Engineers for Ukraine’s defence industry: how many universities train, what they earn, and how companies can grow their own

In short

1. In 2026 the state funds 1,959 bachelor’s places in electronics and radio engineering for the whole country — per year. In Q3 alone defence companies posted 704 hardware engineer vacancies on one job board.
2. In 2025 fewer students enrolled in this specialty than a year earlier, while enrolment in aviation and rocket-space engineering rose by 36%.
3. A drone engineering programme at one of the leading universities had 70 licensed places in 2025 and enrolled just 7 students, all fee-paying: there were no state-funded places.
4. More than half of Ukrainian defence companies lack engineers, and 67% most need design engineers.
5. A hardware engineer in the defence industry earns a median of $4,000 a month, a drone (UAV) engineer just $1,500 — although these are the people companies lack most.
6. Drone makers are already opening labs at universities and schools. A company that starts working with a university now will get its first engineers in 1–2 years, ahead of competitors.

How many engineers universities train

Several specialties train engineers for defence electronics. Since 2025 they have new codes: G5 — electronics, electronic communications, instrument making and radio engineering (previously separate electronics and radio engineering specialties), G7 — automation and robotics, G12 — aviation and rocket-space engineering, F7 — computer engineering.

So roughly two thousand future electronics and radio engineers start state-funded studies each year, and they will graduate in four years. Some will go into telecoms, energy, IT or abroad. Defence companies, meanwhile, posted 704 hardware engineer vacancies in a single quarter of 2026, and that demand has grown more than sixfold since 2024 (DOU, Q3 2026 analysis).

We did not find a published total of electronics engineers who graduated in 2025. Enrolment for each year is in Ukraine’s open education database (EDEBO), which allows an estimate: a bachelor’s degree takes four years.

What the defence industry pays engineers

DOU’s June 2026 salary survey (542 defence industry specialists) shows a median of $2,500 a month in defence tech, $200 below IT ($2,700). The engineers in shortest supply, however, earn noticeably more than average (DOU, DefTech salaries, summer 2026).

Two things matter for employers. First, those in shortest supply are paid no more than average: a drone engineer with a median of $1,500 earns well below the industry median, and a design engineer at $2,550 sits almost exactly on it. Second, at entry level the defence industry pays more than IT (junior developers: $1,150 vs $900), so it is already attractive to students. Half the job is making sure students learn this while they study.

One more figure: 33% of defence industry specialists work only in the office and 20% fully remotely. Among defence developers 25% are office-only, versus 4% in IT. For some candidates this is the main reason not to join the industry.

Who enrols in drone and electronics engineering: 2025 admissions

In 2025 applicants submitted 5,242 applications to G5. The most went to Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (1,026 applications, average competitive score 148.6), followed by Lviv Polytechnic, International University, Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, the State University of Information and Communication Technologies, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic, Kyiv Aviation Institute, Lutsk National Technical University and Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (Education.ua).

But enrolment in G5 fell in 2025 — according to DOU, one of the steepest declines among the 14 IT and engineering specialties it tracks. Enrolment in aviation and rocket-space engineering rose by 36%, and in automation and robotics by 5% (DOU, 2025 admissions).

Applicants want to study drones, but a fee-paying programme without state funding filled only a tenth of its places. This is where a defence company can help: with a scholarship or by paying tuition. In 2026 the state grant for fee-paying students in technical specialties such as G5 is UAH 25,500 a year for 140+ points in two national test subjects and UAH 37,500 for 170+.

What drone makers are already doing

Some companies decided not to poach engineers from each other but to grow them (Mind, citing NV):

1. SkyFall opened a lab at Kyiv Polytechnic in 2025 and plans to train up to 180 radio engineers a year.
2. Progresstech-Ukraine opened a centre for aircraft structures and strength at Kyiv Aviation Institute in June 2026.
3. Atlon Avia runs the AVIA Lab aeromodelling lab, which takes school-age students; more than 150 people have gone through the project.
4. DeViRo runs its own training centre certified by the State Aviation Service; applicants wait over a month to start.

The same study by the Ukrainian Council of Gunsmiths and CORE Team found that more than half of defence companies lack engineers, 67% most need design engineers, and almost 90% raised salaries over the year — without hiring getting any easier. Money does not create new engineers; training does.

2027 outlook

This is our estimate based on the figures above, not an official forecast. We deliberately give ranges.

1. Demand will not fall. Hardware engineer vacancies on DOU grew from 496 in Q1 2026 to 704 in Q3. Even if growth halves, that is 800–1,000 vacancies a quarter in 2027.
2. Universities will not add new engineers in 2027. Students who entered on state funding in 2026 will graduate only in 2030. The class of 2027 entered in 2023, when defence demand was several times lower.
3. Salaries will keep rising where people are scarcest. The median for senior developers in defence rose from $3,800 to $4,100 in six months. We expect further growth for hardware, design and radio engineers, while the overall industry median may stay around $2,500.
4. The winners will be companies that start training people now: internship placements, traineeships, a lab at a university. A third-year student in 2026 is your engineer in 2027–2028.
5. The salary threshold for military service deferral of key staff is tied to the minimum wage, so it will rise in 2027. Budget for it in trainee salaries now.

What a defence company can do with a university this term

1. Become an internship placement for 2nd–4th year students in G5, G7, G12 and F7: an agreement with the university, a supervisor from the company and a real task on the test bench. Benefit: you see the student at work before they graduate.
2. Hire senior students as trainees. With a salary at or above the set threshold they can be eligible for deferral — often the deciding factor for men.
3. Pay a scholarship or tuition in exchange for a work commitment: the company pays for studies, the graduate works for it for 2–3 years.
4. A coursework or thesis on a real company problem, without classified data. The department gets a current topic, you get a prototype and a candidate.
5. A lab or test bench at the university, as SkyFall and Progresstech did. More expensive, but it is your employer brand for an entire year group.
6. Guest lectures and a career day at the faculty: a company engineer explains how defence electronics really works.
7. A dedicated students page in the careers section of your website: internships, traineeships, how to apply from a phone, what happens next.

How this connects to your careers page

A student you invite for an internship will first open your website. We checked the careers sections of 50 Ukrainian defence companies: 28% have none at all, and not a single company’s own careers page shows a salary. A clear “Internships and traineeships” page costs less than one premium job ad and works every year.

At OLBO we build websites and careers sections for defence companies and websites for universities, so we see both sides. If you would like to discuss setting up internships or traineeships with a specific university, write to us: hello@olbo.com.ua.

Sources: DOU, defence tech jobs Q3 2026; Education.ua, state order 2026; Education.ua, specialty G5; DOU, 2025 admissions; vstup.osvita.ua, Kyiv Aviation Institute, 2025; DOU, defence tech jobs Q1 2026; DOU, DefTech salaries summer 2026; Mind, drone makers train engineers.

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