Russian IT companies increased spending on foreign specialists by 38% over the year

Spending on foreign expertise is growing faster than the number of tasks

In January–September 2026, Russian IT and telecom companies increased their budgets for working with foreign specialists by 38% compared with the same period last year, while spending per specialist rose by 20%. This is shown by data from Solar Staff's partner, which Gazeta.Ru reviewed. The average budget for a single task assigned to a foreign contractor grew by 6% over the year, and by 18% compared with 2024.

Demand is shifting from routine tasks to project management

Not only the volume but also the structure of orders is changing. Budgets for project management grew 3.4-fold over the year, and this increase was accompanied by a rise in the number of clients and tasks — according to the data source's estimate, this may indicate that foreign specialists are being more actively engaged in project management. Spending on tasks related to developing methodological materials increased more than tenfold. At the same time, companies are ordering routine operations less often: there is a noticeable decline in audio transcription and proofreading, which points to a redistribution of demand from routine tasks to project-based and expert services.

Who is ordering and how much it costs

The cost of individual competencies in IT and telecom is also rising: the average monthly income of programmers increased by 12% year on year, and that of project managers by 9%. The greatest demand for foreign specialists comes from advertising, media and IT — these sectors account for 70% of foreign contractors in the sample and 68% of spending on their services; in advertising and media, budgets grew by 9% over the year. Among the most in-demand areas are programming, web development, project management and content creation.

Comment from Solar Staff

Solar Staff CEO Roman Shinkarenko noted that for businesses today, a foreign specialist is not necessarily a cheaper way to get a task done: in IT and digital fields, external expertise is brought in when specific competencies or a specialist for a particular project are needed. According to him, as projects become more complex, what matters to businesses is not only the contractor but the entire process of working with a distributed team — setting tasks, formalizing relationships, monitoring results and cross-border payments.