Hire Developers in Ukraine

How to hire software developers in Ukraine

Contractor of Record

The simplest way to hire a Ukrainian developer is through a Contractor of Record (CoR). With a CoR, a third party like EliteBrains becomes the legal contracting party with the developer. You do not sign directly with the developer, but with EliteBrains, and they handle the contract, compliance, and Ukrainian tax requirements. This setup brings several advantages, and matters more in Ukraine than in most countries because of the added legal complexity of wartime rules.

First, compliance: Ukraine's tax and labor rules for contractors sit apart from its more protective employee-facing labor code, and getting the classification wrong exposes you to reclassification risk and back payments. A CoR absorbs this risk instead of you.

Second, liability: since EliteBrains is the contracting party, you are shielded from Ukrainian labor and tax exposure, and should Ukrainian authorities have questions about a contractor's status, they go to EliteBrains, not you.

Third, the relationship stays clean on your end: your company has a straightforward B2B arrangement with EliteBrains - no payroll, no local registration, no HR overhead - while you keep full control of the developer's day-to-day work and direction.

Create an entity in Ukraine

If you want to hire on your own, you'll need to set up an entity in Ukraine, a legal structure that lets a foreign business employ people under Ukrainian law. To achieve this, you will need a Ukrainian Tax ID, official notarized and apostilled translation of all of your documents, such as extracts from your home-country register and board decisions, and a Ukrainian work permit in case you want to employ a foreigner as director.

Once your paperwork is in order, registration itself moves quickly. It usually only takes 3 to 7 business days and it can be done remotely with a power of attorney. From there, you'll need to open a Ukrainian bank account, register for a tax system, and get an electronic digital signature, now required to access several state registers under martial law.

Once the company exists, any developer you hire comes on as a full employee under Ukrainian labor law, which means 24 days of paid vacation a year, 12 paid public holidays, and sick leave that's partly or fully covered by you. Salaries have to be paid in hryvnia to a local bank account, twice a month, and reported to the State Tax Service each month.

The upside here is clarity: you're the legal employer, so there's no risk of misclassifying anyone. The downside is that the war has raised the stakes on an already heavy process. Beyond the paperwork and work-permit hurdles, you're taking on ongoing payroll, tax filings, and mandatory benefits, and those costs add up fast. Another plus: unlike many other countries, Ukraine has no minimum capital requirement, though whatever you commit to must be paid within 6 months of registration.

Diia City

Diia City is a special set of tax and legal rules in Ukraine made just for tech companies in 2022 to make the country more attractive to tech businesses and investors. Tech companies in fields like software development, SaaS, or cybersecurity with 9 or more employees (counting gig workers too) can join if they pay them an average of at least EUR 1,200 a month, and get at least 90% of their income from IT work. Startups get easier rules for a while when they're just starting out.

Diia City has several major draws. First are taxes: companies can pay 9% tax instead of the usual 18%, and gig workers only pay 5% income tax plus 5% military tax instead of the usual 18%. Second, companies are allowed to use contract types that don't normally exist under Ukrainian law, like gig contracts and employee stock plans. And during the war, it comes with two useful perks: companies can hire foreign workers without needing work permits, and key employees can be excused from military service.

The program is tremendously popular, with over 70% of Ukrainian IT companies already part of it. The one thing worth knowing is that only a Ukrainian company can apply for Diia City status, so this really only matters if you've set up your own company in Ukraine or you're working with a local partner who's already part of it.

Cross-border payments

Another option is to skip the entity and hire Ukrainian developers directly as a separate business rather than an employee. Assuming you already found a developer to hire, this process is quite fast. Since most Ukrainian developers are already registered as a FOP, the local version of a sole proprietor, they can simply invoice you once you sign a B2B agreement. Payment is straightforward as well: you pay by wire transfer or a service like Wise and there are no currency restrictions.

However, be sure to weigh all the possible risks as well. Ukrainian law doesn't automatically give ownership of the work outcomes to the employer like an employment contract would. So be sure to explicitly spell out IP assignment in the contract, otherwise the copyright stays with the creator. Another risk is misclassification – if the relationship looks and functions like employment (fixed hours, ongoing supervision, exclusivity) rather than genuine independent contracting, you could face reclassification and back payments down the line. Ukrainian authorities can reclassify a contractor this way on their own, without the developer ever filing a complaint, so staying compliant isn't just about avoiding disputes with the person you hired. Since there is no third party shielding you from the exposure, it is yours alone to deal with.

How to pay software developers in Ukraine

Paying a Ukrainian developer is easier than the wartime news might make you think. Ukraine's currency rules only control money leaving the country, not money coming in. So when you send payment from abroad to a developer's Ukrainian account, none of these rules slow it down. Most companies pay by wire transfer or a service like Wise, which is usually faster and cheaper. The developer, who is normally registered as a FOP, sends you an invoice directly and handles their own taxes and currency exchange on their side.

That said, easy to pay doesn't mean there's nothing to think about. You're still the one keeping track of invoices, exchange rates, and whether your contract actually protects you, and that adds up once you're paying more than one developer. This is exactly where EliteBrains comes in.

EliteBrains encompasses everything needed to hire a developer in Ukraine. Once you've hired, you set up the contract directly on the platform: define the rate and lay out reporting rules and payment conditions up front. The developer uses the platform to log their hours or submit deliverables as work progresses. You stay in control of approvals, and when it's time to pay, EliteBrains handles the payout. Contracts, approvals, and payments all live in one place, so nothing falls through the cracks between hiring someone and actually getting them paid.

Testing software developers

So how do you make sure the developer you're hiring is actually the best for the job? A resume often won't tell you that - it just tells you what someone says they've done, not what they can actually do. This is where EliteBrains' AI skill assessment comes in, making the whole process quick and easy. Just feed it the job description, the skills you need, and the seniority level, and it builds a real test in seconds. Not trivia questions - real tasks, the kind the person would actually do on the job. Every candidate gets the same test and the same scoring, making comparison simple. By the time your team sits down for an interview, you're only talking to people who've already proven they can do the work.

How to find software developers in Ukraine

You know how you'll hire, pay, and test a Ukrainian developer - now you just need to find one. These are the most common approaches, and where they fall short:

Searching manually

You can search for your developer manually on platforms like LinkedIn or GitHub, which is free, but it's slow and entirely on you. Messaging developers cold means low response rates, and no real way to verify skill until you're already deep in the process.

Marketplaces

Another option is open marketplaces - a fast method, but risky in quality, since anyone can sign up and call themselves a developer. Not to mention Ukraine's own classification rules and the FOP contractor setup, which most open marketplaces leave entirely on you to figure out. You could also turn to more premium, vetted marketplaces, where the quality is much better, but which come with a steep price floor and high hourly rates.

Tech recruiters or personal agencies

You could also choose to use a local recruiter with market knowledge who can hand you a shortlist without you lifting a finger - but you pay greatly for that. Agency fees typically run as a percentage of the hire's salary, on top of whatever you're already paying the developer, which adds up fast.

Elite Brains

EliteBrains sourcing is built to skip that whole trade-off - speed, quality, price, legal risk, all of it. Posting a job is free. From there, EliteBrains' AI looks through hundreds of thousands of profiles and brings you the ones that actually match what you're looking for. Every developer has already been through a rigorous vetting process before you even see their profile, so you're choosing from people who've already proven themselves. You move at your own pace, and if it's not the right fit, there's a risk-free trial before you commit to anything. And once you've found your developer, everything stays in one place: the skill tests, the contract, the payments. No bouncing between five different tools just to hire one person.