and market instability force companies to review salary budgets. Despite this, the level of remuneration in the industry is still one of the highest.
how have the salaries of developers, testers and managers for the year have changed? Can it keep the status of the highest paid sphere? We understand trends and forecasts.
What professions have the largest salaries?
IT salaries are indicated in dollars. Since this is the international industry, the dollar serves as a universal currency that avoids currency risks and simplifies financial calculations.
developers in the Ukrainian IT sector-one of the highest paid specialists. However, the dynamics of their salaries indicates a general tendency to a decrease. These are the results of the Dou survey, the largest IT community in Ukraine.
Developers of the Tech LEAD level (responsible for the technical solutions and project architecture) and System Architect (designing the overall structure and interaction of software components) as of June 2024 were the only specialists whose salary increased compared to December 2023 ($ 200 and $ 200 and $ 200 and $ 200 $ 235, respectively). While the developers of the Team Lead level (leads the developers' team, coordinates their work) experienced the greatest drop in wages among other specialists – minus $ 175.
as of December 2024, System Architect earned the most, but their Medianna decreased by $ 325 in six months – to $ 6500 (272 thousand UAH).
The average salaries of Ukrainian IT specialists as of December 2024 :
- System Architect-$ 6500 (272 thousand UAH) – minus $ 325.
- Technical Lead – $ 5600 (234 thousand UAH) – minus $ 100.
- Team Lead – $ 5000 (208 thousand UAH).
- Senior (experienced employee) SE – $ 4500 (188 thousand UAH) – minus $ 200.
- middle (worker with average experience) SE – $ 2450 (102 thousand UAH) – minus $ 50.
- Internet/Trainee (interns or beginner who is trained in the company) SE – $ 400 (17 thousand UAH) – plus $ 63.
<< Li> Junior (beginner) SE – $ 900 (38 thousand UAH) – minus $ 35.
The income of managers in IT compared to developers remains stably high level, testify to the results of the Dou salary survey. However, here the tendency to reduce salary in some categories is noticeable:
- Engineering Manager (leads the team of engineers) – $ 6,000 (250 thousand UAH) – minus $ 100.
- Chief Product Officer (responsible for the development of the product at the strategic level)-$ 5500 (230 thousand UAH).
- Head of Product (leads a food strategy and development, coordinates the work of production managers)-$ 4750 (198 thousand. UAH).
- Program Manager (coordinates several interconnected projects) – $ 4200 (175 thousand UAH).
Delivery Managers (provides a timely and high -quality implementation of projects) Salary) Now at the same level as at the beginning of a full -scale invasion – $ 4500 (188 thousand UAH).
grocery managers have slightly higher income , than design:
- Junior Product Manager – $ 1478 (62 thousand. UAH).
- Junior Project Manager – $ 1000 (42 thousand UAH).
- Middle Product Manager – $ 2930 (122 thousand UAH), plus $ 430.
- Middle Project Manager – $ 2193 (92 thousand UAH), plus $ 200.
- senior product Manager – $ 4250 (178 thousand UAH), minus $ 125.
- Senor Project Manager – $ 3600 (150 thousand UAH).
So, as a percentage of juniors, they can count on a salary of 43% higher in the product product than in the prodge. Middle and Senior experts have a slightly less difference – by 35% and 14%.
Technical Project Manager (controls technical projects, coordinates the developers' team and ensures the implementation of technical requirements) has an income of $ 4000 (167 thousand. UAH). However, this sphere has a high scatter of salaries depending on the experience of a specialist.
The latest changes in the labor market, according to the Dou survey about QA specialists (testers) in Ukraine, demonstrate the most ambiguous trends. Over the past six months, almost all Automation QA titles (testing software using automated tests) have decreased in income:
- senior QA – $ 4000 (167 thousand UAH), minus $ 200.
- Middle QA – $ 2300 (96 thousand UAH), minus $ 83.
- junior QA – $ 900 (38 thousand UAH).
- senior – $ 3460 (145 thousand UAH), plus $ 260.
- Middle – $ 2000 (84 thousand UAH), plus $ 100.
- senior – $ 2890 (120 thousand UAH), minus $ 110.
- Middle – $ 1600 (67 thousand UAH).
- Junior – $ 800 (33 thousand UAH).
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At the same time, experienced General QA specialists (responsible for the overall quality of the product, controls testing processes) increased in income:
The salary of Junior decreased by $ 25 – to $ 975 (41 thousand UAH).
Manual QA salaries (provides the quality of the product by performing probable actions of the user manually) practically did not undergo changes:
What wait for 2025 year ?
The Ukrainian IT industry in 2025 will encounter serious challenges. The global trend of IT companies is a reduction in employees. According to the DOU study, in the 50 largest IT companies in Ukraine, the number of employees decreased by more than 10 thousand people. The main reason is legalization abroad and staying on Benche (temporarily without an active project, but in the company).
For example, the product Ukrainian IT company Squad announced a reduction in 130 specialists, which is 15% of the team in Ukraine.
in Macpaw reduced 120 specialists, and this is 20% of the team.
food AIRSLATE IT-company reduced about 100 people.
The situation is aggravated by mobilization risks and demographic problems. Due to the high competition and reducing salaries of juniors, it can be more difficult to find a job, and experienced specialists are faced with high requirements for raising. At the same time, in grocery companies and management there are still opportunities for career growth.
However, in 2025, a gradual restoration of the economy is expected. According to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, a decrease in inflation and stabilization of macroeconomic indicators is predicted. The influence of this on it has not yet been defined and can be limited due to the global situation in the technological market and demand for Ukrainian services.
Despite the risks, the beginning of 2025 became the most active period for the labor market since the beginning of a full -scale invasion. According to DOU about the number of vacancies, it has reached the record 6445 – most of all since February 2022. Some IT-cathegors first exceeded the pre-war level-Architect, Design, Product Manager, SEO (conducts optimization for search engines). Record growth of applications indicates the resumption of business activity after the crisis of 2023-2024.
Despite the growth of vacancies, the number of candidates and reviews also reached its record. The number of reviews for vacancies has a record 124 thousand. The high level of competition shows Front-End (creates the visible user part of the web page), QA, Design, Project Manager. This means that companies are looking for employees more carefully, and juniors and less experienced specialists face more severe requirements.
The IT market remains unstable, but the dynamics are positive and some trends indicate the resumption and stabilization of the Ukrainian IT market. At the same time, global risks remain significant factors that can restrain the development of the industry.
Author: Inna Omelyanguk
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