Hiring Offshore Java Developers in 2024: A Comprehensive Guide

If you check the rankings of the world’s most popular and demanded programming languages, you’ll always find Java somewhere at the top. Here are some examples of recent rankings (as of 2021-2023):

• second place according to GitHub’s PYPL (Popularity of Programming Language) rating,
• third place as per job searches on Indeed (almost 70,000 jobs),
• third place in the top 10 languages to learn by GeeksforGeeks,
• sixth place in StackOverflow’s “Most Popular Technologies” rating,
• 4.7% of all websites available use Java as their server-side programming language,
• third place in the top of largest developer communities (8.2 million active developers).

Additionally, the W3Techs report shows that Java is used by such world-renowned companies as Microsoft, Walmart, Amazon, Oracle, IBM, and Adobe. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that the demand for qualified Java developers for hire is on the rise nowadays.

First heard in 1995, Java is still one of the most popular programming languages, serving back-end developers a good job, having remained among the top 3 coding languages rankings for many years.

In this article, we’ll highlight the benefits of Java as a programming language, provide an overview of Java developer salaries worldwide, and give you some tips on how to hire Java developers in 2024. Considering the rise of remote work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in case you need Java developers, you must know that sometimes you can find the best developers offshore. We’ll touch on the aspect of outsourcing Java development full-time in this article, too.

Benefits of using Java in your project

If you are still considering whether you should use Java on your project, once again, do not forget that Java has existed on the market for over 20 years and still manages to top the global charts of programming languages and remain the number one choice of industry giants.

So why is the Java language so powerful?

Here are the key benefits of Java:

• Java is platform-independent. The language is compatible with all platforms and devices, from mainframe data centers to smartphones. Its compiled code—bytecode—can run on almost any platform without recompilation.
• Java is object-oriented. It enables you to build modular programs and reuse the code. You can also use it for web scraping purposes.
• The language is easy to learn, write, compile, debug, and thus is good for beginners.
• Java is the base language for the Android operating system.
• As a mature language, Java is more stable and predictable than other programming languages.
• Because of its popularity worldwide, Java has a large active user community and support available.
• Java’s powerful development tools, such as Eclipse SDK and NetBeans, offer an integrated development environment and have a debugging capability.

Java developers for hire: salary and freelance rates worldwide

Now we are going to compare the salaries of Java developers in various countries.

We will consider both the annual rates for in-house specialists and hourly rates for freelancers and offshore Java developers based in agencies and will be using the data at Indeed.com and Payscale.com in 2024.

Java developer salary rates worldwide: the state of 2024

As you can see, there is a striking difference in Java developer salaries between some countries, like between the United States and India.

Due to high costs and a developer shortage, companies in the US would often prefer to outsource Java development or hire remote offshore Java programmer talent. Now let’s take a look at the freelance hourly rates for the same countries, found at Ziprecruiter.com and Upwork.com.

Java developer freelance rates worldwide: the state of 2024

Java developer offshore salary in Ukraine

Ukraine has recently become a favorable outsourcing destination for many software companies from overseas. Today the country features over 5,000 software development companies with nearly 200,000 qualified software engineers, and this number is still growing. It is also a good choice if you’re looking for high-quality full-stack Java engineers. Usually, having worked on many projects (Ukraine is the #3 outsourcing destination in the world), Ukrainian Java programmers have unique development experience.

Here are the key reasons why businesses and startups choose Ukraine to outsource software development and hire a Java development team in Ukraine:

• Ukrainian universities release up to 20,000 IT specialists every year. Besides, the country is famous for its educational initiatives, courses and bootcamps, which even beginners can attend. So it’s not a surprise that there are so many bright IT talents in this country.
• Ukraine is 21st in Data Science (81%) and Technology (93%).
• Ukraine is featured in Gartner’s top 30 countries for offshore services.
• Ukraine is a home for such successful global startups as Depositphotos, Grammarly, Petcube, Preply, and others.
• The skills of Ukrainian software developers are highly rated at the TopCoder and HackerRank websites.
• Numerous country-wide tech events, meetups, hackathons, and conferences such as iForum are organized in major Ukrainian cities—Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa – almost every day (before the 2020 pandemic mode).
• A large amount of experienced Java engineers available, including specialists with many coding languages, e.g., you can find Java developers with knowledge of Python, Angular, or PHP, or web development experience, so it is easier to find full-stack employees.
• Availability of Java freelance developers who are open to part-time projects.
• Convenient location in the middle of Europe allows to quickly reach the country almost from everywhere.
• Overseas clients describe Ukrainian developers as tech-savvy, innovative, and constantly open to exploring new technologies.
• 40% of software development services outsourced to Ukraine are ordered by clients from the US.
• The Global Sourcing Association (GSA) named Ukraine the outsourcing destination of the year 2021.

On YouTeam, we feature the profiles of almost 300 Java developers from Ukraine working at 82 development shops.

How much do Java programmers charge per hour?

Based on YouTeam data, here are the Java programmer rates in Ukraine:

Therefore, it would cost you 60% less to hire a senior Java developer in Ukraine than it would cost you in the United States. At the same time, Ukrainian Java developers will deliver an equal quality of work.

Top platforms to hire Java developers

We have compiled a list of top partners for hiring remote Java developers in the U.S. and around the world.

Upwork Enterprise

The Upwork Enterprise Suite gives companies access to expert-vetted Java developers from Upwork’s global talent pool and allows them to expand their teams in three days. Upwork’s Talent Managers are industry-specific experts who select talent based on skills and previous customer reviews and present them to Enterprise Suite subscribers.

Alternatively, you can use “classic” Upwork by vetting the platform’s freelance talent yourself. Upwork’s professionals are primarily used for short-term tasks and small projects.

YouTeam

YouTeam is a marketplace that offers full-time vetted contractors from its network of development agencies across Europe and Latin America. Its Java developers are experienced with remote work in fast-paced environments and available for full-time, long-term engagements.

The platform also offers automated contracts and billing, one-month trial period, personalized matching process, and ongoing customer support.

Arc()

Arc offers Java developers for both freelance and full-time jobs. Its mid-level to senior professionals take coding challenges, tech interviews, English proficiency tests and behavioral assessments before being offered to a customer. In addition, the Arc team regularly reviews developer projects to ensure performance meets their quality standards.

Arc’s Java developers are based across the globe, with most of them located in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America.

TopTal

TopTal offers freelance Java developers for mission-critical software projects. The platform’s screening process includes a comprehensive language, personality, and communication interview, and a technical interview where the skills and problem-solving abilities are checked. In addition, each candidate undergoes live tests to evaluate their Java skills and completes a test project, which is a real-world case.

Wellfound

Wellfound is a job board for hiring U.S.-based, startup-ready remote developers. It offers fully-vetted, active Java programmers who have been pre-qualified based on their technical skills, intent signals, and desired job preferences.

The website also features a free recruiting workspace where companies can message candidates, schedule calls, coordinate interview feedback, and keep track of a candidate’s progress.

Pro tips for hiring Java experts

No matter which country you’re in and which location you choose to hire Java developer talent, here are some general tips that may help you during this challenging process. So, what should you look for in a perfect candidate for the position of Java developer?

First of all, when hiring java developers, you have to make sure they have the required technical knowledge. Apart from testing the knowledge of general Java-related concepts, such as object-oriented programming, concurrency, SQL queries, and so on, you can ask the “narrower,” more specific questions, such as:

• How does Garbage Collection prevent a Java application from running out of memory?
• What is JIT?
• When to use volatile variables?
• Why do you need to use synchronized methods or blocks?
• What is the marker interface in Java?
• Why is it not possible to extend more than one class in Java but possible to implement multiple interfaces?
• What is the advantage of a generic collection?

And, of course, do not forget about the practical tasks such as writing a function or reviewing a piece of code.

Then you should test the developer’s soft skills. You can ask some random tricky questions to check their problem-solving skills and their ability to get out of critical situations. You can also ask them about their greatest achievement and greatest failure when working on previous projects.

Communication is another crucial skill that sets a great Java developer apart. Hire Java developers who can communicate well both inside the team and with stakeholders. If you’re interviewing someone for a remote or freelance Java developer position, ask about their experience working remotely. Additionally, ask how they typically overcome the challenges of remote work, such as the lack of face-to-face communication or distractions.

Other tips are as follows:

• Thoroughly check each candidate’s competencies. At the screening stage, when you find out that your candidate’s CV may not contain enough information, do not hurry to put it away. First, ask the candidate for extra information such as their code samples, a link to a GitHub profile, or published articles, if any.
• Establish a transparent interview process. A standardized, consistent interview process can help you better evaluate the candidates. Prepare for your interviews in advance – write down a list of the most important questions and topics you want to cover and draft possible answers to those questions.

Browse 100+ Java Developers Available for Hire

Benefits of hiring offshore Java developers via YouTeam

It might seem that because of Java’s popularity, it’s quite easy to hire a Java developer for your project. However, this popularity also has a flip side, and it may be actually hard to find good Java developers. It’s easy to learn the language, but many people may learn it just to land a coding job with a nice salary. As a result, they are not passionate about their job, seeing it just as a source of income.

You can pay a recruiter so they can help you find creative, enthusiastic Java programmers. However, before you start planning your budget for that you can try alternative ways to hire a team of Java developers such as YouTeam, a talent marketplace that combines the convenience of a freelance portal with the reliability of an offshore software agency.

Here’s how everything works with YouTeam:

1. We partner with the best offshore software companies that are located mainly in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Why best? Because we strictly screen each company before it can feature the profiles of its engineers on our platform.
2. Developers and developer teams—who work full-time for our partners and are not freelancers—publish their profiles on YouTeam.
3. The clients submit their project information on the platform, which takes them up to 2 minutes.
4. Based on the client’s requirements, we start sourcing the best candidates and send shortlisted profiles in 48 hours or less.
5. The best candidates in the client’s opinion, move to the interview stage.
6. After the successful interview, the client signs a contract with the software agency where the developer is employed.
7. The cooperation is remote. All of the overhead costs are carried out by the vendor.

What you get as a client:

• Quick and easy access to the profiles of over 300 handpicked Java developers, which are ready to start next week.
• A team of Java developers dedicated to your project only—other clients cannot contact them while they are working for you.
• Direct communication with the Java developers throughout the project.
• Secure and reliable payment transactions made via our platform.
• Reasonable prices but a high quality of work.

With YouTeam, it will be easier for you to hire and onboard Java developers for your project.

A video guide for hiring the best Java developers

Your next steps

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to hiring Java developers. Though the language is enormously popular, it’s quite hard to find qualified and enthusiastic specialists because many people learn Java only to land a coding job.

However, now that you are aware of the current hiring trends, you can choose what works best for you when you decide to outsource Java programming. The YouTeam tech talent marketplace is the fastest and easiest way to simplify the process of outsourcing Java developers. Just provide us with your Java development job, and we’ll source the best candidates for it available starting next week.