“We’re going to hire 100 engineers,” Vladyslav Yatsenko, Revolut co-founder, about its launch in Ukraine

In September, the British fintech company Revolut registered a juridical entity in Ukraine. It has already got employees from Ukraine, and now it seems that it will also have a subsidiary here. The editor of AIN.UA asked the company’s co-founder Vlad Yatsenko about the new office and their strategy for the Ukrainian market.

Why have you decided to open an office here? Because of an attractive business environment, local engineers, or for other reasons (for example, because you come from Ukraine)?

We enter the labor market as an employer and propose better opportunities for the best talents. Our current offer is for experienced software engineers who like to develop a new global super app.

It is an invitation and an opportunity at the same time because Revolut is transforming from an international company to a worldwide business. And people who will do it will have a unique experience. I am proud of the fact that Ukraine has so many developers. They are brilliant specialists and work for us in London, New York, Krakow, and Berlin. And we need more of them.

Nowadays, remote work is a new standard, so we create 100 new jobs for IT professionals to develop our global products from Ukraine too.

Revolut already has a team in Kyiv (partly or fully remote). The company hired new employees in May 2021 and registered a legal entity in Ukraine. Do you plan to run an affiliate or an R&D office here?

Revolut has already employed 20 people in Ukraine who work remotely from Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities. Now we offer remote positions, but we also understand that there will be some specialists, e.g., those with small kids, who would like to work in the office.

For that purpose, we will open a co-working space in the center of Kyiv in the middle of December for employees who prefer to work in the office. We registered a company in Ukraine, Revolut Technologies Ukraine, in September 2021 due to legal and taxation reasons.

We want to hire 100 software engineers in Ukraine, so we will need to pay salaries and fulfill some requirements of Ukrainian legislation as an employer.

What is the mission of the Ukrainian office (Ukrainian team)? If you are going to hire more engineers and other specialists, could you share details, please? What tasks will they need to perform?

We’re going to hire 100 engineers in Ukraine by the end of 2022. So we will be ready to discuss more funding and more engagements in Ukraine when we achieve it. We offer competitive wages, and that’s why potential investment would be huge.

Now we are looking only for experienced software engineers. We search engineers with experience in the development of distributed systems (Java, Kotlin, PostgreSQL), mobile (iOS, Android), web (Typescript, react.js), big data (Python), and infrastructure automation (Python) who will become a part of our global product teams.

According to the state registry, you are the chief of the local office. Will you lead the office, or are you looking for a regional general manager? And if you have already found someone, could you say the name?

The Revolut engineers work in distributed international teams. Kyiv engineers can collaborate with engineers in London, Krakow, and Berlin to develop global products. They don’t need a supervisor in Ukraine to organize their work.

What are the terms and bonuses of work for Revolut? Are they also available in Ukraine? Maybe, there are stock options? Any other benefits — remote work, insurance, education, etc.?

We want to employ the Ukrainian software developers by offering them the following growth opportunities: work remotely from any part of Ukraine, an international wage for working from home, a chance to create innovative products for millions of users worldwide, develop the most sophisticated products as a part of international product teams.

Do you plan to launch the financial services of Revolut in Ukraine? When will that be possible?

At the moment, we don’t have any news about launching services for Ukraine.