“If earlier we added Cloud knowledge to almost all positions, now it is very desirable to understand AI.” Who were the most actively hired by Ukrainian IT employers in 2025: insiders from recruiters

Olga Zhilina, Senior Recruitment Manager, EPAM Ukraine

This year’s hiring activity in our company was focused on highly qualified specialists, mainly at the Senior level and above. In total, we hired over 540 specialists for the Ukrainian team, and the trends that were established earlier have been preserved, but with a noticeable complication of the requirements for the positions.

The most basic thing is that while we used to add Cloud knowledge to almost all positions, now it is highly desirable to understand AI.

The most in-demand area in 2025 was Data. At our company, it encompasses Data Software, Data Analytics, Data Science, ML, and, added this year, Artificial Intelligence.

Ksenia Baydina, Recruitment Analyst at Sigma Software

This year, we were most active in hiring specialists in key technical areas that ensure the development and sustainability of the company’s IT infrastructure.

Among Juniors, the most popular were .NET, JS/Node.js, PM, DevOps, and Java.

At the Middle level — JS/Node.js, .NET, DevOps, TechSupport, PM and TE/TAE, and among Senior — JS/Node.js, .NET, Java, BA and TE/TAE.

Among Principal specialists, the most popular skills were Java, Python, RoR, JS, and DevOps, as well as Python, .NET, and ML/Data Science among architects. We strengthened non-technical specialties with Junior and Middle specialists in recruiting, accounting, law, and HR,» — .

Olena Oleksienko, Chief People Team at EVO

This year, EVO has been most actively hiring in the support and operations services teams. This is about 30% of all our vacancies. Customer Support — more than 30 specialists. The second largest area is finance and compliance for the RozetkaPay project.

We have hired accountants, FP&A and Compliance specialists — at least 12 people. Thanks to this, we ensure transaction growth and regulatory compliance.

Marketing and partner development took third place. There are more than 10 new specialists in SMM and trade marketing. In the technical direction, the leaders were QA specialists, Go developers, and data and product analysts — more than 20 employees.

By grade, the greatest demand was observed among Middle+ specialists in both IT and non-IT. Junior specialists were also hired (QA and Go), and the Senior level was closed selectively for strategic areas of development and infrastructure.

Natalia Yerisova, Head of Global Recruitment at Master of Code Global

This year, we had the greatest demand for specialists related to artificial intelligence. If we talk about the top 3, we most often searched for:

• AI and Conversational AI engineers and lead roles — specialists who work with LLM, RAG approaches and can lead AI projects.
• Backend/Solution Engineers with experience integrating AI and cloud solutions.
• QA engineers with a focus on testing AI functionality and model behavior.

By level, Middle and Senior specialists were hired the most, as they are critically needed for AI projects, where experience, the ability to make technical decisions, and interact with stakeholders are important.

Kateryna Kokhanova, Talent Fulfillment Manager at Ciklum

The following stacks became the most popular by number of hires in 2025:

• .NET — 17% of hires;
• JavaScript / Full Stack JS — 14%;
• Python — 9%.

While these technologies have shown the greatest demand from clients and the highest candidate activity, we have also closed roles in other categories. These include: QA, Mobile, Data, Embedded, DevOps. Demand has increased significantly in AI/ML, DevOps/SRE, iOS, and DataScience.

The distribution of hires by grade in 2025 looks like this:

• Junior — 5%;
• Middle — 28%;
• Seniors — 56%;
• Expert / Lead — 11%.

As before, Ciklum mainly focuses on working with Middle and Senior level specialists, which meets the typical needs of enterprise clients. However, we also continued to support the Junior direction — both through external hiring and internal rotations.

Daryna Kuzmyk, Talent&Culture Lead, Railsware

Throughout the year, we hired based on the needs dictated by the business, so we opened different roles and did not focus on just one direction. This year, we hired technical content writer, marketing manager, sales intern, accountant, product lead. These roles were closed in approximately equal numbers, depending on the request of the teams.

The top 3 most popular areas by number of hires for us look like this:

• Customer Support Representatives. This was the largest hiring pool this year as the support team grew along with the products and user base.
• Full-stack engineers (Ruby / JavaScript). The second most active category. We have been increasing development for new products and the development of existing ones.
• Product/business-support roles (in particular, product lead, marketing manager, technical content writer, accountant). Overall, this is the third most notable hiring block, as several business areas were developed in parallel throughout the year.

Headway Inc.

Headway Inc. has hired marketers, designers, and analysts the most this year. From January to December, they hired 14 creative marketers, 13 User Acquisition specialists, and 10 other marketers, as well as 23 designers and 17 analysts of various profiles.