StormGeo, a globally renowned provider of weather forecasting services from Norway, has announced plans to expand its Lithuanian branch. The company has been operating its Vilnius-based R&D centre since 2014, and over the course of the year is planning to add around 20 Software Developers, Weather Technicians and QA, DevOps specialists to its nearly 50-strong team.  
StormGeo started in 1997 as Storm Weather Center, a spin-off of Norway’s largest commercial broadcaster, TV2. In the following decades, the company became an international player with 24 offices and seven global weather-operations centres, employing 550 specialists. StormGeo provides weather intelligence and decision support services worldwide to several key industries, including Shipping, Oil & Gas, Renewables, Aviation, and Media.  
StormGeo’s innovative platform combines deep domain expertise with cutting-edge data science to help businesses make better decisions in weather-sensitive operations. Whether onshore, offshore, in the air, or at sea, StormGeo’s forecast centres around the world provide clients with 24/7 support.   
Today, the products developed and continuously improved by colleagues in Vilnius are used by tens of thousands of the company’s clients. StormGeo chose Lithuania because of its geographical and cultural proximity to Scandinavia and its abundance of talent.. Since 2014, the company has been operating in Vilnius with a strong focus on developing, prototyping, and perfecting weather intelligence and decision solutions for the Shipping industry. 

"The decision to open a branch in Vilnius was driven by the strategic resolution to develop a unique product portfolio. Thanks to the talent we recruited, Vilnius quickly became a main hub for our Shipping vertical, outgrowing even subsidiaries in the US, Germany, and Sweden, where maritime competencies have a strong historical presence", said Virginijus Paliūnas, VP of Development at StormGeo.

Nortal, a global digital solutions provider headquartered in Estonia and managing projects in 10 countries, has decided to expand its digital transformation and technology center in Lithuania. The company plans to add 100 new hires to its team of 150 in the following year and expects to maintain a similar growth trajectory next year, making Lithuania one of Nortal’s most important strategic divisions.

In 2022, our team in Lithuania is handling projects for three Fortune 100 companies. Moving forward, Lithuania will remain a key strategic delivery centre for our company. A lot of global-level innovations are tried out in Lithuania, and other delivery centres replicate delivery models developed here.
Mindaugas Taraila, Head of Nortal Delivery Centre in Lithuania.

Starting out as a subsidiary serving Lithuanian customers in 2005, throughout the last several years, the Nortal office in Vilnius has transformed into an international delivery centre. It now caters to large enterprise in the US, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Estonia.
Nortal expects to grow its team in classic software engineering technologies like Java, .NET Angular, and React. At the same time, the company is investing in low-code/no-code, data engineering, cloud, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies. Creativity, ambition, and responsibility for the final value are the qualities Nortal is looking for in new hires, but persistent problem solving and active communication, that allows the conversion of the technology into the actual business value, are extremely important as well.

GlobalLogic, a leader in software engineering services, as previously announced, is opening an office in Gdansk.  At the beginning the company will employ over one hundred and twenty engineers who will work on the latest solutions in embedded systems development, cyber security, IoT or communication. This is a very important investment in Tri-City which emphasizes the importance of the city on the IT map of Poland. GlobalLogic’s presence in the region will also include numerous programs implemented in cooperation with universities, local government and non-profit initiatives.
This year’s forecasted corporate spending of USD 750 billion on the purchase of various types of software testifies to the high demand for IT services. Putting such large resources at stake, companies want to be sure that they make the right decisions and that the initiated projects will actually bring the expected benefits. For this purpose they look for such places as Tri-City where they can find business partners with high competences needed to create optimal solutions for such sectors as: automotive, healthcare, fintech or communication.
– “Solutions designed for automotive, financial or medical industry must maintain the highest level of quality and safety. They should equally affect the functioning of embedded systems, cloud services, communication interfaces, as well as comfort and proper protection of drivers or patients. This requires experience and knowledge, which is possessed by a very narrow group of engineers,” emphasizes Kamil Świadek, Director of GlobalLogic branch in Gdańsk.
GlobalLogic tempts with personnel development offer
By opening an office in Tri-City, GlobalLogic wants to quickly build a team of 120 people, most of whom will be Embedded Software Developers, DevOps Engineers and Automation Testing Engineers.  As early as in June, a simplified recruitment process will be launched where potential candidates will be able to quickly learn about job openings and the company itself.
As part of the implemented “everything for engineers” strategy – GlobalLogic has established close cooperation with the city authorities, the local government initiative – Invest in Pomerania and the educational sector in order to offer the best possible conditions for development to engineers and developers.
– “The heart of our projects are people with very narrow specializations in the IT sector, who have specific knowledge, skills and experience. For such experts, continuous development is an indispensable part of their work, therefore we put great emphasis on it through the implemented projects, but also through academies and individual paths for broadening skills,” – adds Kamil Świadek from GlobalLogic in Gdańsk.
A chance for rapid development of skills will be given not only to people with many years of experience, to whom training programs will be addressed. It will also be possible for young professionals, students and university graduates who are at the beginning of their path in the IT sector to gain practical knowledge that is not normally available outside of commercial projects.  The cooperation established by GlobalLogic with the School of Banking is aimed at joint education, realization of internship programs and dual training. As a part of joint activities, a new curriculum offer adapted to future professions will be created. R&D implementation projects will also be carried out. People working in other sectors of the economy will also have the opportunity to change careers. This will be possible thanks to Academies run by qualified mentors, allowing them to acquire skills necessary for employment in new positions.  Close cooperation between business and education sectors is the answer to the still growing labour market needs in the IT sector.

One of the fastest growing tech companies in the USA, according to Deloitte and Financial Times, opens its office in Tricity. – Gdansk from the start was on the shortlist of places, in which we have seen the potential of growth for our company. Last year we have expanded to over 1000 experts, in Poland alone there are 350. We do not stop and hope that Gdansk will soon join the biggest iTechArt’s locations in country – says Vitali Aksionchyk, Managing Director, iTechArt Poland.
iTechArt is a global company based in New York and with offices in nine countries in Europe and Asia. Worldwide it hires over 3500 experts. There are approximately 250 organizations in the company’s portfolio. Among them so called “unicorns”, Sillicon Valley start-ups, supported by billions of dollars from the Venture Capital investments, as well as big organizations from the Fortune 500 list. iTechArt concetrates on fintech, healthtech, govtech, real estate, e-commerce and much more.
– The IT sector, within which also fintech, is one the most dynamically growing sector in Pomerania. Today it hires over 20 000 experts. New projects, developed by innovative tech companies, such as iTechArt, build a good investment climate for the whole sector, as well as Tricity’s brand as a strong polish IT facility – says Marcin Grzegory – Deputy Director, Invest in Pomerania, a regional non-profit initiative coordinated by Pomerania Development Agency.
– At the moment the company focuses on hiring experienced developers – in Poland we have over 300 opened notices. You can say that we are recruiting big, in nearly every tech area. In Gdansk we start with data engineers, Python, .NET and Java programmers and quality managers. We are compiling manager and senior staff in order to recruit the best students from Pomeranian’s universities and educate them in our own training programmes – adds Pawel Cebula, Software Delivery Director.
iTechArt has ambitious hiring plans in Gdansk, which can be expanded at any moment, on the recruiter’s request, as well as the space in Olivia Six, which can also grow if needed. iTechArt’s business model implies recrutations in the markets that show the biggest potential of talents and candidates responsiveness. – It is possible, that Gdansk will turn out to be one of our top locations within just few months. We are just getting started, so we have to get to know the market. We are giving our managers lots of space, they can hire anywhere they want. With that in mind, if they decide that this is the best place for them, we, as a firm, will provide with a suitable sources. If you can talk about agile and flexible business approach, well, that is the one we stand for – points out Vitali Aksionczyk.
iTechArt’s facilities in Olivia Business Center will open in August, but the recruitment has already started.

Junior Java Developers, mobile crane operators, overhead crane operators – these are just some of the professions that will be available as part of the “Invest in Pomerania Academy” project implemented by Invest in Pomerania. Currently, companies are being sought to comprehensively train 860 people in the most deficient professions in the Pomeranian region.
The Pomerania Development Agency has announced two grant competitions – as part of the activities of the Invest in Pomerania initiative – for the implementation of training in the IT industry and crane operators. Applications can be submitted by companies engaged in education and training activities from all over Poland. The aim of the project is to increase the number of people with the most sought-after competencies in the Pomeranian labor market.
Companies have the opportunity to obtain 3,250,000 zl to provide training to 500 people in four subject areas: Junior Java Developer, Junior Front-end Developer, Junior Data Scientist, Junior .NET/C# Developer. A prerequisite to be met by the grant applicant is that a minimum of 50% of those trained should later find work in Pomerania.
– The Pomeranian region is already an IT industry basin with nearly 30,000 programmers of various specialties. With the further development of the region in the field of modern technologies, we need trained personnel who will not only serve the companies already present on the market, but will encourage more industry tycoons to invest in Pomerania – says Monika Stokfisz, coordinator of the Invest in Pomerania Academy project.
Also up for grabs is 805,000 zl to train 260 people in 6 professions: terminal tractor operator, mobile crane operator, RTG specialized crane operator, tower crane operator, reach stacker operator, floating/deck crane operator. The necessary ratio of at least half of those employed in Pomeranian companies, will not be difficult to achieve.
– The Tri-City, is also a good place to look for jobs in the logistics sector. We have large logistics centers, developed maritime transport, and because of its unique location on the Baltic Sea, we function as the logistics hub of northern Poland. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a huge demand for employees that the entire industry is currently experiencing,” Monika Stokfisz argues.