According to LobbyX, a Ukrainian recruitment platform with a dedicated section for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, IT positions are the second-most popular in the military with 78 applications per opening on average.
Vladyslav Grezev, the head of LobbyX, said the most popular category for the military was “staff work,” followed by IT, drone operators and press services respectively.
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“On average, 78 people [responded] to military IT vacancies. In particular, since the full-scale war, 147 IT vacancies have been published and received 11,465 responses,” he said in an interview with DOU, a Ukrainian IT outlet.
The platform signed a cooperation agreement with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense in November 2023 to provide recruitment services to the military free of charge, where Ukrainians could apply for different positions within the military based on their skills and requirements.
The cooperation was part of the military’s bid to attract new personnel by offering choices and flexibility to Ukrainians.
Depending on the position, those in active service could also apply for a transfer to desired roles and units.
The openings were categorized using different hashtags, and under the military section, openings for positions ranging from grenade launchers to liaison officers in different units could be seen on the site.
Within the openings are descriptions of the duties, responsibilities and compensations for different positions, with some offering annual leave of 30 days.
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A senior back-end developer position listed for the military offered financial compensation of Hr.40,000-70,000 ($1,049-$1,836) based on the tasks and stated that it is only available for mobilization, and unit transfer for those in active duty is only possible if their immediate commander gives explicit approval.
In comparison, the average salary for IT specialists in the private sector – one of Ukraine’s biggest service exports – was $2,630 per month according to earlier research, with senior positions often fetching upwards of $4,000 a month.
Hanna Yankina, a recruitment manager for an international IT firm that operates in Ukraine, said such positions likely cater to men who would like to join the military but are not ready for the frontline, and she noticed huge support for similar positions among her LinkedIn network as people continue to share similar ads and recommendations.
“The compensation [seems] to be much lower than the market level, but I assume that the [skillset] may be different from typical outsourcing – lower English skills, no need to please the demanding client from abroad, etc,” she said.
The creation of a recruitment system is among the roadmaps Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced in November, which aimed to modernize Ukraine’s military by adopting modern business practices such as automation and the development of a career path akin to the private sector.
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