Poland is regarded as one of the world’s main sources of top tech and IT talent. Companies from all over the world are attracted to Poland – and to cities like Krakow – by the availability of highly skilled and affordable tech talent.
The adoption of “hire anywhere” approaches – a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic – makes Polish and Poland-based talent easily accessible to international companies, and contributes to Poland’s growing status as a key location in the global IT landscape.
Find out what makes Poland so appealing to companies looking to grow their global capabilities.
Boasting the largest IT talent pool in Central Eastern Europe, Poland has become a key location for technology companies building regional or global teams.
Polish programmers and software engineers are recognized as being among the best in the world – a status confirmed in rankings by respected organizations like Hackerrank and Stack Overflow. This reputation, combined with favorable costs, the high number of technical institutions, and an abundance of talent, makes Poland an attractive place to build capabilities.
Many of the world’s biggest and most-innovative companies have already established R&D hubs in cities like Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan, and the Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopoot (Tri-city) metropolitan area.
Today, Poland continues to attract companies of all shapes and sizes – from global corporations looking to grow their EMEA footprint through to VC-funded startups seeking to develop and scale their products quickly.
This continuous growth and diversification of the ecosystem, combined with the constant flow of high-quality talent, means that Poland’s appeal – to both hiring companies and candidates looking to pursue careers in technology – goes from strength to strength.
Poland has a rich tradition of high-ranked engineering and technical-oriented academic institutions, and Polish developers are renowned for their technical expertise and problem-solving skills. There is a strong degree of specialization – both in niche domains and specific technologies – with ecosystems and communities in place to support development and collaboration. The vast majority of Poles are comfortable communicating in English and digital proficiency comes as standard.
With more than 17 000 ICT graduates every year and a constant inflow of talent from neighboring countries, the IT talent pool in Poland continues to grow. This growth is mirrored by the number and diversity of new hiring companies arriving on the scene. This constant evolution ensures that the tech scene continues to thrive and become more diverse, creating attractive opportunities for candidates and companies alike.
Poland shares historical and cultural ties with countries like Germany, Austria, Sweden, France, Ireland, the UK, and the US, and Poles tend to be naturally open, curious, and keen to acquire experience working abroad or in an international setting.
These qualities make Polish IT professionals ideally suited to working for global companies. Indeed, many MOTIFE clients decided to build software labs in Poland based on positive experiences they had working with Polish engineers – a tradition that we at MOTIFE are focused on continuing.
With the ongoing globalization of the IT market, the gaps between costs and salaries around the world are narrowing. Despite rising costs, Poland continues to be affordable, especially when considering the high quality of talent. Indeed, it’s quality – not cost – that is the main reason companies choose Poland to fulfill their tech hiring needs. Amid volatility and skills shortages elsewhere, Poland provides quality, availability, stability, loyalty, and healthy conditions for conducting business.
As more and more international companies invest in Poland and Polish tech talent, the market matures, the talent pool diversifies, and the level of comfort grows. This results in the range of roles sought in Poland widening beyond strictly technical roles to include positions like business analysts, product owners, product managers, scrum masters, DevOps professionals, and many others. As such, an investment in Polish talent is an investment in a thriving IT ecosystem with the potential to deliver many benefits in the future.
Poland is conveniently located in the heart of Europe, with most European capitals reachable within 2 hours by plane. This proximity means teams can work in the same or very-close time zones, while enabling distributed teams to meet up regularly and without excessive travel or cost burden
For companies based in the Americas or Asia, Poland is an important location as part of a follow-the-sun setup. Furthermore, many Poles – especially those in modern cities like Krakow, where international business is the norm – are amenable to starting work later or earlier if the job meets most other candidate criteria.
With regard to security and stability, Poland is a member of the EU and NATO.
As the second-largest city in Poland and former royal capital, Krakow stands out today for the strength of its technology ecosystem.
With 60 000 IT specialists and more than 500 tech companies, the Krakow IT market continues to grow from strength to strength, with an average of 20 new IT companies arriving and the size of the talent pool increasing by 10% each year.
In Krakow, international companies find an educated and experienced IT talent pool and a city that welcomes and supports international business.
Looking to scale up its engineering capabilities, Karhoo chose Poland and MOTIFE to provide end-to-end support in recruiting top talent and to set up a tech lab in Krakow.
We considered many different locations and we chose Krakow as one of the best locations to rapidly scale up our engineering capabilities.
Group CTO / CPO, Karhoo
