Romania's IT sector pivots from outsourcing to product engineering

Long known as an outsourcing destination, Romania's IT sector is increasingly shipping its own products, particularly in cybersecurity, martech and developer tooling.

The large engineering talent pool — over 200,000 IT professionals — and multilingual workforce keep delivery costs competitive for global clients.

Historical payroll-tax incentives for software roles have been a catalyst, though reforms have narrowed the benefit in recent budgets.

Investors now weigh Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca against rising wage inflation and competition for senior engineers.