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R&D Center Setup · Poland

From First Hire to
a 100-Person Hub

Build your development center in Poland from the ground up, with a partner who has done exactly that — 100 engineers, fully operational, within one year. We handle recruitment, team scaling, infrastructure advisory, and HR operations. You get a hub; we carry the build.

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What's included

Everything Between the Decision and the Operating Hub

Recruitment at hub scale

From the founding engineers to full teams — sourced, screened, and matched with the same rigor as our staffing work: technical depth, communication style, team fit.

Team scaling & structure

Hiring waves planned against your roadmap — team composition, seniority mix, and lead roles designed before the headcount grows, not after it hurts.

Infrastructure advisory

Office, equipment, tooling, and vendor landscape in Poland — advisory grounded in having stood up a real hub, not a slide about one.

HR operations

Contracts, payroll, benefits, evaluations, and retention practices — structured development paths that keep engineers past year one.

How it unfolds

Three Phases to Operational

1
Foundation — first 5–10
Founding hires set the hub's technical culture, so they get the deepest screening. In parallel: legal setup advisory, infrastructure decisions, and the hiring plan for the scale phase.
2
Scale — 30+
Hiring waves aligned to your roadmap, team leads in place, onboarding running as a system rather than an improvisation. HR operations move from setup to routine.
3
Full hub — 100+
A self-sustaining center with its own leadership layer, retention practices, and growth paths — delivered at this scale within a single year for a global retail group.
Proof, not projection

We've Built the Thing We're Selling

Why Poland

The Location Argument, Briefly

Senior talent depth

One of Europe's largest engineering talent pools — and our 10,000+ candidate base is 70% senior-level, with sector experience in banking, automotive, and e-commerce.

Stability that survives due diligence

EU and NATO member state — a secure jurisdiction for long-term investment, with European service quality your board won't need convincing about.

Language and time-zone fit

English as standard, German-speaking developers available — CET working hours aligned with your European teams and clients.

Cost with quality intact

Meaningfully lower total cost than Western Europe — without the quality and communication trade-offs of distant offshore locations.

Which model fits

R&D Center or Staff Augmentation?

Choose an R&D center when
  • You're building a long-term product organization, not staffing a project
  • Target headcount is 20+ and growing
  • You want the team, the IP, and the culture consolidated under your brand
  • The horizon is years, and the hub should outlast any single roadmap
Choose staff augmentation when
  • The need is project-based or under ~12 months
  • You want capacity without headcount or payroll
  • Scale may go down as well as up
  • Speed matters more than structure — first CVs in 48h → IT Staffing

Many hubs start as augmented teams. The try-&-hire path lets you convert proven contractors into founding hub employees — the lowest-risk way to begin.

De-risked by structure

The Build, De-Risked

Phase-gated

Exit at any phase boundary — Foundation, Scale, or Full hub. The commitment matches the phase, not the dream headcount.

Founding hires covered

The first 5–10 hires run under our standard commitments: first CVs in 48h, max 5 profiles per role, 90-day replacement.

One named build owner

A single person accountable end to end — from the first brief to the operating hub.

Insights

More on Building Teams

All insights →

Let's talk

One Partner From First Hire to Full Hub

Tell us the scale you're aiming for and the roadmap it serves. We'll bring the plan — including the honest parts about what it takes.

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FAQ
What does an R&D center in Poland cost?

Meaningfully less than Western Europe at equal seniority — but the honest answer is built, not quoted: stack, seniority mix and hiring pace drive it. We model the number with you in the first planning session, including the costs agencies usually leave out — attrition risk, lead-time, and the price of hiring the wrong founding engineers.

How long until the center is operational?

Founding hires start in weeks, not quarters — first CVs in 48 hours applies here too. Foundation (5–10 people) typically stands within the first months; our reference build reached a fully operational 100-person hub within one year.

Do we need our own legal entity, or can we start without one?

Both paths work. Many clients start employer-of-record-style through our structures and incorporate once the hub proves itself — we advise on the switch point, and the team transfers with the entity.

Can an augmented team become the hub?

Yes — it is the lowest-risk start. Try-&-hire converts proven contractors into founding hub employees, so the culture arrives pre-tested. Many hubs begin exactly this way.

Talk to us

Two Ways to Start

Put a slot in a calendar, or send the brief and we will come back to you. Either way you are talking to a partner, not a queue.

Book a call

Thirty minutes, no deck. Whoever's calendar suits you — they take the call themselves.

Michał Stawski
Managing Partner
Book 30 min →
Bartłomiej Lewandowski
Managing Partner
Book 30 min →

Send a message

Roles, platform, headcount, timeline. A link to a brief is even better.

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