“We need developers so that robots that make decisions to kill Russians appear before robots that make decisions to kill Ukrainians.” Oleksiy Babenko (Vyriy) on salaries at MilTech, conspiracy theories, and autonomous warfare

dev.ua retells Babenko’s most interesting thoughts from his speech at DOU Day.

Software is more important than hardware, and «process people» are not needed

At the beginning of the great war, the key challenge was hardware — there were simply no drones. But now, according to Babenko, the potential of the hardware is almost exhausted, and the main battle is unfolding in the software sphere.

Today, about 30% of Vyriy’s team is software specialists, although the ideal figure should be 60%. The company urgently needs developers, but not those who are used to the comfort of traditional IT.

«We don’t need 'process people' who will develop something beautifully and for a long time. This suits startups that take a long time to absorb investments and are afraid to show the result. We need those who deliver. Those who make a product that then works, kills or protects,» explains Oleksiy.

At the same time, getting into MilTech is easier than it seems. According to Babenko, it is faster to figure out how to set up an autopilot for a drone than to learn the simplest programming language — often it all comes down to writing basic Lua scripts. People without relevant experience who are ready to learn quickly are worth their weight in gold.

Salaries at MilTech: $1,000 for a beginner and $12,000 for an engineer

The myth that working in the defense industry is exclusively volunteer work with pittance salaries has long been debunked.

According to Babenko, a person who didn’t hold a soldering iron in his hands a week ago can come to assemble drones and earn about $1,000. While juntas in classic IT are now often unemployed.

Middle-level salaries in Vyriy range from $3,500 to $4,000, while seniors earn $5,000 and more (sometimes $7,000–$8,000). But the greatest demand (and highest salaries) are for PCB tracers.

«There are people who don’t accept a job if they get a response in an hour, not in 15 minutes. We had a case where a specialist rejected an offer for $12,000 simply because of a delay in HR’s response,» shares Babenko.

About burnout and 3 working months for 1

Working at MilTech is hard. Babenko recalls how in the first year of the war they overworked the working hours and it turned out that he worked 3 standard months for 1 calendar month. However, strangely enough, people here almost never burn out.

The reason is a clear understanding of the result. If in corporate IT you often don’t see who needs your button, then in MilTech your feedback is a video of your drone burning Russian equipment or saving the lives of soldiers. This gives such a boost of motivation that people get tired physically, but grow psychologically at a breakneck speed. There are examples in the company when 3rd year students grew to the level of CTO in a couple of years.

The company’s current CTO joined them three years ago, when he was still an ordinary third-year student at the National Aviation University. At that time, the guy was about twenty years old, and the entire startup team consisted of only about two dozen enthusiasts.

Today, he is 23 years old and heads the technical department of a giant company that supplies drones to the front in large quantities. Oleksiy Babenko frankly admits that the young STO may not yet have a perfect understanding of bureaucratic or managerial processes, but he is phenomenally well-versed in the technologies themselves. Thanks to this technical expertise, he has become one of the key people on whom the entire company is based today. Babenko emphasizes that such a rapid career leap is currently impossible in any other civilian industry.

CEO Vyriy gave another illustrative story. Once, a guy who had previously been an ordinary bartender came to work at their drone assembly plant. At first, he was refused because he didn’t know how to do anything. But instead of giving up, he asked to come in the evenings in his free time to just watch and learn. The company supported this motivation, later sending him to specialized courses. As a result, the man who was once not hired to solder contacts is now the head of the entire Vyriy production, with over a thousand employees under his command.

Both of these cases prove the main rule of modern Ukrainian MilTech: the industry needs not so much perfect resumes as people who are ready to learn furiously and take responsibility for the result.

Autonomous War and the Terminator Scenario

Europeans are terribly afraid of creating drones capable of making decisions about killing on their own. Valery Zaluzhny once joked that if we do that, Sarah Connor will come after us in a year. However, Babenko is sure: autonomous war is inevitable.

«This will happen regardless of our desire. The only question is who will do it first — us or the Russians. Therefore, we desperately need software developers so that robots that make decisions to kill Russians appear before robots that make decisions to kill Ukrainians,» he states harshly.

3000 own satellites instead of GPS

In addition to kamikaze drones, Vyriy has more global ambitions. One of them is to create its own navigation system resistant to electronic warfare.

The company plans to launch a network of its own satellites. Babenko explains: technologies have become so cheap that launching one satellite no longer costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, but tens. Atomic clocks, which are used to keep positioning, have fallen in price to $1,500.

«To cover the planet with at least some positioning, you need about 300 satellites. To be just fine, you need 3,000 satellites. It will cost about $30 million. For us, this is an absolutely huge amount to build a new GPS with secure communication at our own expense. After all, GPS jamming is not only a problem for the front. Tomorrow it could happen at any airport in Europe and disrupt all logistics in the world,» Oleksiy Babenko summarizes.