Top managers from the IT sector are increasingly moving to deftech, as the industry now offers not only the opportunity to defend the country, but also competitive financial benefits, bonuses, and management of innovative products.
Top managers from the IT sector are increasingly moving to deftech, as the industry now offers not only the opportunity to defend the country, but also competitive financial benefits, bonuses, and management of innovative products.
The reasons for the migration of management personnel and changes in demand in the labor market are discussed in detail in the material of the publication "Economic Truth".
Over the past few years, Ukrainian defense tech has transformed from volunteer initiatives into an industry that builds lines of complex technological solutions and works with large contracts. To organize processes and bring production to a new level, companies need C-level specialists: CEO, COO, CPO and other directors. Defense companies began to compete for IT specialists not only with a mission, but also with high salaries and the prospect of being at the forefront of the formation of a new global market.
To attract specialists accustomed to flexibility, companies are even adapting working conditions: "Some companies are already introducing gyms or massage parlors - anything that helps make the office format less painful for people accustomed to IT flexibility," said Stas Shikhov, CEO of IT recruitment agency ITExpert.
If earlier one of the main arguments for switching to the defense industry was 100% reservation, now this factor has receded into the background. The main motive today is the prospect of growth. While classic IT has become more cautious in hiring and developing new areas, defense technologies are rapidly scaling, attracting investments and offering specialists a unique opportunity to enter the industry at the stage of its global formation.
“Now we are increasingly hearing not only ‘find us an engineer’, but also ‘find a manager who will cover the entire direction.’ Deftech is actively looking for managers who can be responsible for an entire department or group of teams,” Shikhov noted.
This year, the industry has seen several high-profile transitions. Former head of artificial intelligence at MacPaw , Volodymyr Kubitsky, has joined Yaroslav Azhnyuk's startup The Fourth Law , where he is working on on-board AI for autonomous drone operation.
Deftech was also joined by former CPO Kyivstar.Tech Mykhailo Nestor, who moved to the developer of AI for drone swarms Swarmer , and former vice president of Intellias Roman Gapachilo, who became the CEO of the startup DoD Solution .
Additionally, People.ai founder Oleg Roginsky has stepped down as CEO of his unicorn startup to focus on defense integrator UFORCE .
