How to win experienced engineers in Romania's reshuffled market

Romania's IT sector spent 2025 reshuffling its people, and many of the experienced engineers you want moved with it. Preliminary ANIS data, reported by Financiarul.ro in October 2026, puts the IT subsector at 204,846 employees at the end of 2025, up 4.6% on 2024.

The people you need are available, but they are selective, and they will choose you if you approach them well.

The market reshuffled. It did not shrink.

Ziarul Financiar's June 2026 analysis of nearly 26,000 IT company balance sheets for 2025 found that 2,490 firms hired 12,478 people while 2,556 firms cut 11,193.

The sector closed the year with a small net gain of 1,285 jobs. Behind that flat total, you will find thousands of exits and thousands of hires.

ANIS executive director Corina Vasile, interviewed by Economedia and quoted by Financiarul.ro, describes the pattern plainly. Some activities lost their market, so companies closed some departments and opened others for new projects that needed different skills. In her words, ANIS does not see the industry shrinking, though growth has plateaued.

For you as an employer, a reshuffle is a better market than a slump. Experienced people moved between teams in 2025, and each move was a chance for you to hire someone who already knew the work.

Layoffs happened, and most of this year's came early

When you read a layoff number, check which tracker produced it, because trackers count very differently. GoLayoffs (mostly US) counts only cuts backed by an SEC filing, a WARN notice or a company statement.

By its update on 19 October, the tracker had recorded at least 57,890 tech workers laid off this year, 42,033 of them by the end of June. It notes that a few very large announcements account for a big share of the year.

If your picture of the market comes from spring headlines, it may be out of date.

Experienced engineers are available, and selective

In Romania, many exits never show up as layoffs at all. Florentin Iancu, president of SIIT, the IT union in Timisoara, told Undelucram in August 2026 that most departures happen by mutual agreement, usually with packages above 10 salaries.

If you want one of them, expect them to take their time over the next move and to compare your offer carefully.

US survey data points the same way. In the Dice 2026 Tech Sentiment Report (1,159 tech professionals, surveyed in November and December 2025), 74% said they were likely to change employers in the next year, but only 41% were confident they could find a favourable role.

Job stability rose to the second reason for switching, after compensation. What does that mean for your next senior hire? Experienced people will move, but they will test your offer harder. Before they reply to you, they want to know your role is real, funded and likely to last.

The shortage is fit, not applications

Across the market, applications are not what you lack. eJobs data reported by Ziarul Financiar in September 2026 shows an average of 89.1 applications per IT and telecom job from January to August 2026.

Fit is where your effort goes. ANIS told HotNews in July 2026 that demand for experienced senior developers continues, with shortages in cybersecurity and in AI and machine learning engineering.

The same report notes that projects now ask for more senior developers who also take on tasks juniors used to do, with AI tools.

Vasile adds that whoever is recruiting now recruits in a much more targeted way, for specific specialisations. Your competitors for the best people are doing the same, and a full inbox is not a shortlist. The people you need most are often the ones who are not applying.

How to approach engineers who are not looking

These habits follow from the market above: selective people, a premium on stability, and a shortage of specific skills. Each one gives an experienced engineer a reason to reply to you.

• Write the role before you write the job ad. Name the problem your team is solving, the stack, and what the first six months look like. An engineer who is not looking decides on that.
• Keep your must-have list short. Every extra must-have can screen out someone who could do the job well. Put the rest under nice to have, and mean it.
• Show the role is real and funded. Say why it is open, which of your teams it joins and when it starts. When stability is a top reason to move, that information is part of your offer.
• Lead with what is in it for them. Describe what they will own, learn and influence before you list what you need.
• Be clear about AI. Say how your team uses it and what you expect from a senior hire. If your seniors now cover work juniors once did, say so, and say what support comes with it.
• Agree the profile before the search starts. When you hire with Human Direct, you review two or three calibration profiles before the search begins. Our process page puts the reason simply: the more accurate the strategy, the shorter the time to hire.
• Decide your process before the first call. Agree the interview steps, who decides, and how fast you will answer. A careful candidate can read a slow or shifting process as a sign that your team is unsettled.
• Reach out directly. An engineer who is not looking is not searching job boards. Reaching them takes a direct, specific approach from someone who understands the role you are filling.

The advantage goes to the prepared employer

The experienced engineers you need are available in Romania right now. The sector grew in 2025, people moved between teams, and the ones worth hiring are choosing carefully.

That is a good market for you if you arrive with a clear role, an honest account of the team, and a quick decision.

Start with one exercise. Before your next senior job ad goes out, write one paragraph on why the role exists and what the person will own in six months. Then read it as an engineer who is happy where they are, and ask yourself whether it would make them reply.

If you have a senior role that has been hard to fill, talk to Human Direct about it.