PandaDoc Cut 103, Only 10 in Ukraine. Hire Them as FOPs, Not Relocations

If you only read the English-language tech press, you missed PandaDoc's October layoff. Almost all the coverage was in Ukrainian- and Belarusian-language outlets. And if you do find the Ukrainian people who left, the usual offer - relocation - is one most of the men among them legally can't accept.

On October 20, 2026, PandaDoc co-founder and CTO Sergey Barysiuk announced the cuts on LinkedIn, and DOU.ua had the story the same day. The people who left are easy to hire if you know where to look and what contract to offer.

What actually happened in the PandaDoc layoffs?

PandaDoc cut 103 people worldwide. About 10 of them were in its Ukrainian office. The 103 is the global total from insiders, not a Kyiv number, and the company has never confirmed it publicly.

What has been reported, and where:

• The announcement. Barysiuk wrote: "Today is a difficult day for PandaDoc. We've made the hard decision to say goodbye to some wonderful people."
• The count. Nasha Niva reported that "according to insiders, 103 people were affected, but the company itself has not disclosed this number."
• The Ukrainian share. A former Ukrainian-office employee told dev.by the cuts included 10 from Ukraine. DOU reported at least 10 laid off out of about 80 in the local office.
• The reason. Dev.ua reported "financial results that did not meet the expectations of management."
• The package. Three months' salary plus unused vacation days, several months of health insurance, and a résumé workshop.
• The footprint. Dev.by lists PandaDoc offices in Florida, Poland, Ukraine, Portugal, and the Philippines.

How big the cut looks depends on which headcount you use:

I derived the rates from the figures DOU, dev.by, Nasha Niva and Revelio Labs reported. The non-Ukraine row takes the DOU base and subtracts the Ukrainian office.

Ukraine was cut less than the rest of PandaDoc

The Ukrainian office lost about 12.5% of its people. The rest of the company lost about 15%. If you want the biggest pool of ex-PandaDoc engineers, it sits outside Ukraine, in offices like Poland and Portugal.

For a hiring manager, that turns the usual layoff logic around. You don't go to Ukraine because that's where the layoff landed. You go because it's still the cheapest place to hire. PandaDoc is a reason to look now, not the whole reason to look.

Who are the Ukrainian PandaDoc leavers, really?

Most of them aren't engineers. In Refolk's index of professional profiles, 42 Ukraine-based profiles mention PandaDoc and 22 list it as their current employer. Only 2 carry the title "Software Engineer."

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The most common titles among the Ukrainian PandaDoc profiles in the index:

• Country Manager / Head of Finance
• Lead Accountant
• Head of Agile Practices
• Staff / Principal Product Manager
• Senior UX Designer

12 of them are in Kyiv City. The 22 current-employer profiles cover about 28% of the roughly 80 people DOU puts in the office, so the index shows you the most visible quarter of the team, not all of it.

The office has run on contractors from the start. In 2020, co-founder Mikita Mikado told AIN he would set it up on "the standard scheme," meaning individual entrepreneurs (FOP). That team now includes finance, agile and product leads, not just developers.

So if you're a founder looking for a staff PM, a finance lead or a senior UX designer, this group is worth more to you than to someone who only hires backend engineers.

How do you find people whose layoff was only reported in Ukrainian?

Read DOU.ua and dev.by, then check every name against current profiles before you reach out. Those two outlets, plus Nasha Niva for Belarusian-founded companies, were the only places with real numbers on PandaDoc.

A workable routine for DOU layoffs in Ukraine IT:

1. Watch DOU.ua and dev.by every day. DOU had PandaDoc the same day Barysiuk posted. The English-language press barely covered it at all.
2. Read the founder's LinkedIn post and the comments under it. People affected by a layoff tend to reply or tag colleagues in that thread.
3. Search by former employer, not by job title. Many people don't update their headline for weeks. Look for profiles where PandaDoc is still the current employer but other signals ("open to work," a new portfolio link, a fresh GitHub repo) suggest the person has left.
4. Search the other transliterations too. Ukrainian and Belarusian names have more than one Latin spelling, and some profiles are written partly in Ukrainian.
5. Check location before you pitch. A Kyiv-based leaver needs a different offer from one based in Poland. More on that below.

Steps 3 and 4 are where most of the hours go, and they're the part Refolk is built for. You describe the person in plain English and get back a ranked list drawn from LinkedIn, GitHub and the open web, so a lead accountant with a two-line profile gets matched the same way a well-documented engineer does.

Matching ten people across two Ukrainian-language outlets, a LinkedIn thread and half-filled profiles is a lot of manual work for a small group. If you have one specific role to fill and don't want to repeat this every time a Ukrainian company cuts staff, the other option is to let screened candidates come to you.

Why a relocation offer usually gets turned down

Most of the men you'll want to hire can't legally leave Ukraine. Under martial law, most men aged 23 and over can't exit the country, and martial law is being extended to January 28, 2027.

What this means for an offer:

• The age band covers almost every senior hire. The exit ban runs from 23 to 60. A staff PM or a lead engineer with ten years of experience is almost always in that range.
• The exception doesn't help with senior roles. Since August 28, 2025, men aged 18 to 22 can cross the border freely. That opens up interns and juniors, not the people PandaDoc just let go.
• The extensions keep coming. Martial law has been extended 21 times. A "we'll relocate you when it ends" clause asks the candidate to bet on a date nobody can give them.

The offer that works is hiring developers in Kyiv remotely, paying them as contractors, and leaving the move out of it.

A relocation package for a 35-year-old Kyiv engineer isn't generous. It tells them you didn't read the news.

FOP or gig contract: what can a foreign company actually offer?

A foreign company with no Ukrainian entity can only offer a FOP contract. A FOP (fizychna osoba-pidpryiemets) is a Ukrainian registered sole proprietor who can invoice any client, including clients abroad. The other option, the gig contract, only exists inside Diia City, Ukraine's special regime for resident IT companies.

Why FOP is no longer the automatic default

Ukrainian developers are moving away from FOP. The number of IT FOPs fell 21%, a record drop, from 263,093 to 205,939 between February 2025 and February 2026. Kyiv alone lost more than 13,000 (down 20%).

21%

They didn't move to pay less tax. A gig contract costs 4 percentage points more, and in exchange it comes with vacation, sick leave and a contribution record.

So when you offer FOP, you're offering less than the local alternative on everything except tax. Make up for it in cash. Work out what paid leave and sick days would cost and add that to the rate. Don't present a bare FOP rate as if it matched a gig contract with benefits.

Is the Ukrainian market on your side right now?

Yes, for now. DOU listed 6,340 openings in September 2026, and Q3 was 6% below Q2. Technical staff at DOU's top 50 companies fell by 1,987 people (3%) in the first half of 2026.

Other Ukrainian layoffs are adding to the same pool:

• airSlate, another Belarusian-founded company, cut its technical staff from 372 to 182.
• Favbet Tech let go almost its entire R&D department in November 2025.

With fewer openings and more experienced people looking, employers have the advantage. But the PandaDoc leavers have three months' severance, so they won't grab whatever shows up in week one. Expect them to take the first serious remote offer that arrives before the money runs out. You have a few weeks, not a few days.

How do you actually make the FOP offer?

Pay the FOP as a foreign B2B vendor: a services contract, a W-8BEN on file, and invoices paid by SWIFT, Payoneer or Wise. If you're a US payer, there's no 1099.

The steps for FOP contractor hiring in Ukraine:

1. Confirm they're registered. Ask whether they have an active Group 3 FOP. PandaDoc itself set up its Ukrainian office on the FOP scheme in 2020.
2. Sign a services agreement, not an employment contract. Spell out deliverables, IP assignment, invoicing frequency and notice periods.
3. Collect Form W-8BEN if you're a US company. That documents their foreign status, and no 1099 is filed.
4. Choose a payment route. SWIFT, Payoneer and Wise are all used. Ask which one they prefer, since fees and currency handling affect what they actually receive.
5. Price in the benefits gap. Add the cost of the leave and sick days a Diia City gig contract would have given them.
6. Drop any relocation clause. Write "fully remote from Ukraine" into the agreement so the candidate doesn't have to ask.

FAQ

How many people did PandaDoc lay off in Ukraine?

About 10. DOU reported at least 10 laid off out of about 80 in the Ukrainian office, and a former employee told dev.by the global total was 103, including 10 from Ukraine. PandaDoc hasn't confirmed either number. The 103 figure is the worldwide total, not the Kyiv number.

Can I hire Ukrainian software engineers and relocate them to the EU?

Usually not if they're men aged 23 to 60, because martial law bars most of them from leaving Ukraine, and it's being extended to January 28, 2027. Men aged 18 to 22 have been able to cross freely since August 28, 2025, but that rarely covers senior hires. Offer fully remote work instead.

What's the difference between a FOP and a gig contract?

A FOP is a registered sole proprietor who can invoice any client, including foreign ones, and pays 6% at Group 3. A gig contract is only available through a Diia City resident company, costs 10% in tax, and includes vacation, sick leave and a contribution record. Foreign companies without a Diia City entity can only use FOP.

Where do Ukrainian IT layoffs get reported first?

On DOU.ua and dev.by, and sometimes Nasha Niva for Belarusian-founded companies. PandaDoc's cuts were covered almost only there. If you want to hire Ukrainian software engineers as soon as they're available, check those outlets daily, not the English-language tech press.