What’s going on with Ukrainian Tech Segment Java Developer Salaries Q4 2024?

Volodymyr Bilyk

07 January 2025

Here we go again. The Ukrainian Tech Segment is having it rough these days. The market volatility combined with circumstances beyond anyone’s control put the segment under immense pressure and with each quarter it shows more cracks but it also shows an incredible resilience.

The Java Developer salary dynamics during 2024 is one of the most prominent examples of this situation.

On the one hand, the market slowdown and effects of the global economic crisis take their toll.
On the other hand, the talent demand and talent pool quality are strong enough to slow down to partially mitigate the economic woes compared to other segments.

This article breaks down what is going on with Java Developer salaries in the Ukrainian Tech Segment during Q4 2024.

The State of Ukrainian Java Developer Talent Pool Q4 2024

Java remains one of the most popular and consistently used technologies in the Ukrainian Tech Segment due to its versatility and solid foundation.

There’s an even spread between outsourcing, product, and startup companies. Because of that, the demand for Java Developers remains more or less consistent even when the overall market is down.

That’s the case with Java developers right now. Even though the business is down, a good pair of hands that can handle an application can catch a good offer in a reasonable amount of time.

The current demand drivers are product companies developing web and mobile applications, enterprise solutions, and all things Internet of Things.

In addition, there are other dimensions of Java in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence products, and also Game Development.

Web/mobile apps

Web and mobile applications are currently a bedrock of Java developer talent demand. Whether it is a full-fledged product, an outsourcing operation, or a nascent startup, everybody needs their application running smoothly.
- As a result, middle-senior Java developer salaries have their median firm while the quartiles are stormy. However, the majority of Java developers prefer Web/mobile projects solely for the reason of job security even though the salary is not very competitive on the market.
- Important to note that overall Java Developer salaries in the web/mobile app niches are right in the middle of the chart for junior, middle, and senior grades.
- There’s a lot of diversity between different niches. For instance, fintech and banking products provide the highest salaries while leisure applications are at the lower end.

Internet of Things products

IoT is the other major demand driver and in this case, there is even a twinkle of competition for high-profile senior and lead-level Java Developers. With that said, IoT projects also suffer from longevity and job security issues.
- Establishing an IoT product on the market is a challenge and many companies fail to connect the dots. So while there’s a consistent demand and somewhat higher than average salaries (around 15-20% higher compared to most web/mobile app products), there’s also a risk that the company will go down or reorganize with massive cuts due to poor business planning.
- This aspect makes hiring in IoT startups a bit of a challenge as high-profile seniors are hesitant to join unproven projects with uncertain futures.

Enterprise solutions

Enterprise solutions are in the world of their own more or less. The whole scene is way less vibrant compared to IoT, ML, and Game Development but they have something neither can provide – stability.
- A long-running enterprise solution company may not provide the highest salary or the most interesting technology or a challenging project – but they have a job that pays well enough and sometimes good enough turns into full-on pretty good.
- Overall, Java developers’ salaries in enterprise segments are both lower on the lower end and higher on the higher ends of the chart but the median sticks to overall Ukrainian tech segment ranges.

Artificial intelligence / Machine Learning

The Machine Learning scene overall is currently a giant mess of new and established projects nailing down the technology but somehow still unable to figure out the whole business part of the operation. Because of that, ML/AI-related startups move fast, break a lot of things, and may offer a lot of money in the short run, but then there’s a three-stage layoff campaign and the company is changing course.
- The overhyping of Artificial Intelligence applications for all sorts of things led to investors throwing money around for increasingly less feasible ideas in hopes of stumbling upon a killer app that will print money. The downside is that the current wave of ML/AI startups is so crowded and similar to each other that it simply eats itself even before the market tests its endurance.
- With that said, Java tech plays a big role in data analysis and data processing solutions which are the core of machine learning products – so Java-based Data Scientists are in demand but the job security prospects may be flimsy.
- As a result, even though the money might be too good to decline (30% higher than average for middle-senior-lead levels), not every data scientist is willing to try their luck with an unproven product that might fall apart simply because the market is stacked.

Cloud tech

Cloud tech is low-key of the niches on the rise in the Ukrainian Tech Segment. The growing market diversification of multimedia and software streaming apps makes virtualization and cloud computing a vital part of business operations. As a result, IaaS-type startups are currently expanding their share in the Ukrainian market and foreign companies have an interest in high-profile Java talent with cloud expertise.
- At this stage, the influence of Cloud Tech IaaS companies on the Ukrainian market is not that significant compared to other niches, but with this kind of dynamic and demand, it is one to take notice of during 2025.
- As of Q4 2024, cloud tech-related Java salaries follow closely the ML/AI startup ranges mostly revolving around its first and third quartile but not reaching the ML startup average maximum level.

Game Development and gambling

These two side streams of Java developer talent demand. While there’s a significant overlap with web/mobile application development, it is two separate realms with only somewhat overlapping talent pools. Java devs doing game dev mostly stick to their domain and bounce back and forth between projects depending on whose offer looks nicer this season. There’s a lot of moving around between the companies in a 1-2 year span but it is more of a culture thing and not because the business is down.
- Unlike other Ukrainian Tech Segment niches, game development and gambling domains actually feel kinda healthy in comparison. While there were major layoffs over the years, there’s a growing number of small-scale and mid-scale projects and the big players are mostly operating without much hassle outside of our regular fair of dealing with mobilization, burnout, and market volatility.
- As a result, game development and gambling have the widest salary ranges for Java developers out of entire Ukrainian Tech Segments. There are more opportunities for lower-level talent but there are also opportunities for high profile talent who want to handle some complex project with many moving parts and systems.

Now let’s look at the salary dynamics for each grade.

Java Salary Dynamics Q4 2024

Junior

Overall, Junior Java talent is currently in a better position compared to the majority of junior talent in other technologies. Junior Java salaries were never high to begin with so there wasn’t a significant decrease so you might even say that the situation is kinda stable.

The current median bounces between $1000 and $1200 depending on the niche. It will be closer to $900 by Q1 2025 due to possible new waves of layoffs and restructuring.
Compared to Q1 2024, the salary decrease for Junior Java is around 10% compared to JavaScript’s 15%.
That said, there was also an incremental growth of 7% for Junior+ talent, mostly due to the continuing vague interpretation of what is Junior+ and what is middle-level talent.
However, the Junior+ figures often show inconsistency both with lower-end middle figures and upper-end junior figures which makes things messy.

Middle

Middle Java talent is currently the cannon fodder of the Ukrainian Tech Segment. Not a good place to be in – it is easy to find a job (relatively), but it is also easy to lose one because middle-tier talent is disposable and there is always someone willing to take a lower salary offer to do the same amount of work or more. That’s the current reality of things for Middle Java.

Because of that, the salary range will become a whole lotta wider in 2024.

The current median is at $2600. Machine learning hype provided short-term bursts of increases but none of them really had a sustained momentum and dissipated by the end of the year.
Compared to Q4 2023, there was a 24% median decrease. The majority of the former average maximum Middle Java salary range is currently in the irregular/sporadic section. The Q4 2023 third quartile more or less became the Q4 2024 average maximum.
The middle+ level looks a bit different as there is a lot of blend-in with lower-tier senior-level talent. Compared to regular middle-level the decrease is a bit lower coming at 20% compared to Q4 2023. With that said, at this point, it is meaningless to differentiate middle+ and low-end senior salaries as they basically share the salary range.

Senior

The senior level is where it gets really interesting because things are both good and bad. The bad news is that the lower end of the salary range had decreased all the way to the upper end of the middle-level salary chart more or less fusing together with the middle+ tier.

The reason why it is important to note is that in prior years (2020 and up until 2023), middle+ was the in-between tier of Not Ready for Prime Time players spawned out of competitive salary reviews, the “getting there” bunch. These days it is not a thing,

The current senior Java salary median is $4600. ML provides overall higher salaries so in this case median is closer to $4900, while the specific range median is closer to $4800 for long-term employees and $4700 for new hires.
The overall salary range had extended in both directions. The average maximums had increased by 15% (mostly due to Machine Learning and Fintech), while the average minimum decreased by 34% meeting the upper end of the middle-level chart.
The main reasons for this dynamics are layoffs and new hires getting significantly lower salaries. Lots of high-salary Senior Java lost their jobs in 2024 and were forced to take on lower salaries to sustain themselves.

Lead

For what it’s worth, lead-level Java talent had it least rough during 2024. Getting a good team lead or tech lead for a project is quite a task. Hiring away one may cost a hefty sum and given the market volatility it may not even pay off.

As a result, lead-level Java talent technically had the most job security compared to other grades of Java developers. That doesn’t mean they had it easy though.

The overall salary decrease compared to Q4 2023 is at 27%. In plain terms, what was before the third quartile is currently an average maximum part of the chart. The main reasons for the decrease are layoffs and switching jobs for more secure ones.
The current median is at the $6200-6600 range across the board and it would probably sink to $6000-6400 by late Q1 2025.
With that said, there’s still a bit of a gap between the upper end of the senior Java range and the lower end of the lead Java range. One way to explain this is that lead-level talent has management skills to handle projects while seniors are handymen. But that’s an oversimplification.
The actual explanation is merely a numerical one – there are fewer lead Java developers compared to seniors and because of that, the majority of salary sources are more homogenous compared to senior and middle levels.

What’s Next?

Now that we have broken down what’s going on with Java, it is time to take a closer look at what is going on with Data Science salaries.

Even now, this is one of the most promising niches in the Ukrainian Tech Segment and it always had an incredible diversity of technologies and salary ranges for all sorts of projects. Stay tuned.