Who Works in the HTP in 2026: The Workforce by Role and What It Means for Hiring
About 60,000 people work for Hi-Tech Park residents. The figure appears in almost every article about Belarusian IT, but it says little about the people behind it: what they do, how experienced they are and how easy it is to hire them.
For anyone planning to hire in Belarus, those details matter more than the total. Some roles in the Park are easy to fill, some take two months or more, and some cost noticeably more than they did a year ago.
Below we look at the HTP workforce in 2026 by role, seniority and type of employer, and at what that means in practice for companies hiring here.
The HTP in 2026: the basic numbers
The Park has been growing again after a difficult few years. Its official figures show more than 1,000 resident companies and about 60,000 employees. In 2025, 136 companies joined the Park and residents created almost 6,000 new jobs.
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|---|
| Resident companies | 1,000+ |
| Employees | ~60,000 |
| New residents in 2025 | 136 |
| New jobs created in 2025 | ~6,000 |
| R&D centres of foreign corporations | ~100 |
| Residents with foreign capital | 30%+ |
| Exports in 2025 | $2 billion |
Two other trends are worth noting. Residents now earn more inside Belarus: domestic revenue reached 2.4 billion rubles in 2025, 21% more than a year earlier. And the Park now accounts for around 3% of the country’s GDP. The shift towards local clients in particular affects which roles companies are hiring for, as we explain below.
The workforce by role
There is no official breakdown of HTP employees by job title. The Park publishes total headcount, and Belstat’s statistics on HTP residents cover output, revenue and employment rather than roles. The overview below is based on public data, our own placements and our 2026 salary benchmarks, so treat the proportions as a practitioner’s estimate rather than official statistics.
Software engineers
Developers are by far the largest group in the Park: backend, frontend, full-stack and mobile. Java, .NET, JavaScript and Python have the most candidates. At junior and middle level there is usually a good choice. Senior engineers who can take responsibility for architecture are much harder to find, and experienced mobile developers are scarcer than web developers.
Background matters too. Engineers from outsourcing companies have often worked across several clients and industries. Engineers from product companies usually know one codebase in depth and are used to long-term ownership. Which profile suits you depends on the team you are building.
QA engineers
QA is one of the largest groups after developers, and it is changing. Companies are automating regression testing and moving basic checks into the development process, so there are fewer openings for manual testers. Demand for QA automation engineers, who write and maintain test frameworks, has held up much better.
Programming skills are gradually becoming a standard requirement for QA roles. Candidates with only manual testing experience now face much stiffer competition than they did a few years ago.
DevOps, SRE and cloud engineers
There are fewer DevOps engineers than developers or testers, and companies compete hard for them. Product companies and foreign R&D centres all need people to run CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure and monitoring. According to our 2026 benchmarks, a senior DevOps or cloud engineer earns $4,000–5,500 net per month, more than a senior backend developer.
Good candidates usually know at least one major cloud platform, containers and infrastructure as code. They also tend to get offers quickly, so if your interview process takes a month, you will lose many of them along the way.
Data, ML and AI specialists
Data engineers and ML specialists are still a small group, but this is where demand is growing fastest. They are also at the top of the pay scale: lead-level specialists earn $6,000–8,000 or more net per month. As more companies put AI features into production, we expect both demand and salaries to keep rising.
If your plans depend on AI, open these vacancies early. They take the longest to fill, and strong candidates often have several offers on the table.
Business analysts, project and product managers
This group has grown alongside the domestic market. Residents that build systems for Belarusian banks, retailers and government bodies need people who can gather requirements and turn them into tasks for developers. As a result, companies are hiring more business analysts, as well as project managers, product owners and scrum masters who can manage delivery on their own.
Designers and business functions
There are relatively few UX/UI designers in the Park, and good ones are in demand. HTP residents also employ recruiters, HR specialists, salespeople, marketers, accountants and lawyers. These roles are easy to overlook in hiring plans, but a growing company usually needs them sooner than expected.
Age and seniority
The Park’s workforce is young. Young people account for 44% of employees, and in 2025 residents hired about 30% of the country’s graduates in core IT specialities, according to TAdviser. Universities continue to supply the industry with a steady flow of new specialists.
Senior staff are a different matter. AI tools now take on part of the routine coding and testing work that used to go to juniors, and employers increasingly want experienced people. The HTP’s own 2025 handbook for university applicants notes growth in vacancies requiring seven or more years of experience.
So the market has plenty of juniors, a reasonable number of middle-level specialists and a shortage of seniors. This affects more than hiring. A team with too few senior engineers moves more slowly: code reviews wait, architectural decisions get postponed, and the few experienced people spend much of their time mentoring. When planning headcount, look at the ratio of levels as well as the total number of hires.
Types of employers in the Park
Candidates’ expectations depend a lot on where they work now. There are three main types of employer in the Park:
- Service companies (outsourcing and outstaffing). Custom software development remains the most common business among residents. People from these companies are used to working with foreign clients, switching between projects and communicating in English.
- Product companies. There are fewer of them, but they have a strong influence on the market. Their employees are used to long-term projects, bonus or option schemes and a say in product decisions.
- R&D centres of foreign corporations. There are about 100 of them. They usually pay the most for senior specialists and compete for the same candidates as everyone else.
If you plan to hire through your own resident company, check the residency requirements at an early stage. Our guide to joining the HTP describes the process in detail.
What this means for hiring
1. Expect many applicants for junior roles
Competition for IT jobs is much tougher than it was a few years ago. In 2021 there were 5.5 CVs per IT vacancy in Belarus; now there are 16.4, Onliner reports. For junior and general roles you will get plenty of responses, so the main task is to screen them quickly and properly before good candidates accept other offers.
A clear scorecard, a short test task based on real work and prompt feedback after each interview stage help a great deal here.
2. Senior and specialist salaries are rising faster
Salaries for senior and specialist roles, such as DevOps, ML and mobile development, are growing by 8–12% a year. Junior and middle-level salaries are rising by 3–6%. Current ranges by role and technology are in our developer salary benchmarks for 2026, and it is worth checking them before you approve a budget.
3. Check the tax rules
Working for an HTP resident still has advantages, but the tax rules have changed. The reduced 9% income tax rate for employees of residents is currently suspended, and the standard 13% rate applies until 1 January 2028, as Jurisprudent.by explains. Take this into account when converting net salaries to gross and when discussing offers with candidates.
4. Allow enough time
If you have access to an active candidate pool, a middle-level hire usually takes 3–6 weeks and a senior or specialist hire 6–10 weeks. Without one, expect it to take longer, especially for DevOps, ML and mobile roles. It makes sense to build this into project plans so that the search for one person does not hold up the whole team.
5. Focus effort on senior roles
Junior and middle-level roles can usually be filled from the local market without much difficulty. It is the senior positions that limit a team’s output, so that is where most of the recruitment time and budget should go. Working with a specialist HTP recruitment partner can shorten these searches considerably.
6. Keep the senior people you have
When senior specialists are hard to find, keeping the ones you have is usually cheaper than replacing them. Regular salary reviews, clear career paths and interesting work cost less than a two-month search for a replacement.
Hiring conditions by role
The table below summarises the current situation for the main roles.
| Role | Talent availability | Competition | Time to hire | Salary trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior & middle developers | High | Moderate | 3–6 weeks | +3–6% / year |
| Senior developers | Low | High | 6–10 weeks | +8–12% / year |
| Mobile developers | Medium to low | High | 6–10 weeks | +8–12% / year |
| QA manual | High | Low | 3–6 weeks | Moderate |
| QA automation | Medium | Moderate | 3–6 weeks | Moderate |
| DevOps / cloud | Low | Very high | 6–10 weeks | +8–12% / year |
| Data / ML / AI | Low | Very high | 6–10+ weeks | +8–12% / year |
| Business analysts | Medium | Moderate | 3–6 weeks | Moderate |
| Project / product managers | Medium | Moderate | 4–8 weeks | Moderate |
| UX/UI designers | Medium | High | 4–8 weeks | Moderate |
Indicative ranges based on recruitment.by placement data for 2025–2026. Time to hire assumes an active candidate pool.
Hiring models
Once you know which roles you need, the next question is how to employ people. There are three main options:
- Direct hire through your own entity. You have full control but also handle all the administration yourself. This suits long-term, key positions.
- Outstaffing. Specialists work full-time in your team but are formally employed by a local provider. IT outstaffing is the most common option for foreign companies expanding in Belarus.
- Employer of Record. The provider takes care of employment contracts, payroll and compliance, so you can hire without registering a local company.
It is better to choose the model before you open a vacancy, because it affects the budget, the timeline and what you can offer candidates. Many companies change models as they grow: they start with outstaffing to get going quickly and consider their own resident company once the team is large and stable enough.
Summary
In 2026 the HTP workforce is large, young and growing again. Developers remain the largest group, but demand is moving towards test automation, infrastructure, data and business analysis. For employers, this means two quite different hiring markets: roles that can be filled quickly, and roles where you will have to compete for candidates.
It helps to plan for each separately. Companies that treat the Park as a single pool of talent often overpay for easy roles and put too little effort into difficult ones. Planning role by role usually leads to faster hiring and lower staff turnover.
Frequently asked questions
About 60,000 people work for more than 1,000 resident companies. In 2025 residents created almost 6,000 new jobs, so the number is growing again.
Developers are the largest group, followed by QA engineers. Business analysts, project and product managers, DevOps engineers, data specialists, designers and administrative staff make up the rest. The Park does not publish official figures by job title.
Senior engineers, DevOps and cloud engineers, data and ML/AI specialists, and experienced mobile developers. There are few of them on the market, and product companies and foreign R&D centres compete for the same people.
With access to an active candidate pool, usually 3–6 weeks for middle-level roles and 6–10 weeks for senior and specialist roles. Rare specialisations can take longer.
Yes. Through outstaffing or Employer of Record and payroll services, you can legally hire and pay specialists in Belarus without registering your own company.
Not at present. The reduced 9% rate for employees of HTP residents is suspended, and the standard 13% rate applies until 1 January 2028. Rules can change, so check with a legal adviser before making offers.
Planning to hire in the HTP? Send us the role description and we will give you a free estimate of candidate availability, salary range and time to hire. You can contact our team by email, phone or WhatsApp.