Developers from Poland: Portrait & Salaries

Polish Software Development Industry in 2024

Poland is regarded as one of the most attractive countries in Eastern Europe for technology outsourcing. It provides an active and innovative startup ecosystem, reasonable software development costs, as well as a vastly skilled tech talent pool. Such facts contribute to the popularity of Poland as an outsourcing destination for Western tech companies. For example, IBM, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have their offices in the most developed Polish IT hubs ‒ Warsaw and Krakow.

Domestic Polish software development companies, of which there are almost 1,500 registered on Clutch, mainly specialize in custom software development. This includes the setting up of app infrastructure, designing a scalable architecture, implementing and complying with clean code standards, enforcing high security, and testing. In addition to development from scratch, the majority of tech companies in Poland also offer related services, such as IT staff augmentation, IT strategy consulting, BI & Big Data consulting, Cloud consulting, and more. Among the leading software development companies in Poland, one can find proven expertise in numerous sectors such as FinTech, Healthcare, Automotive Systems, as well as AI and ML.

Comparing Poland’s position in the IT services output rating by ReportLinker, this country takes the 10th place among all European countries. While not showing exponential growth like the developing IT markets of Estonia or Lithuania, Poland still generates a steady annual revenue of approximately 30 billion euros. 

Polish Software Developer Portrait

Polish software developers are known for their adaptability and ability to find solutions. These characteristics allow them to meet the needs of changing projects and keep up with new technologies. Additionally, Polish software engineers tend to be highly motivated and eager to learn. Therefore, they are a great addition to any team, regardless of the project scope or industry.

So, let’s take a look at what kind of professionals you can expect to work with if you decide to hire developers from Poland. 

Education and skills

There are 500+ universities in Poland, 28 of which are ranked in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 as the ones offering the best programs in Computer Science. With such a strong focus on tech, Poland ensures a steady stream of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) graduates, approximately 11,000 each year. According to Bolldogjob study, the majority of developers in Poland have either a Master's (37.4%) or Bachelor’s (28.4%) degree in technical studies.

Software developers from Poland are proficient in numerous technologies, including JavaScript, Python, SQL, Java, C++, React, and more. They also keep up with the latest trends in the fields of AI and ML. Overall, developers in Poland are highly skilled, consistently demonstrating strong technical expertise, thus have earned a top spot in global rankings, placing 5th out of 60 countries in a Harvard Business Review. 

Progressive and eager to learn, many Polish engineers also join various programming communities such as Stack Overflow or HackerRank to access/share their knowledge. 

Location

If you take a look at the list of top 50 Polish IT companies, you’ll notice that their offices are mainly located in Warsaw. Other meaningful cities that host both global and local tech companies are Krakow, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Lodz, Poznan, and Katowice. Thus, these cities are of increased interest for the top Polish programmers.

Gender

Following the global trend, more and more women are entering the software development sphere in Poland. However, when compared to the number of male IT specialists, women only make up about 15% of the total employees. Moreover, only a relatively small part of women in IT have engineering positions. According to findings of the 2022 No Fluff Jobs Report, only 15.15% of all female respondents occupied back-end positions, 11.92% had the front-end ones, and only 5.45% full-stack positions. 

Work culture

Polish developers collaborate well with their colleagues and clients from other countries thanks to their work culture. Some of the distinctive characteristics of IT specialists in Poland are punctuality, respect for hierarchy inside a team, politeness in the workplace, trust, and responsibility. 

English proficiency

Poland takes 13th place in the World’s Largest Ranking of Countries by English skills. This high ranking reflects the strong emphasis on English education in the country, particularly among younger generations and professionals in the tech industry. Polish developers are known for their ability to effectively communicate in English, which makes them highly sought after by international companies. This proficiency allows for seamless collaboration on global projects, ensuring that language barriers are rarely an issue. Their skill set, combined with technical expertise, positions Poland as a key player in the global IT outsourcing market.

Polish Software Developers’ Salaries in 2024

Polish software development services are more cost-effective than US counterparts, and that’s one of the main reasons why American companies outsource their projects to the country. Below is a breakdown of the average salaries that developers earn in Poland by industry, technology, and seniority levels.

By Industry

According to Glassdoor, the average total payout for a web developer in Warsaw, Poland, is 9,000 Zl a month, annually around 27,000 USD.  Polish web developers have expertise with a number of industries, including HealthTech, Real Estate, and iGaming. One more niche where Polish software engineers show great results is eCommerce. Some Polish companies are even included in the list of Shopify trusted partners.

Mobile development is another popular direction for Polish developers. IT professionals who work in this sphere earn the average of $37,500 a year. 

By Technology

A 2024 report on the Polish IT community from Bulldogjob indicates that the most used programming language among Polish developers is JavaScript (49.4%). The list continues with Java (30%), Python (25.5%), and C# (22.6%). As for mobile technologies, Kotlin is more popular with 7.1% of developers using it in their job, while Swift makes up 2.2%.

If you’re looking for tech specialists in Poland with these technologies or need assistance hiring web or mobile developers with different tech stacks, Huntly will help you meet your recruitment needs.

By seniority levels

Junior software developers in Poland start out with a minimum salary of about $19,000 a year. Wages for middle specialists vary between $30,000 and $66,000. The most experienced, senior developers can count on making from $48,000 to $84,000 a year.

Sources: LinkedIn, NoFluffJobs, Glassdoor, Justjoin.it

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Outsourcing Software Development to Poland vs. Hiring

There are two main options you can choose from when considering collaboration with software developers in Poland: outsourcing or hiring. Whatever option you choose, it doesn’t change the fact that Polish software engineers are highly proficient in the technology field, have generally solid spoken English, and offer cheaper development rates. However, the cooperation model can impact the outcome of your project on a global level. Let’s see what strengths and weaknesses each approach has. 

Outsourcing pros & cons

By choosing to outsource software development to Poland, one of the meaningful benefits you get is fast scaling of the team. You don’t have to look for every specialist separately since the outsourcing option allows you to get a ready-to-work team specifically for your project. On the other hand, by delegating technical parts to outsourcing contractors, you have less control over the development process. Of course, you should have regular sync-ups with a development team or project manager to be aware of the development process; still, this level of interaction doesn’t compare to what you have when working with a software engineering team directly.

Another disadvantage of outsourcing is that your project isn’t exclusive to an outsourcing agency. Developers working on your project may also be involved in other projects, which potentially can extend the development timeline. 

Hiring developers in Poland

If you go for the hiring option, you receive a team of dedicated developers who only work on your product. This allows you to create an environment where every specialist is involved and motivated to contribute to the project. Also, being a linear manager, you have more control over the development process.

The first disadvantage you should keep in mind when hiring in-house developers is that it’s a time-consuming process. In general, it takes over a month to fill a tech vacancy (this timeline can change dramatically depending on the complexity of a position). Taking into account the fact that to build a product from scratch, you’ll likely need a team of several developers, let alone UI/UX designer and product manager, it might take you several months to hire the necessary specialists.

Additionally, there is a risk of turnover. Even after several rounds of interviews, candidates might not accept your offer. Or even if they do, they might change their opinion during a probation period, and you’ll again have to spend time and money to find other developers. 

Smart hiring with Huntly

Huntly helps you tackle the challenges of recruitment by offering an innovative approach to tech hiring. With over 1,000 European IT recruiters on board, we can connect you with the best-matching pre-screened Polish candidates within several days after you post your vacancy on our platform. Thus, the overall hiring time might be reduced dramatically. For example, for one of our clients, Huntly managed to close 4 senior-level positions in Eastern Europe (Romania and Poland) within just a month.

We also have guarantees that ensure the quality of hiring. For example, if a Huntly candidate doesn’t pass the probation period, we substitute them for free.

Will Big Tech Hire Polish Developers in 2025?

When considering software development in Poland, foreign businesses should take into account some peculiarities of working with Polish developers. 

Time difference

Poland is 6 hours ahead of Washington DC, which might cause some inconveniences when working with Polish development teams. While this gap shouldn’t affect completion of daily tasks and the development timeline, communication with the team might happen outside of regular work hours.

Contract types

There are two main ways you can employ Polish developers: an employment contract or B2B contract. Taking into account the complexities of employment contracts, such as the need to have a Polish legal entity and pay taxes for employees, it’s better for foreign companies to sign B2B contracts with IT professionals. 

High demand for skilled developers

While there are 500,000+ IT specialists in Poland, not all of them are open to work. And not all professionals have the necessary skills and expertise, so it could make the hiring process lengthy. Moreover, the talent shortage problem isn’t going to be solved anytime soon. It’s predicted that by 2030 the number of unfilled worldwide tech vacancies is going to be 85.2MM.

Even with these nuances and not very promising talent forecast, Poland is worth being considered as a destination for overseas companies to outsource and hire IT professionals. According to Statista, the software industry in Poland is going to generate $2.9BN by 2029. Moreover, the country’s developers are expected to advance in the adoption of AI, automation technologies, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, which will make them even more in demand than today.

Huntly — Your New IT Recruitment Tool

If you decide to hire Polish tech talent to strengthen your development team but lack the local recruitment expertise or need assistance to speed up the hiring process, Huntly is where you need to come. Being an innovative platform that provides high-quality candidate pipelines in the short term at a reasonable cost, we can take your tech recruitment to a new level!

When hiring with Huntly, you can expect to streamline your recruiting process from the very beginning. This is how it happens:

1. You post your vacancy on the platform.
2. Our global recruitment community forwards us the best CVs of developers from their networks.
3. Huntly’s AI system and internal recruitment team double-checks every CV to meet your requirements.
4. When the two verification levels are finished, you receive profiles of the first relevant candidates.

The whole process usually takes around 72 hours. Once you approve the candidates you want to proceed with, you perform interviews with them and make your hiring decision.

One more advantage of Huntly is its cost-effectiveness and risk-free experience. You decide on the recruitment fee on your own and pay only after a successful hire. And if you aren’t satisfied with a candidate you hired with us, you can substitute them for free within 3 months.

With all said, Poland is definitely worth your attention if you’re looking for overseas options for software development. Hire the best Polish developers with Huntly to enjoy fast and quality recruitment at reasonable cost!