CEO and co-founder of the Ukrainian product engineering company Dwarf Engineering, Vladislav Piotrovsky, spoke about the future expansion of the development team and the biggest difficulties the company faces when hiring specialists.
CEO and co-founder of the Ukrainian product engineering company Dwarf Engineering, Vladislav Piotrovsky, spoke about the future expansion of the development team and the biggest difficulties the company faces when hiring specialists.
In an interview with DOU, Piotrovsky recalled that Dwarf Engineering started with 10 engineers who wrote software and previously worked in web development. «Now we work more in the field of robotics. Some people continue to develop software, but there are also those who design electronics, print cases for devices, or test, assemble, and pilot equipment,» the company’s head noted.
Currently, the team consists of about 50 people, of which 70-80% are engineers, including management. Dwarf Engineering plans to hire about 30 more people. Approximately 20 specialists will join the engineering team, and up to 10 more will join the business direction.
«The most difficult thing is technical interviews for future candidates for engineering positions. HR can close several interviews per day, but engineers physically cannot conduct five technical interviews every day, because it takes time away from their main work,» said Vladislav Piotrovsky.
According to him, the biggest challenges are hiring high-level managers and team leaders; it is also difficult to find a system administrator who «you want to bring into the team.»
«Even a cleaning lady is hard to find. In today’s conditions, finding someone who won’t turn you in to the Russians for $1,000 is a total waste of space,» says the head of Dwarf Engineering.
He noted that a separate miltech market has already formed in Ukraine with specialists who move from one defense company to another and have their own professional community and specific experience.
Recall that at the end of the summer, Dwarf Engineering showed how its Narsil module for autonomous control of FPV drones works .
«In essence, it gives the combat pilot a kind of „pilot assistant“, the so-called copilot, who will support the drone in case of loss of control, even if the loss of communication is complete. That is, when the drone begins to choke EW, it automatically switches to „cruise“ mode and continues flying — just like a car drives in a similar mode,» Piotrovsky said about the work of Narsil.
