Best 17 IT Recruitment Experts in Eastern Europe

These include freelance recruiters as well as agency and in-house recruitment leaders from Ukraine, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Estonia and Moldova. Each profile highlights their background, location, specializations and public presence.

(Recruiters are listed in no particular order.)

1. Anna Stetsenko
2. Svetoslav Atanasov
3. Lesia Polataiko
4. Tanja Loktionova
5. Mădălina Uceanu
6. Kasia Tang
7. Michal Juhas
8. Peter Kratochvíla
9. Eugenia Danu
10. Nevena Sofranic
11. Zyta Machnicka
12. Kristina Holysheva
13. Grzegorz Deszczka
14. Mario Buntić
15. Julia Jolkin
16. Nastasija Živković
17. Tatyana Fomina

Each profile includes a brief overview of their background, specialties, and contributions to the tech recruitment community, followed by links to their public profiles.

Anna Stetsenko

Nationality: Ukrainian

Anna is the founder of Indigo Tech Recruiters (launched in 2007) and one of Ukraine’s most prominent IT recruiting experts.

With over 16 years in tech recruitment, she has placed thousands of candidates from junior developers up to CTOs across 26 countries. Under her leadership, Indigo boasts a 99% probation success rate, reflecting a quality-driven process. Anna is also active in HR tech investments and startup mentoring, helping tech companies scale efficiently.

She’s widely respected as a strategic leader and was named among the top voices in Ukraine’s IT hiring industry.

• Linkedin: Anna Stetsenko
• Facebook: Anna Stetsenko

Svetoslav Atanasov

Nationality: Bulgarian

Svetoslav is a freelance IT recruiter based in Bulgaria with a background in organizational psychology. He has 4+ years of combined in-house, agency, and freelance recruiting experience, during which he has made numerous tech hires in Bulgaria and internationally across Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

Svetoslav has built a global network of over 10,000 IT professionals and has led teams of remote recruiters on international projects. He specializes in software engineering and IT infrastructure roles, and is praised for his ability to adapt recruitment strategies across diverse markets. In addition to sourcing and headhunting, Svetoslav is experienced in guiding and mentoring junior recruiters.

• Linkedin: Svetoslav Atanasov

Lesia Polataiko

Nationality: Ukrainian

Lesia is a tech recruiter and founder of Brainy Talent Agency (Brainy HR) who operates between Estonia and Ukraine. She launched Brainy in 2019 and quickly scaled it to a 30+ person team, with a presence in Tallinn and many team members in Ukraine.

Lesia’s agency focuses on sourcing global tech talent for international clients, supporting remote hiring at scale and adapting quickly to global workforce trends. She is known for flexible pricing and transparent processes, and is praised for her international outlook and people-centric company culture. Lesia often works on urgent, multi-role hiring campaigns for startups and scale-ups, and her team is valued for execution speed.

She’s also active in the Eastern European tech community, helping displaced Ukrainian tech professionals find opportunities abroad.

• Linkedin: Lesia Polataiko
• Facebook: Lesia Polataiko

Tanja Loktionova

Nationality: Ukrainian

Tanja (Tetiana) is a recruitment specialist in the game development industry and the founder of Values Value, a leading game industry recruiting agency, as well as co-founder of the job platform InGame Job.

With over a decade in HR, she has placed game designers, developers, artists and other specialists at major game studios across Europe and beyond. Tanja is a noted thought leader in gaming HR – she publishes annual game industry salary surveys, speaks at gaming conferences, and advocates for ethical hiring practices in the sector.

During the 2022 crisis, she actively supported displaced game developers and helped establish the Ukrainian Game Industry Association’s HR initiatives. Her deep community involvement and industry knowledge make her the go-to recruiter for game development talent in Eastern Europe.

• Linkedin: Tanja Loktionova
• X (Twitter): @tanjatweetme
• Facebook: Tanja Loktionova

Madalina Uceanu

Nationality: Romanian

Mădălina is the Managing Partner of Career Advisor and a long-time HR influencer in Romania. Active in recruitment since 1994, she has witnessed the full evolution of Romania’s tech talent market.

In 2010, Mădălina founded Career Advisor, a headhunting firm specializing in IT roles (“Techunting”), and later launched PortalHR.ro – a popular HR news and careers portal. Over nearly 30 years, she has guided countless tech careers and is a mentor to many in the recruiting community. Mădălina regularly speaks at conferences and shares insights on how Romania’s local hiring challenges compare to global trends.

Her mix of practical experience and industry influence makes her one of the most respected voices in Romanian IT recruitment.

• Linkedin: Mădălina Uceanu
• X (Twitter): @madalinauceanu

Kasia Tang

Nationality: Polish

You can’t write a great recruitment message unless you know who you’re writing it for.

Kasia is a sourcing and social recruiting expert with over a decade of experience. She founded the Recruitment Open Community (ROC) Polska, which has grown into Poland’s largest recruiter community, and has amassed more than 27,000 LinkedIn followers.

Kasia is known for training recruiters in advanced sourcing techniques and often says that “sourcing is more than just finding profiles”, emphasizing continuous learning and creative approaches. A bilingual blogger, she shares knowledge on her website and even co-authored the book “Super Source Me” with Karolina Latus. Kasia frequently speaks at international recruitment conferences and is credited with bridging the Polish recruiting scene with global best practices.

• Linkedin: Kasia Tang
• X (Twitter): @Kasia_Tang

Michal Juhas

Nationality: Slovak

With 20+ years in IT (including a stint as a CTO), Michal transitioned from engineering to tech recruitment to bridge the gap between HR and technical know-how.

He founded Tech Recruitment Academy and a boutique staffing firm, through which he has trained over 30,000 recruiters worldwide and personally recruited 100+ highly specialized software engineers and CTO-level leaders for clients in the US, UK, and EU. Michal is recognized as one of YouTube’s leading tech recruitment influencers. His technical background and global perspective enable him to identify top talent in niches like DevOps, data science, and engineering leadership.

He is known for his rigorous hiring methodologies and for sharing recruitment best practices via podcasts and webinars.

• Linkedin: Michal Juhas
• Facebook: Michal Juhas

Peter Kratochvila

Nationality: Slovak

Peter is the Founder and Managing Partner of Needle Recruitment, a Slovak tech recruitment agency he launched after more than a decade in HR consulting. He specializes in hard-to-fill IT roles and executive search, leveraging expertise in talent sourcing, outsourcing, and headhunting.

Under Peter’s leadership, Needle Recruitment quickly gained prominence in Slovakia’s tech recruitment market. Earlier in his career, Peter also co-founded IGA Talent Solutions with James Caan CBE in 2018, expanding the business across the UK, Ireland, and Switzerland. He is highly esteemed in Slovakia’s recruitment market and is known for a consultative approach that aligns hiring strategy with business growth.

Peter’s network and deep market knowledge make him a go-to recruiter for both startups and multinational tech firms entering Slovakia.

• Linkedin: Peter Kratochvíla

Evghenia (Eugenia) Danu

Nationality: Moldovan

Eugenia heads the Moldovan branch of Dopomoga Group, one of Eastern Europe’s largest HR agencies. With over 15 years in recruitment, she has built Dopomoga Moldova into the country’s top executive search firm, commanding more than one-third of Moldova’s HR market.

Under her guidance, the agency specializes in placing middle and senior managers and has added IT specialists to its roster, even attracting Moldovan tech talent back from abroad. Despite challenging local conditions, Eugenia has filled C-level roles in telecom and IT and is known for meticulous client vetting to ensure strong employer reputations. She also serves as President of ABSL Moldova, championing the business services and IT sectors. Her international experience and dedication to ethical recruiting have solidified her status as a leading recruiter in Moldova.

Eugenia’s approach balances client needs with candidate well-being, often advising global firms on Moldovan market nuances. She emphasizes long-term fit and has maintained a high placement success rate even during economic turbulence.

• Linkedin: Evghenia Danu
• Facebook: Evghenia Danu

Nevena Sofranic

Nationality: Serbian

Nevena is the Founder of Omnes Group, a tech recruitment agency she launched in 2015, and the creator of Recrooit, a referral hiring platform. Drawing on 8+ years of recruiting experience, Nevena has helped build engineering teams for startups in the US and Europe.

She is a true digital nomad – running her Estonian-registered business while splitting time between Serbia and the US. Nevena’s agency is known for its focus on developer communities and remote hiring; it was among the first in Serbia to adopt a fully remote, agile recruitment model pre-COVID. Through Recrooit, she tapped into crowdsourced referrals, enabling companies to access passive talent globally. Nevena was featured in Estonia’s e-Residency success stories for her innovative approach to tech hiring. She frequently mentors HR teams on modern sourcing techniques and is lauded for blending data-driven processes with a human touch in recruitment.

Having scaled tech teams for high-growth startups, Nevena is regarded as a connector in the international startup scene. She speaks at Baltic and Balkan tech events about hiring trends and is passionate about diversity and inclusion in tech.

• Linkedin: Nevena Sofranic
• X (Twitter): @NevenaSofranic

Zyta Machnicka

Nationality: Polish

Zyta is one of Poland’s pioneering employer branding consultants who has become a prominent recruitment influencer. With 14+ years of experience in HR marketing, she founded Lightness, an employer branding and talent communication agency, and co-founded the EBMASTERS community of employer branding professionals.

Zyta authored a book on employer branding (“Lepszy pracodawca / Better Employer”) and created the popular blog CandidateExperience.pl. As CEO of Lightness, she has delivered over 200 employer branding projects, helping companies become more attractive employers. Zyta’s content on LinkedIn, YouTube, and her blog focuses on elevating recruitment marketing and candidate care. She often emphasizes that every company can improve its employer brand to attract IT talent. Her thought leadership bridges HR, marketing, and tech recruitment, making her a go-to expert on strengthening company reputation to hire better.

Zyta Machnicka – a pioneer in employer branding in Poland – often advises on improving candidate experience to enhance tech hiring.

• Linkedin: Zyta Machnicka
• X (Twitter): @ZytaMachnicka

Kristina Holysheva

Nationality: Ukrainian

Kristina (Kris) is a design-focused tech recruiter who founded Hirey – a boutique agency specializing in UX/UI design, product design, and product management talent.

With a professional background in design herself, Kristina has a deep understanding of both the candidate perspective and hiring manager needs, earning her strong respect in the design community. Despite challenges during 2022, she sustained her agency by pivoting to U.S. markets and expanding globally. Kristina also created a resource library for hiring managers and frequently shares content to help designers advance their careers.

Her hands-on, empathetic approach has made her a go-to recruiter for design and product roles.

• Linkedin: Kristina Holysheva
• Facebook: Kristina Holysheva

Grzegorz Deszczka

Nationality: Polish

Grzegorz, known on LinkedIn as “Rekruter z Brodą” (“Recruiter with a Beard“), is one of Poland’s most prominent IT recruitment voices on the platform.

Warsaw-based and one of Poland’s most-followed LinkedIn voices in recruitment, he has built a following of over 25,000 LinkedIn followers through practical recruitment commentary, candidate-experience advocacy, and consistent content on Polish tech-hiring practices. Beyond LinkedIn, Grzegorz runs the “Rekruter z brodą” YouTube channel and is a recognised figure in Poland’s tech recruiting community for his focus on honest dialogue between recruiters and engineers.

• Linkedin: Grzegorz Deszczka

Mario Buntiс

Nationality: Croatian

Mario is the co-founder and CEO of TalentLyft, a Zagreb-based HR-tech company (ATS platform) used by Croatian firms including Rimac, with users worldwide. A software engineer by training (with an internship at Microsoft Croatia early in his career), he combines an engineering background with deep recruitment experience.

Mario regularly speaks about data-driven recruiting and has led “Show & Tell” sessions on new HR technology at #truZagreb. By building tools that empower recruiters and sharing his expertise publicly, he has become a key figure in modernising Croatia’s IT recruitment.

• Linkedin: Mario Buntić

Julia Jolkin

Nationality: Estonian

Julia is the founder of IT Talent and IT Talent Academy, and one of Estonia’s most established IT recruiters with over 17 years of experience. Tallinn-based, she was named Recruiter of the Year in Estonia 2022 and received her Black Belt in Sourcing certification in 2014, becoming one of Estonia’s first home-grown technical recruiters.

Across her career, Julia has helped over 1,000 candidates find jobs, relocated 300+ individuals to Europe, and trained 350+ IT recruiters. She is a frequent international speaker at Sourcing Summit Europe, Sourcing Summit Tech, and Sourcing Summit Australia.

• Linkedin: Julia Jolkin

Nastasija Zivkovic

Nationality: Serbian

Nastasija is an experienced Talent Acquisition Partner at Tribe.xyz, Belgrade-based, with a strong track record across the Serbian and broader European tech market.

She is a speaker at international recruitment conferences, including UNLEASH World, where she has shared sourcing strategies and talent-acquisition practices with global peers. Her public visibility, conference appearances, and consistent LinkedIn engagement have established her as a recognisable voice in Serbia’s tech recruitment community.

• Linkedin: Nastasija Živković

Tatyana Fomina

Nationality: Czech Republic

Tatyana is a Prague-based IT recruiter and a TEDx UNYP’22 Speaker. Previously an RPO Sourcer at Wrike, she supported international tech recruitment across Wrike’s Prague, Estonia, Portugal, Cyprus, and broader EU offices, sourcing over 100 candidates and screening 25+ mid-to-senior level engineering candidates across Backend, QA, DevOps and CloudOps roles.

Her public focus is on the intersection of AI and recruitment — making the case that AI should handle mundane work so recruiters can focus on candidates and clients.

• Linkedin: Tatyana Fomina

Wrap Up

While these individuals offer valuable industry expertise, deep networks, and a track record of working with startups and tech firms in Eastern Europe, their services often come at a premium price tag or with limited availability.

For fast-moving teams seeking a more responsive and cost-effective alternative, EchoGlobal Tech can be an option. Contact us today!

Related reading: Georgia’s 17 Trusted IT Hiring Specialists.

Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top professionals. However, if you believe a correction or addition is needed, feel free to reach out. We’ll gladly review and update the page.