Today I decided to continue the story about the Armenian technology sector. But this time I will touch on the burning topic of salaries, as well as currently open vacancies in well-known and developing technology companies in Armenia. Perhaps this small guide will help developers and programmers at the junior, middle, senior and team lead levels prioritize choosing a country for professional activities.
First of all, I will draw your attention, dear readers, to a fairly inexpensive life in the country with fairly high salaries in the information technology sector. It is safe to say that they do not comply with the general rules of the labor market in Armenia, their level is much higher than the average income in the country. Yes, I wonβt argue, the Armenian salary is incomparable with the remuneration, for example, in Germany or the USA, but the living expenses here are completely different. Let's figure it out.
The level of average earnings of IT specialists in Armenia
The salaries of developers in Armenia, Belarus and Russia are comparable, and not too far apart in terms of performance. Next, I will visually present the analyzed figures and compare them with earnings in Belarus, Germany, Russia and Ukraine (in USD per month):
| Junior | Middle | Senior | Team lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armenia | from 500 USD | $1400-1600 | $2900-3100 | $3200-3500 |
| Belarus | from 400 USD | $1100-1200 | 2400 USD | 3000 USD |
| Germany | 2000 USD | $2700-2800 | 3400 USD | 3500 USD |
| Russia | $500-600 | 1400 USD | $2800-2900 | $4400-4500 |
| Ukraine | $500-600 | $1700-1800 | $3300-3400 | 4300 USD |
Why did I take the average data? The fact is that Armenian companies do not disclose information about salaries, the indicators of which we use in the article. They are based solely on data provided by Meettal, the largest recruitment agency in Armenia.
It would seem that the numbers are not so impressive, especially for junior employees, but there is an important feature and, one might even say, an advantage of Armenia over other countries - life here is much cheaper, which allows middle managers and Team Leads to earn good money.
If we consider the βnetβ income, then the Armenian IT specialists on average receive in their hands:
- junior employee - 580 USD;
- medium - 1528 USD;
- senior - 3061 USD;
- team leader - 3470 USD.
And here I want to be more specific about how big this amount of earnings is for an IT specialist in Armenia. The fact is that the average cost of one resident of the capital Yerevan is about 793 USD. Moreover, the amount includes not only daily expenses and rental housing, but also a variety of entertainment, vacation costs, etc. And given that there are districts in Yerevan with fairly comfortable housing at a low cost of rent (I wrote about this in detail in ), IT people can save significant amounts of money here. Of course, a lot depends on the individual and his ability to handle finances, doesn't it?
How does Armenia differ from other countries in terms of wages in the IT sector?
Here the salary is always discussed in terms of pay from home and is a priority issue in interviews with applicants. Some companies in the country enjoy tax incentives, such as start-ups. Payroll tax varies from 10 to 30%. About other nuances of Armenian employers in the field of IT:
- here it is not customary to talk about an annual salary, as is done in the USA or Europe;
- salaries are not public information - only a few companies mention the expected salary on bulletin boards or websites;
- the gap between junior and senior salaries is huge compared to the gap in the US or Europe - the average salary of a junior employee is 6 times lower than a senior one;
- Armenia's technology sector is a relatively small labor market. The percentage of developers among the entire working population is quite high, but there is still a shortage of specialists to meet all the needs of the sector. This is why in some cases the company is more focused on the specific engineer and his/her skills and how they can be applied in the company. But in no case to an open position and the internal level of the company;
- all wages are announced in advance;
- paid in cash, not stocks and options. BUT there are companies here that have similar advantages - Krisp, a background noise reduction startup, Vineti, a healthcare startup, and VMware, the largest virtualization software provider.
There is another thing in Armenia that does not directly affect wages, but contributes significantly to the low cost of living. Yerevan is a small city and the location of the office is rarely discussed with a potential candidate. Being in Moscow, for example, in Russia, this information is usually mentioned when posting a vacancy. In a word, if your plans include working as an IT specialist in Armenia, you will have to independently specify the location of the company's office.
And now I want to compare the above average indicators of the "net" income of Armenian IT specialists with other states, to which the salary in Armenian IT is equated:
| Junior | Middle | Senior | Team lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armenia | 580 USD | 1528 USD | 3061 USD | 3470 USD |
| Belarus | 554 USD | 1413 USD | 2655 USD | 3350 USD |
| Germany | 2284 USD | 2921 USD | 3569 USD | 3661 USD |
| Russia | 659 USD | 1571 USD | 3142 USD | 4710 USD |
| Ukraine | 663 USD | 1953 USD | 3598 USD | 4643 USD |
All data is taken from official sources that accumulate and analyze the level of wages of technology companies in the countries of the world. And here the main difference between developers, for example, in Germany and other countries, is clearly shown - the German Junior and Middle receive not much less senior specialists and team leaders, which cannot be said about Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. In Armenia, the situation is the same - only with experience and career advancement can you significantly increase your own earnings.
It is critical to look at the numbers in the context of a particular country and the cost of living in a city. I have collected information about the average monthly expenses of an IT specialist, provided that they live in the capital (data provided by the Numbeo portal):
- Armenia - 793 USD;
- Belarus - 848 USD;
- Ukraine - 1031 USD;
- Russia - 1524 USD;
- Germany - 1825 USD.
Based on this, we can see a turning point where a specialist can afford a comfortable living, and even after paying all taxes and expenses, he/she still saves almost half of the salary.
In Armenia, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, there is a general trend - with each additional year of work experience, the salary of a developer increases significantly. Whereas in Germany the gap between juniors and seniors is not so noticeable. In Germany, even a junior salary covers all needs, including rent.
Another interesting figure is the amount that is not included in senior developer salaries after taxes and needs. Namely:
| Senior Salary | Senior Saves | |
|---|---|---|
| Armenia | 3061 USD | 2268 USD |
| Belarus | 2655 USD | 1807 USD |
| Germany | 3569 USD | 1744 USD |
| Russia | 3142 USD | 1618 USD |
| Ukraine | 3598 USD | 2567 USD |
Summing up the earnings of IT specialists in Armenia, we can say that the Armenian technology sector is growing steadily, the number of companies is also growing, and the number of experienced developers is very limited. The lack of specialists leads to a constant increase in wages, which can be considered one of the methods for attracting and retaining specialists in a company not only in Armenia itself, but beyond its borders.
And then, as promised, we will consider the TOP10 companies in Armenia with open vacancies for IT specialists and without them.
Armenian Technology Sector Guide for IT Professionals
1. 2Hz β the company that founded the most famous Armenian startup in the world , an application for removing background noise in a conference call. The company's activity lies in the combination of artificial intelligence technologies and speech, audio and video improvement products. Interestingly, the developers managed to get the Krisp software to process incoming and outgoing sounds, and also recognize the human voice. Later, I will describe in more detail the creation of this startup, and its special achievements.
Open vacancies: at the moment none, the team is completed.
2Web is a complete WordPress management platform with a complete set of tools, from cloud hosting to a page builder.
The software makes it easy to design, develop and launch websites, as well as manage, optimize and maintain existing websites. supports tens of thousands of customers ranging from small to global enterprises. The company maintains over 1000 websites and has over 20 million downloads of its products.
Open vacancies:
- QA automation engineer;
- Senior Customer Service Specialist.
3. Aarky is an ad creation platform that works with mobile app marketing using machine learning. Gives the widest customer coverage. The company's global data centers handle over 300 requests per second. This data provides a deep insight into customer intent and habits, needs, and is then used to build user model predictions and deliver targeted products. This approach helps to grow and attract a large number of customers.
In 2018 year ranked 19th in Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, which is among the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy technology companies in North America.
- Open vacancies: senior software engineer.
4. 360 stories is a platform and online community featuring 7000 user-created travel stories. Each of them is captured in a high-resolution video or photo with the ability to rotate 360 ββdegrees. The stories are complemented by local ideas written and tested by the team. As a result, the company began to show only Armenian sights. The Ministry of Culture of Armenia assisted the company in the process of covering the most famous places in Armenia. At the moment the collection includes several cities and activities.
In addition to exploring the world in VR and AR, site visitors can buy day tours and attractions online in the destinations featured on the site. 360Stories takes the travel booking process and makes it more immersive.
- Open vacancies: at the moment none, the team is completed.
5. ALL.me β , creating an ecosystem based on blockchain technology. The platform combines a social network for communication and content sharing, allows all users to receive rewards for providing advertising space. This is a kind of internal market for trading goods and services among users using an internal digital resource, as well as an online wallet for storing and transferring ME coins. The Yerevan branch of the company was opened in 2018.
Open vacancies:
- technical project manager;
- iOS developer;
- senior Node.js developer;
- Android team leader;
- SMM strategist;
- QA Automation engineers (mobile, web, backend).
6 AppearMe - on demand in real time. The software contacts thousands of lawyers within minutes. This is the best way to find a lawyer in various cases: civil, criminal, business or family law. For professionals, this is a focus of user interests where an open case can be submitted or a pre-screened case can be accepted.
Vacancies in the Yerevan office of the company:
- JavaScript Developer;
- UI/UX Developer;
- SEO or content manager.
7. Click2Sure is a full-featured digital insurance platform that allows retailers, service providers, distributors and brokers to choose from 20 specially designed insurance products and use them at the point of sale. The company offers automated claims processing and administration with full company lifecycle management. The startup is headquartered in Cape Town, and the development team is located in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Open vacancies:
- backend developer;
- frontend developer;
- head of the development department;
- Lead QA Engineer.
8.Data Art is a global technology consulting company that specializes in creating software products and enterprise systems, services for modernizing such systems, maintaining production systems, digital transformation and innovation, and security testing services for a product or complete infrastructure. The company employs more than 2800 professionals in 22 locations around the world.
In 2019 year announced the opening of a research and development (R&D) office in Armenia. The Yerevan office will support the company's activities in all areas, but will mainly focus on quality assurance (QA) and support, as well as business development. The office was fully commissioned in June 2019, and by the end of the year, 30 people are already working on board.
Open vacancies:
- Frontend (Angular+React.js) Developer;
- Node.js Engineer
- Senior Python Developer.
9.Digitain β the history of the company will take us back to 1999. It started out as the National Lottery at the time, then grew into a B2C affiliate, and finally became a software provider, Sportsbook solutions provider, in 2004. Currently is a leading provider of Omni-channel iGaming software solutions for online, mobile and terrestrial networks. Digitain's multi-channel gaming platform allows operators to connect Sportsbooks, Casinos, Real Dealers and Virtual Sports modules, includes an integrated payment gateway, bonus engine, CRM system and dedicated customer support. The Sportsbook product covers 35 live events monthly, 000 sports across 65 leagues and over 7500 betting markets.
The company's main focus is on the regulated European market with expansion plans in the Americas and Asia. Digitain has more than 55 partners around the world, more than 400 land-based bookmakers on various continents, more than 1400 employees.
In 2018, Digitain won the "Rising Star in Sports Betting Technology" at the Gaming Awards in Central and Eastern Europe.
Open vacancies:
- Software Architect/Consultant;
- Product Management Consultant.
10.GG is an on-demand transport platform connecting drivers and passengers in all major cities of Armenia. Provides intercity transfers, truck and tow truck services. The company was founded in 2014 and received investments from the Armenian venture capital firm Granatus Ventures. Starting from Armenia, currently operates in Georgia (since 2016) and Russia (since 2018), with over 100 monthly active users.
Open vacancies:
- frontend developer;
- iOS Developer;
- android developer.
Of course, physically and technically, I cannot cover the full list of start-ups and technology companies in Armenia to give more information. This is just a small tour of the country's IT sector for close acquaintance, as well as another confirmation that living and working in Armenia is not only profitable for an IT specialist, but also interesting. Since the country is not only actively developing the IT industry, but also has incredibly beautiful landscapes, chic local color and a fairly inexpensive standard of living, which allows even mid-level specialists to feel free. I will also be glad to have any questions from readers regarding IT in Armenia in order to provide the most detailed information about the state in general and about the IT sector in particular.
Source: habr.com