Everstar is offering referral bonuses of up to $4,000 for recommendations of engineers for top R&D roles in defence tech

Ukrainian recruitment agency Everstar has launched a referral programme to attract top engineering talent to the defence tech sector. The initiative offers rewards of up to $4,000 for successful referrals to key R&D positions.

The programme targets Middle, Senior and Tech Lead-level specialists, who are typically not actively searching for jobs.

According to the agency, the Ukrainian deftech market is facing an acute shortage of hardware engineers. Citing DOU DefTech data, Everstar says the number of vacancies in the sector reached nearly 500 in Q1 2026 — up by 175 quarter-on-quarter — while complex engineering positions receive an average of only two applications each.

“We have long noticed that the best specialists are usually known by their colleagues or close contacts. Together with our partners, we are ready to invest in high-quality referrals and scale this hiring channel,” Everstar said.

How the programme works

The initiative is designed for people who know engineers ready to take on new challenges and work on solutions that can scale to hundreds of thousands of products.

The referral programme involves submitting a candidate through the Everstar website and supporting them throughout the recruitment process.

Referral bonuses are paid after the candidate successfully completes their probation period:

• $4,000 for Lead-level specialists
• $2,000 for Senior specialists
• $1,500 for Middle-level specialists

Roles currently included

The programme currently covers what Everstar describes as the industry’s most critical positions, including:

• UAV Tech Lead 
• Embedded Tech Lead 
• Senior/Middle Розробник БпЛА
• Senior/Middle UAV Engineer (Reverse Engineering) 
• Senior Aerodynamics Engineer 
• Senior/Middle Computer Vision Engineer (Non-GPS Navigation)
• Senior/Middle C++ ArduPilot Engineer 

Candidates can be recommended through the official Everstar website.