Building software teams in attractive foreign destinations has been a widely accepted business practice in the IT environment for quite a long time. It came to the foreground when 87% of American tech companies faced skills shortages, and the lack of IT talent is set to reach 1.2 million by 2026. Among the manifold IT markets, Poland climbed to the top of offshoring destinations. But why is it so?
I’m Maryna Panchuk, Head of IT Recruitment at Alcor, with 10 years of hands-on experience in the field. Alcor helps product tech companies from the US and Western Europe establish their own R&D centers from 0 to 100 employees within a year in Eastern Europe and Latin America.
My team and I know the 10 main reasons why tech companies build dedicated development teams in Poland, as we have broad experience in providing IT recruitment services in Eastern Europe and LatAm. And what about the quality of our services?
Read this article and find out how to assemble an offshoring team of engineers in this country successfully. And now let’s start with the…
Top 10 Reasons to Build a Dedicated Development Team in Poland
Thriving IT Industry
The Polish IT industry has been experiencing unprecedented growth during the last decade. Moreover, it managed to become the leading tech market in the CEE region and now takes 7th place in Europe in terms of size. Thus, in 2024, the Polish IT sector revenue constitutes $8.3 billion. The demand for ICT services produced in Poland has also been increasing worldwide. As a result, its exports have skyrocketed since 2016 and are now projected to reach $3.05 billion in 2024. These ongoing positive dynamics of the ICT industry raised its share in Polish GDP to 8%, making it a potent accelerator of national economic development.
All these impressive results wouldn’t be possible without the productive functioning of Polish software companies. Their number has been growing by an average of 3,0% over the 2019 – 2024 period. Currently, there are about 67,433 IT businesses in the market.
Large Tech Talent Pool
People in IT are the driving force of a successful scale–up. That’s why, before going offshore, IT business owners look for locations with huge talent pools. According to the Polish and CEE Ecosystem Outlook, Poland is accountable for the biggest number of tech talents in the CEE region – over 607,000 tech specialists. Now you see why tech entrepreneurs frequently opt for this offshoring destination to set up engineering teams. Yet, the number of local software devs is not the only thing that attracts foreign employers to Poland. So, what about their quality?
Diverse Tech Stack
Foreign IT companies frequently hire software developers in Poland for their multi–language skills. These professionals have no problem with mastering the newest programming languages and implementing high-tech solutions. The top three technologies among Polish specialists are JavaScript, SQL, and Python. However, Typescript, Java, and HTML/CSS are regularly found in the arsenal of these professionals as well. The outstanding tech expertise of Polish developers is proven by different rankings, i.e. SkillValue, TopCoder, and HackerRank, where these specialists always take leading positions.
Affordable Wages & Taxes
Another primary reason why foreign IT companies choose a dedicated development team in Poland is modest wages. Let’s say you are an owner of a US-based IT company who wants to build a mobile application. Typically, you would need an iOS developer, Android developer, UX/UI designer, QA engineer, and team lead. If you decided to do it in-house, you would have to spend at least $600,000 on salaries annually. But if you assembled your offshoring team in Poland, it would cost you around $271,000 per year. For instance, the IT team lead salary in Poland is 2 times lower than in the United States. Sounds like a good bargain, doesn’t it? But lower remunerations are just one of the benefits of hiring a dedicated development team in Poland. You will also be able to pay lower taxes, which range from 8,5% – 12%.
| Country | iOS developer | Android developer | UX/UI designer | QA engineer | Team lead | Total | |||||
| Poland | $57,000 | $53,000 | $44,000 | $46,000 | $74,000 | $271,000 | |||||
| USA | $145,000 | $130,000 | $93,000 | $102,000 | $130,000 | $600,000 | |||||
Average developer gross salaries per year |
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High English Proficiency
Smooth communication is a vital aspect of productive cooperation. That’s why, when it comes to offshoring, most IT entrepreneurs get concerned about this matter. However, when hiring a dedicated development team in Poland, you won’t have to worry about it, as the majority of software developers here have high English proficiency (B2 level). This can be seen in the EF English Proficiency Index, where Poland is ranked 13th out of 112 countries.
Exceptional STEM Education
Poland has already proven itself to be a country with high standards for tech education. This destination provides a well-rounded higher education in 40 state-owned universities and 20 public institutes of technology, 22 of which are included in the QS World University Ranking 2024 list. Some of the well-known technical universities in Poland are the Warsaw University of Technology, Wroclaw University of Science & Technology, AGH University of Science & Technology, and others. Computer science is a common field of study among young Poles, which results in around 14,000 IT specialists joining the large developer workforce annually.
Want to know more about the advantages of building engineering teams in Poland? Check out our other article about Polish software developers!
Booming Startup Ecosystem
Poland is a real hotbed for high-tech startups. It was ranked 33rd in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022, with a total number of startup companies being over 3,000 — 528 of which are tech-related. Polish entrepreneurs are not afraid of starting innovative tech businesses, as they can always count on national and foreign investments. According to Statista, venture capital investment in Poland has increased by 66% since 2020, reaching $847 million in 2022. That’s probably one of the main factors that resulted in Poland having 11 unicorns – the biggest number in the CEE region.
Western-oriented Mentality
Poland’s dedicated development team building is common among international IT companies for one more reason – a Western-like mindset. Polish engineers are highly adaptable and flexible when it comes to working in foreign tech companies. The very moment you employ them, these guys swiftly dive into the programming process, offering the best technologies & practices to ameliorate the quality of your product. Moreover, they will demonstrate exceptional dedication, problem-solving, and thinking out-of-the-box skills, as well as a passion for nonstop learning and knowledge dissemination.
Developed IT Hubs
What else attracts the US and Western European companies to assemble dedicated development teams in Poland is its IT hub diversity. There are 6 main tech centers that employ around 70% of all IT specialists in the country. Among them are Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Tri-City, Poznan, and Lodz. Such tech giants as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, Oracle, and Samsung have already opened their offices and R&D centers in these cities.
Convenient Location
Another reason to hire a dedicated development team in Poland is the beneficial location. Situated in the heart of Europe, the country serves as a bridge between Western and Eastern European countries. It makes Poland a strategically convenient place for doing business. In addition to that, there is no time difference between Poland and Western European countries, which is extremely convenient when it comes to direct communication and cooperation of Polish programmers with their foreign colleagues.
Best Practices to Hire a Dedicated Team in Poland
A tech company can create a dedicated development team in Poland in two main ways: via outsourcing or offshoring.
The first method presupposes working with an outstaffing vendor who “lends” you a team of developers temporarily. However, this option entails multiple disadvantages.
On the other hand, offshoring means cooperation with a provider who only assists in administrative functions without interfering in the development process. What is more, you can streamline the process of offshoring to Poland via the list of the best practices to hire a dedicated development team in Poland.
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Devise a well-thought-out IT recruitment strategy
The first and foremost thing any tech company needs to do is to compose an effective IT recruitment strategy, as it’s the backbone of successful offshoring of software development in Poland. Your talent acquisition strategy should include the number of IT specialists, the type of tech expertise that you need, defined KPIs, budgetary limits, an ideal candidate profile, as well as recruitment approaches and hiring tools to enable a swift scale–up.
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Set an appealing employee value proposition
Another approach to focus on is creating an attractive employee value proposition (EVP). It usually includes monthly/annual developer compensation, paid vacation, health insurance, gym membership, business trips abroad, and other company bonuses. In addition, you could introduce stock options for your offshore development team. Yet, it’s not necessary to navigate this process alone, especially when entering a new market. Many tech companies, such as ThreadUp, simplify this by partnering with a reliable provider offering local IT guidance. The provider also assists with benefits management for your team, whether through an EoR solution or a comprehensive R&D model. Overall, the more appealing your EVP is to candidates, the more chances you’ll have for recruiting the best tech talents in the Polish IT market.
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Launch a powerful employer branding campaign
In Poland, team augmentation can become extremely challenging if you ignore employer branding. The truth is that if local developers have never heard about your company, the hiring process is likely to be delayed. Therefore, it’s vital to promote your business in the new market, providing information about your product, team, mission, values, and achievements. That’s what the US-based company Sift did. A catchy employer branding campaign that was carried out by Alcor helped them broaden their applicant base and convince the already interviewed candidates to join their team. As a result, Sift got a fully functioning team of 30+ developers in Eastern Europe within just a year.
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Delegate back-office operations to a service provider
What can be worse than a malfunctioning offshoring software team that turned into a burden instead of being a source of cost-effective product development? That’s something that tends to happen when IT companies build offshoring dedicated teams without properly handling operational functions. To avoid it, you should partner with a reliable vendor who can liberate you from time-consuming accounting, help you pay all the necessary taxes, provide your developers with timely paychecks, and make your business fully compliant with local legislation.
Hire Your Own Software Team in Poland with Alcor
Recently, an American product company Dotmatics (acq. by Insightful Science), which develops scientific software for biologists, discovered Poland as a wonderful destination for expanding their tech business. The company wanted to step back from traditional IT outsourcing and opt for a more cost-effective and reliable option. When they started looking for trustworthy local service providers, they found our IT recruitment company, Alcor. We provided Dotmatics with full-cycle tech hiring and assisted them at each stage of this process. They also got an individual account manager who coped with all issues that arose to enable smooth offshoring. After a year of fruitful cooperation, Dotmatics received a team of 30+ seasoned engineers (including Full Stack, React, QA Automation, and Node.js developers) as well as payroll, legal compliance, and procurement services coverage.
If you also want to successfully build a software development team via the offshoring model, Alcor BPO can make it happen! Our company provides R&D and IT recruitment services in Poland, Romania, and other Eastern European and Latin American countries. Our IT recruitment department consists of 40 experienced headhunters, so it takes us only 3-6 weeks to close one position, depending on its complexity. We also ensure customers with a 3-month warranty to substitute our candidates free of charge if they don’t meet clients’ expectations.
Apart from full-cycle IT recruitment, our solution also includes EoR services, legal compliance, office lease, procurement management, and other operational support. Thus, Alcor is an all-in-one place to get your brand-new software development office done in just two months! Ready to give it a shoot? Contact us today!
FAQ
What are the main reasons for hiring a dedicated development team in Poland?
There are multiple reasons why foreign IT companies build offshoring teams of engineers in Poland: a huge pool of qualified developers, affordable wages & taxes, convenient location, and 7 other principal factors that we discuss in this article.
Which best practices can enhance the IT recruitment process in Poland?
You can streamline the assembling of a dedicated development team in Poland by crafting an effective IT recruitment strategy, launching a strong employer branding campaign, and applying other best practices described in our article.
How can foreign tech companies set up a dedicated development team in Poland?
The best way to build a dedicated engineering team in Poland is by cooperating with a reliable local IT recruitment provider. In this way you will get comprehensive tech recruitment services and all necessary back-office operations covered to enable a smooth functioning of your development team abroad.