Portuguese Firms Hunt for Brazilian IT Talent

Portuguese IT firms are hunting for technology professionals in Brazil even as their peers in the South American country scramble to acquire tech talent.

The number of visas granted to Brazilian IT workers jumped 420% since July 2019, according to Portuguese publication Oglobo.

Reports say many Portuguese IT companies are angry with their government for the delay in granting work visa.

Hiring Brazilian workers has never been easy, according to the news portal. Portuguese firms take between three and nine months to obtain a work permit for Brazilian employees. Hiring a remote staff is also a challenge.

The talent shortage in Portugal is so severe that some companies are asking Brazilians if they could work remotely.

That’s because barely 2,000 IT professionals emerge from Portuguese universities every year, less than 10% of what local IT firms require.

Now, with the pandemic stoking digital transformation in all economic sectors, the demand for tech talent has skyrocketed.

“Engineers graduated in the country are not enough. This month alone, we need 90 IT workers. We can only recruit 30,” says Sofia Sores, an IT manager with British recruitment agency Michael page.