The median salary for specialists in Ukraine's defense technology sector held steady at $2,500 in June 2026, unchanged over the previous six months, according to data published by DOU.
Developer pay within the sector rose by $350 to reach $3,200, though that figure remains roughly 9 percent below what developers earn in Ukrainian IT overall. Across all roles, DefTech salaries trail the broader IT market by about $200, DOU reported.
DevOps engineers command the highest median pay in the sector at $5,000, followed by hardware engineers at $4,000 and product managers at $3,700. Design engineers earn a median of $2,550, while UAV engineers bring in $1,500. DOU noted that in the DevOps, data science and AI/ML, product management, and QA specializations, DefTech pay already exceeds market averages.
Experience level shapes outcomes differently depending on the sector. Senior developers, lead engineers, and managers earn more in conventional IT, while junior and intern-level workers post higher median salaries in DefTech.
Among programming languages, C++, Python, and TypeScript are the most widely used. Python developers earn the highest median salary in the sector at $4,500.
The survey also found that 47 percent of DefTech workers operate on a hybrid schedule, 33 percent work exclusively from an office, and 20 percent are fully remote. Two-thirds of the sector's workforce is based in Kyiv, with 17 percent in Lviv. The average age of workers in the industry is 31.
