The GameDev industry experienced sustainable growth over the years and continues to develop due to the COVID-19 impact on indoor activities.
According to the latest research, the worth of the gaming industry was $196.8 Billion in 2022. And the games market will continue to grow in the following years, reaching $225.7 billion in 2025, a +4.7% CAGR between 2020 and 2025, underlining our belief that the games market will continue thriving in a post-pandemic world.
Changes in the gaming industry market affect the demand for professionals in the field. It becomes harder for game development companies to hire a skilled engineer, designer, or CTO as competition is high. That's why TOP talent recruiting for GameDev companies can be challenging and takes time and financial resources. It often necessitates hiring a team of experienced recruiters with industry backgrounds to close hot tech positions or contact recruiting or outstaffing agencies.
However, not all specialists have to be employed within the company. An outsourcing or outstaffing model may cover some positions. For example, this might be a Chief Technology Officer (CTO), a company’s IT department leader, and all technical operations. This approach can significantly reduce costs and attract highly skilled specialists.
Forming a highly efficient software development team can be a challenging undertaking. Our objective is to identify experts capable of fostering a positive working environment and functioning cohesively as a unified entity, consistently in sync with one another.
This article will explore how we discovered an efficient and competent Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for one of our GameDev clients.
The Task and Goal
Our client was a well-known game development company located in Israel, one of the GameDev industry leaders. The company has more than six years of experience in the market and appreciates business partners and customers, long-term cooperation, and the creation of quality products.
The client intended to develop a new mobile game and had a hot vacancy for an experienced Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
CTO is one of the most costly positions in modern tech companies. Competition is fierce, and world-class specialists know it, so hiring is challenging. Moreover, a business's success greatly depends on the company's CTO qualification.
Who is a Chief Technology Officer?
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) leads a company’s IT department and all technical operations. A great CTO must understand business, management, technologies, game development methodologies, process, data security & compliance, etc.
As technology is continuously developing, the CTO must have a dedication to continuous learning and observing the evolving tech space to see how they can optimize your business, keeping it on the cutting edge and secure.
What is the Responsible For?
A CTO is responsible for overseeing the development and adoption of game technologies by external customers, vendors, and other clients, to help improve the service and increase business.
Who Does the CTO Report to?
CTOs commonly report to CIOs (Chief Intelligence Officers). However, they commonly report to the CEO if there is no CIO in place.
Business Challenge
Our client attempted to close the CTO vacancy with internal recruiters. However, this process consumed most of their time and financial resources, requiring significant time and effort.
Also, the client faced challenges as the cost of engaging local Israeli specialists needed to be within budget. After calculations, he chose an outstaffing model to find Eastern Europe TOP talent.
Outstaffing type of cooperation relieves the client`s headache, provides complete access to the best staff worldwide, and covers everything, including recruitment, taxes, hardware, insurance, severance payments, etc. It was the most efficient option.
Our experts examined the salaries of CTO employees in Israel and Central/ Eastern Europe. We chose a few European countries with more favorable tax regulations and lower wages for their workers. The main advantage of hiring an employee in Central and Eastern Europe, the company can acquire a specialist with the same qualifications, skills, and competencies for a lower price.
For example, CTO salaries comparison:
Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/
Solution
Our client requested Global Teams as an expert international recruiting and outstaffing agency to assist in finding a good CTO. Global Teams specialists made market pre-research and focused the search on candidates from Eastern Europe.
The hiring period was limited to two months to meet the project's deadline.
At Global Teams, we prioritize offering only the most exceptional candidates. To achieve this, more than ten recruitment experts were working on the vacancy, and we contacted around 150 potential candidates and conducted pre-interviews with 23. We selected 3-5 highly relevant candidates from this pool to proceed to technical interviews. After a thorough selection process, we presented five candidates to the client for consideration.
The process took around 45 days to complete, during which we conducted all stages of the selection process. Ultimately, the client selected one candidate out of the five we proposed for the probation period.
Global Teams provides the following opportunities and services for all specialists:
The main requirements for CTO were:
Responsibilities:
Establish and manage game development strategy, processes, and workflow;
Design and develop gaming experiences with a focus on delivering the highest quality;
Set goals and milestones, and ensure they are met with efficiency and accuracy;
Build, maintain, and optimize the game development pipeline;
Track project progress, evaluate progress and provide feedback;
Collaborate with the CPO and other stakeholders;
Research and develop new technologies for game development.
Requirements:
At least five years of experience in game development as CTO;
Experience with the development and implementation of different gaming platforms and genres;
Strong programming and coding experience in one or more programming languages;
Ability to work independently, self-motivated and organized;
Excellent communication, problem-solving, and analytical skills;
Understanding of the GameDev industry with a passion for creating interactive and entertaining gaming experiences;
Leadership skills, diplomacy, and team management skills;
Good communication skills: CTO should be able to communicate complex technical concepts in a way that is easy for non-technical stakeholders to understand;
Strategic thinking: A CTO should be able to develop innovative strategies that support the company's long-term goals;
Collaboration skills: A CTO should be able to collaborate effectively with other executives and stakeholders in the organization.
Results
Thanks to our mutually beneficial business partnership, our client hired a highly skilled CTO for the game development team.
This expert is located in one of the countries in Eastern Europe, which provided the advantage of relatively low wages coupled with high-quality work and simple tax regulations of the specialist's home country.
Win-win Cooperation
A satisfied client is our company's greatest asset.
Following the successful hiring of the CTO, our client expanded the list of open positions and asked us to assist him with further team extensions.
As a result, the client got a TOP specialist turn-key, saved more than 35% of the budget, and we got a new contract with a long cooperation perspective.
Global Teams is an international company that provides high-end IT professional outstaffing services to companies worldwide. With dozens of loyal clients, including large-scale Western companies, we at Global Teams believe that the highest quality IT benefits and dedicated solutions are the keys to the business's success.
Global Teams hires dedicated development teams from scratch, be it an extended or managed team model, according to the client’s requirements. Just send us your requirements to sales@globalteams.ltd or schedule a call and get your vacancies closed shortly with top tech talents from Central and Eastern Europe.
Let Global Teams help you find the right IT expert for Your Business. Hiring a new team player for your development team requires high expertise and commitment to deliver. As a business, your project is an essential part of your growth, and to make your strategy successful, you need to hire the right developers.
Contact Us if you have questions about how to profitably hire a game developer for the unique needs of your business and users.
Today, Global Teams has expanded to include over 150 Experienced Software Developers, marketing managers, and other professionals in Ukraine, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, Romania, and other countries in East-Central Europe.
The goal is to connect business owners with the professionalism and expertise they need to staff their teams at the best possible price.