Hiring developers in Ukraine through a staff augmentation firm: the 2026 guide

Hiring developers in Ukraine through a staff augmentation firm: the 2026 guide

Staff augmentation means adding developers, testers or other specialists from an outside firm to your own team. You direct their work day to day. The firm employs or contracts them, pays them and replaces anyone who leaves.

Ukraine is one of the countries UK, European and US companies look at when they need more software engineers than they can hire at home. Since the full-scale invasion, buyers have had new questions to ask: where people are working, how they keep working through disruption, and what happens if someone has to stop at short notice. Ukrainian firms have had to answer those questions in practice.

This guide covers what the published figures say about the sector, where the work happens, how the working day lines up with yours, and what to check before you sign. It names the source for every figure. It does not quote day rates or promise savings. Those depend on the firm, the role and the seniority of the person, and you should get them in writing from the firms on your shortlist.

If you are new to offshore hiring, start with our buyer's guide to offshore staff augmentation. If you are ready to compare firms, go to the top staff augmentation firms in Ukraine.

Ukraine's IT sector through the war

The figures below come from Ukraine's IT industry association, the country's central bank, its Ministry of Digital Transformation and the World Bank. Together they show a sector that has kept exporting through the war.

Exports in 2025. According to the IT Ukraine Association, writing in September 2026, Ukraine's IT services exports were $6.6 billion in 2025. That was more than 41% of all of Ukraine's services exports. The association also counts more than 305,000 technology professionals in the country's IT sector.

Exports this year. Exports of computer services reached $3.343 billion in the first half of 2026, up 4.1% on the first half of 2025. These are National Bank of Ukraine figures, reported by the IT Ukraine Association in August 2026.

The longer view. World Bank data puts Ukraine's ICT service exports at $6.88 billion in 2023 and $6.61 billion in 2024.

These sources measure slightly different things. The association reports IT services, the central bank figure is for computer services, and the World Bank's measure also includes communications and information services. The numbers are close, but they are not meant to match exactly, so compare like with like.

Relocation. According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, writing in February 2025, two-thirds of IT companies in Ukraine made unplanned relocations because of the invasion, within the country and abroad. A quarter of those moved completely.

Behind these figures are firms and people who have worked through relocation, power cuts and disruption to connectivity. None of that tells you how a particular firm has coped. That is what the checks later in this guide are for.

Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and Dnipro: Ukraine's top IT hubs

Most of Ukraine's IT industry is concentrated in a few places. The Ministry of Digital Transformation reports that more than 52% of IT companies are registered in Kyiv, and that about 67% of the net income declared by IT companies is concentrated there.

Outside the capital, the ministry names the Lviv region (10.4% of IT company revenues), the Kharkiv region (8.1%) and the Dnipro region (4.2%) as other places where revenues are concentrated.

Kyiv is the capital, and the registered home of most IT companies. A Kyiv address on a firm's website tells you where it is registered. It does not tell you where its people are.

Lviv is the main city of western Ukraine, near the Polish border.

Kharkiv is one of Ukraine's largest cities, in the north-east.

Dnipro is in the east-centre of the country, on the Dnipro river.

Firms elsewhere also offer staff augmentation, in cities such as Odesa, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk. The questions in this guide apply wherever a firm is based.

Relocation: ask where people work today

Given how many firms have moved people since the invasion, the city on a firm's website and the place your developers work may be different. A team may have moved to another Ukrainian city. Some of its people may work from other countries. It may now be spread across several locations.

Conditions also differ from place to place and can change. So ask about each person, not just the head office:

• Where does each person on my team work today: which city, and which country?
• Do they work from an office, a co-working space or home?
• If anyone works from outside Ukraine, which company employs or contracts them there?
• Has the team moved since the invasion, and could it move again? How would that affect my work?

The last question matters for more than logistics. Where a person works can change which company employs them, which tax rules apply, and how your contract and data protection terms work.

Working hours: how Ukraine lines up with the UK, Europe and the US

Ukraine is on UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer. It changes its clocks on the same dates as the UK and the rest of Europe, so the gap stays the same all year:

• UK: Ukraine is 2 hours ahead.
• Central Europe: Ukraine is 1 hour ahead.
• US East Coast: Ukraine is about 7 hours ahead.

Time in the UK	Time in Central Europe	Time in Ukraine
08:00	09:00	10:00
09:00	10:00	11:00
12:00	13:00	14:00
15:00	16:00	17:00
17:00	18:00	19:00

For a UK or European team, this is close to a shared working day. If both sides keep ordinary office hours, the team in Ukraine starts a little before you and finishes a little before you, and most of both days overlap. Stand-ups, pairing and same-day code review are all practical.

For a US East Coast team, 09:00 in New York is about 16:00 in Ukraine. The overlap is the US morning and the Ukrainian afternoon. The US changes its clocks on different dates from Europe, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn the gap is 6 hours rather than 7. Check recurring meetings in those weeks.

Whatever the overlap, agree it in writing:

• Which hours will each person be available, stated in my time zone?
• Which public holidays will the team take, and how do they differ from mine?
• How fast should I expect a reply outside the overlap hours?
• How does the team handle a meeting or a release that is interrupted, for example by a power cut or an air-raid alert?

English: what the EF band tells you, and what it does not

Ukraine ranks 45th in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, with a score of 526. That puts it in EF's Moderate band. EF's bands are: Very high (600 and over), High (550 to 599), Moderate (500 to 549), Low (450 to 499) and Very low (under 450).

The index is built from the test results of adults who took EF's English test. It is a national average, not a measure of software engineers, and it cannot tell you how well any one person will cope in your meetings.

Judge each person directly:

• Interview them on a video call and ask them to talk through a technical decision they made.
• Give them a short written task, such as a pull request description or a bug report, because much of their work with you will be in writing.
• Check the English of the team lead or account manager, who will handle escalations.

What to check before you sign

These checks apply to any firm, however well known. None of them is complicated, and any problem they uncover is easier to deal with before you sign than after.

Company registration: the Unified State Register

Ukrainian companies and individual entrepreneurs are recorded in the Unified State Register of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and public organisations, run under the Ministry of Justice. Each legal entity has an identification code, often called the EDRPOU code.

Ask for the code and look the company up. Check that:

• the registered name matches the name on the contract and invoices;
• the company is active, and not being wound up;
• the address, the head of the company and the owners are what you expect.

The register also records beneficial owners. As with any overseas supplier, your compliance team may want to check them against the sanctions lists that apply to your business.

If the contract is with a company outside Ukraine, check that company in its own country's register as well, and ask how it relates to the Ukrainian business.

Diia.City residency

Diia.City is a special legal and tax regime for IT companies in Ukraine. Residency is voluntary: a company has to meet the criteria and apply. Residents can engage specialists on gig contracts, which are only available to Diia.City residents, as well as on ordinary employment contracts or as contractors.

Not being a resident is not a warning sign in itself. But if a firm says it is a resident, check it on the public register of residents on the Diia.City website. Then ask how each person on your team is engaged: as an employee, on a gig contract, or as an individual entrepreneur contracted by the firm. That answer matters for the intellectual property checks below.

Continuity: power, connectivity and people in more than one city

This is the check that matters most in Ukraine, and the one where a firm's answers should be most specific. Ask:

• Backup power. What happens when the power goes off, at the office and at people's homes? What backup power do they have, and for how long can they keep working on it?
• Backup connectivity. What is the second way online if the main internet connection fails: a second provider, mobile data or satellite internet?
• People in more than one city. Is the team, or the wider firm, spread across more than one city, so that a local problem does not stop all the work? Who could step in, and how quickly?
• Absence at short notice. If someone has to leave the project suddenly, for any reason including military service, how is cover arranged, and does that fall under the replacement terms?
• A plan that has been used. Is there a written continuity plan? Ask for a real example of a disruption and how the firm kept delivery going.

On your side, reduce the damage any disruption can do. Keep code, documentation and credentials in your own systems, and avoid letting knowledge sit with one person, whoever employs them.

The actual people: CVs and interviews

Ask for named CVs for each role and interview every person who will join your team. Use a practical exercise close to your own work.

Ask whether each person already works with the firm or would be brought in for your role, and confirm where they will work from.

Replacement terms

People leave projects, and in Ukraine a person may also have to stop at short notice. Get the firm's answers in writing:

• How quickly will a replacement be proposed, and will I interview them first?
• Is there a handover period, and who pays for it?
• What happens if I am unhappy with a person in the first weeks?
• What notice does each side have to give to end a person's assignment?

The contract

Check which legal entity you are contracting with, which country's law applies and where disputes are heard. The contract should cover the rate for each role and what it includes, the currency, how invoices are raised and paid and from which entity, working hours and overlap, notice and termination.

Read the force majeure clause closely. Ask how it treats disruption linked to the war, and whether the firm still has to provide cover or replacements rather than simply suspending the work.

The contract should name the people on your team and require your approval before anyone is substituted. If you might want to hire someone directly later, ask whether the non-solicitation clause allows it and on what terms.

IP assignment

You need to own what the team builds. The contract should assign all intellectual property in the work to you. Because people may be engaged in different ways, ask how the firm secures rights from each person, whether employee, gig specialist or individual entrepreneur, so the chain from that person to the firm to you is complete.

Ask for the firm's policy on using open-source code, and confirm that everyone on your team has signed a confidentiality agreement.

Data protection

Ukraine is not in the EU or the European Economic Area. If your developers will see personal data about your customers or staff, you need a lawful basis for transferring it from the UK or the EU.

Ask which mechanism the firm uses, such as the EU standard contractual clauses or the UK's international data transfer agreement or addendum, and what assessment has been made of the risks. If people on your team work from other countries, the answer may differ for each of them. Take advice if you are unsure what applies to you.

Security and ISO 27001, if claimed

If a firm says it holds ISO 27001 certification, ask for the certificate. Check that it names the same legal entity, that its scope covers the locations your team works from, and that it is in date.

If a firm does not claim a certification, ask what it does in practice: how laptops are managed and encrypted, whether your people will use your systems and accounts, and how access is removed when someone leaves.

References

Ask to speak to current clients with an engagement like yours, ideally in your own country. Ask them how the firm handled a power cut, a relocation or a sudden absence, and whether the people they interviewed were the people who did the work. Read the firm's client reviews on TrustList as well.

How to use TrustList's ranking of the best staff augmentation firms in Ukraine

The Ukraine ranking lists firms in Ukraine that offer staff augmentation. A firm is included when its own website or TrustList profile says it offers staff augmentation, dedicated teams or developers for hire, or when it is listed as a staff augmentation company.

Firms are ranked by the same method as every TrustList ranking: client ratings and the number of reviews, the quality and completeness of the listing, and verification. Client reviews are the biggest single factor. Payment never changes a firm's position, and any sponsored placement is labelled as sponsored.

To get the most out of it:

• Sort by best match, highest rated or most reviewed.
• Narrow by city where enough firms share one. A firm appears under a city based on the address it gives, which may be its registered office rather than where your team will work. After so much relocation, always ask.
• Narrow by skill where enough firms share one, to find firms that work in your technology stack.
• Look for the Verified badge, which means TrustList has checked the business and its client references.
• Read the reviews, not just the score. Look for what clients say about continuity, communication and replacements.

Use the ranking to build your shortlist, then run the checks in this guide on every firm on it. A high position shows what clients and the evidence say so far. It does not replace your own checks, and it cannot tell you how a firm will cope with the next disruption.

To compare Ukraine with other countries, see the offshore staff augmentation rankings by country. For the full process of choosing a partner, read the offshore staff augmentation buyer's guide.

The short version

Ukraine offers a working day that lines up closely with the UK and Europe, English in EF's Moderate band, and an IT sector that has kept exporting through the war. The questions that set firms apart are practical ones: where each person works today, how the team keeps working when power or connectivity fails, who steps in when someone has to stop, and whether the contract, IP chain and data transfers are in order.

Shortlist firms that answer those questions specifically and can show you how they have handled disruption before.

TrustList publishes these rankings, and its rankings are not for sale.

Sources

• Ukraine as a technology partner for Europe: IT services exports in 2025, share of services exports, and the number of technology professionals. IT Ukraine Association, September 2026.
• Ukraine's IT exports in the first half of 2026: computer services exports, from National Bank of Ukraine data. IT Ukraine Association, August 2026.
• Ukraine's IT sector: from outsourcing to innovation: where IT companies are registered, where revenues are concentrated, and relocations. Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, 8 February 2025.
• EF English Proficiency Index 2025: Ukraine's rank, score and band, and the band definitions. EF Education First, November 2025.
• ICT service exports (BoP, current US$): Ukraine's 2023 and 2024 figures, and what the measure includes. World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2023 and 2024 data.
• Diia.City: the regime, voluntary residency, gig contracts and the public register of residents. Diia.City portal, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, accessed 16 September 2026.