Upstaff’s Guide to Hire Scala Developer in 2025

Need a vetted Scala expert for big data or distributed systems? Upstaff connects you with top Akka, Spark, or Cats Effect talent in 72 hours. Beat the 2025 hiring scala programmers chaos with our proven process.

Explore Upstaff’s Data Engineer and Back-end Developer Hiring Guide

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What You’re Searching For

Hiring a Scala developer can be challenging due to the language’s specialized nature. You’re likely searching for answers to find trusted talent, understand costs, or avoid project delays. This guide is built for you.

Your Top Questions

“How much does a Scala developer cost?” “What questions to ask in interviews?” “Where to find vetted Akka or Spark experts?”

Solutions You Need

Clear guides, cost estimates, vetted platforms, and tips to hire reliable Scala talent.

Why Trust This Guide

Backed by 2025 data (Statista, BLS), expert recruiter insights, and real-world Scala hiring success.

Why Hire Scala Developers with Upstaff?

Scala’s specialized skills power big data and fintech in 2025. Upstaff’s manual vetting (92% retention rate) cuts through AI resume noise to deliver elite talent. Learn about 2025 trends.

Top Scala Frameworks for 2025

Akka: For actor-based concurrency and distributed systems.
Play Framework: Reactive web apps with Scala/Java support.
Apache Spark: Big data processing with Scala APIs.
Cats Effect: Functional programming for effects and concurrency.
ZIO: Modern alternative for composable, type-safe code.

Source: GeeksforGeeks, Reddit, and Scala community trends.

Scala Salary Trends

US average: $130,000/year (BLS). Global median: ~$75,000, with Spark experts earning 20% more (Stack Overflow). Remote hires in Eastern Europe save 50%.

Scala Developer Salary Trends

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Join Adidas, Accenture, and Shiba Inu with Upstaff’s proven process (Statista, 2025).

Upstaff’s Solution

Our 5-10 vetting calls per match ensure top Scala talent, saving you time and budget.

How to Hire a Scala Developer: Step-by-Step

Table of Contents

Follow this expert guide to hire a reliable Scala developer for your big data or distributed systems project. Read more tips in our blog.

2025 Scala Trend
Scala demand in big data grew 35% due to Spark integration—perfect for AI and fintech (LinkedIn, 2025).

1. Define Your Project Needs

Determine if you need a Scala developer for functional programming (Cats Effect), big data (Spark), or distributed systems (Akka). Specify scope, timeline, and budget. Example: Need a Spark developer for a 4-month data analytics project, $10,000 budget.

2. Write a Clear Job Description

A strong job post attracts top Scala talent. Example:

Title: Senior Scala Developer (Spark)
Role: Build scalable data pipelines for analytics platform.
Skills: Scala, Spark, Akka, SBT, Git; Kafka a plus.
Rate: $80-120/hour, remote.

Download our free job description template.

3. Interview Effectively

Ask targeted questions to assess Scala expertise:

Question: “How do you use Scala’s type system to prevent errors?”
Good Answer: Mentions type safety, pattern matching, or algebraic data types for robust code.
Question: “Explain how you’d optimize a Spark job.”
Good Answer: Discusses partitioning, caching, or broadcast variables to reduce shuffle costs.
Question: “How do you handle concurrency in Akka?”
Good Answer: Explains actors, message passing, and supervision strategies.

Use coding tests to verify skills, like writing a small Akka actor system. See 15+ Scala interview questions.

4. Avoid Common Pitfalls

Steer clear of these mistakes:

Overlooking Functional Skills: Ensure expertise in Scala’s functional paradigms.
Unclear Scope: Define deliverables to avoid delays (e.g., “Build a Spark pipeline”).
Cost-Only Focus: Low rates may lead to inexperienced hires.
Ignoring Team Fit: Verify communication and Agile experience.

Expert Insight

“Scala developers excel in complex systems, but you need to test their functional programming skills and framework knowledge to ensure they can deliver scalable solutions.” – Elena V., Senior Recruiter at HireJS Guide

Post Hiring Support (Extra offer):

Technical Oversight: Optional supervision to ensure your Scala developer aligns with project goals, such as maintaining type safety or optimizing Spark jobs.
Tooling and Integration Support: Guidance on integrating Scala with your existing stack, like setting up Kafka streams or deploying with Docker.
Ongoing Assistance: Our team is available to resolve issues, from debugging complex monadic chains to coordinating with your in-house engineers.

Hire Scala developer with Upstaff.com

Upstaff Success Story: Scala in Action

How Upstaff helped a fintech startup, inspired by our work with Accenture, hire a Scala expert in 4 days.

Case Studies

Next-Level Data Platform for Amazon FBA Sellers

Web Engineering

Apache Flink Real-Time Data Pipelines Setup

Cloud Computing & Services

Big Data Platforms: Powering Data-Driven Decisions

Meet Upstaff’s Vetted Scala Developers

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Yurii P.Haskell and Scala Engineer, Plutus smart contracts developer

Haskell 3yr.

Scala 2yr.

Plutus 2yr.

Akka

Cardano

Objective-C

OCaml

Python

Ruby

Swift

NumPy

Akka Actors

Akka Streams

Clojure

Scala Cats

Scala SBT

Matplotlib

Pandas

SciPy

Seaborn

Ruby on Rails

RVM

AWS ElasticSearch

PostgreSQL

Apache Mesos

Apache Subversion

Gitflow

Bash

Regexp

BugZilla

Docker

GraphQL

RESTful API

Jenkins

Jira

Kafka

ZeroMQ

Waterfall

Akka HTTP

Akka Stream

Coq

Emacs Lisp

Marathon

monocle

Plutarch

Plutus Core

portage

pyenv

Skikit-learn

Skipy

...

- 3 years of experience in Plutus / Cardano smart contracts developer role (Plutus Core, Plutarch) - Cardano ecosystem knowledge - Haskell, Scala, Cabal/Stack, GADTs/Type families, Generics, Servant, lenses, mtl, free monads - senior-level professional - Functional programming with FRP, Redux, Event sourcing, Category theory - OOP, OOD, UML, Design patterns, SOLID, DI. TDD, BDD, Unit, functional, and integration testing - 14 years of experience in software engineering

Senior (5-10 years)

Ukraine

View Yurii P.

Sergiy G.Lead Java/Scala Software Engineer

Scala 5yr.

Python

Java

AWS

Akka

Apache Spark

Apache Flink

Scala SBT

Scala Tapir

Scalatest

Hibernate

Spring

Spring Boot

React

Cassandra

Clickhouse

MongoDB

MySQL

Oracle Database

PostGIS

PostgreSQL

Redis

RocksDB

Slick database query

SQL

Azure

GCP

Amazon RDS

AWS S3

AWS SQS

GCE

Agile

microservices

REST

Scrum

Apache ActiveMQ

Kafka

Apache Maven

JUnit

Apache Tomcat

Docker

Kubernetes

Facebook Auth

GitLab CI

Gradle

Helm

Jenkins

Grafana

Prometheus

Splunk

Release Management

Data pipeline design

...

- 12 years of experience in backend development, including leadership roles in cross-functional teams; - Expertise in Scala, Python, and Java (with knowledge of functional programming principles); - Experience in system architecture improvements, leading teams, and developing scalable solutions; - Expertise in PostgreSQL, Oracle DB, MongoDB, and SQL; - Cloud environments such as AWS including performance and scalability optimization; - Docker and Kubernetes for container orchestration; - Apache Kafka for building event-driven architectures; - Led AI-driven projects in areas such as resume parsing, payroll automation, and learning management;

Expert (10+ years)

Malaga, Spain

View Sergiy G.

ArtemScala Software Engineer with AWS Cloud

Scala

Java

AWS

Akka

Apache Spark

Lagom

Monix

Play Framework

Scala Slick

Spring

Scala Cats

Scala Pureconfig

Scala SBT

Scala Tapir

Apache Hive

Flyway

HDFS

MongoDB

PostgreSQL

Slick database query

Atlassian Trello

Jira

GitHub

GitLab

...

Middle (3-5 years)

Ternopil, Ukraine

View Artem

Oleg K.Software Engineer

Scala

NLP

Akka

Apache Spark

Akka Actors

Akka Streams

Cluster

Scala SBT

Scalatest

Apache Airflow

Apache Hadoop

AWS ElasticSearch

PostgreSQL

Slick database query

AWS

GCP

Haddop

Microsoft Azure API

ArgoCD

CI/CD

GitLab CI

Helm

Travis CI

GitLab

HTTP

Kerberos

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Keycloak

Swagger

Kubernetes

Terraform

Observer

Responsive Design

Unreal Engine

...

Software Engineer with proficiency in data engineering, specializing in backend development and data processing. Accrued expertise in building and maintaining scalable data systems using technologies such as Scala, Akka, SBT, ScalaTest, Elasticsearch, RabbitMQ, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud. Holds a solid foundation in computer science with a Master's degree in Software Engineering, ongoing Ph.D. studies, and advanced certifications. Demonstrates strong proficiency in English, underpinned by international experience. Adept at incorporating CI/CD practices, contributing to all stages of the software development lifecycle. Track record of enhancing querying capabilities through native language text processing and executing complex CI/CD pipelines. Distinguished by technical agility, consistently delivering improvements in processing flows and back-end systems.

Senior (5-10 years)

Ukraine

View Oleg K.

Sciapan RScala and Java Software Engineer

$35/hr

Scala

Java

Groovy

JavaScript

Lua

Akka

Play Framework

Angular

jQuery

React

EJB

Freemarker

Jackson

Java EE

Java Reflection

Java Servlets

Java StAX API

JAX-RS

JDBC

JMS

JPA

JSON Patch

JSON Schema

MBeans

RESTeasy

SAX

Entity Framework

Gson

Hibernate

Spring

XPATH

XSLT

Scala SBT

GeoJSON

AWS ElasticSearch

MongoDB

ORM

PostgreSQL

Redis

Slick database query

AWS EC2

AWS Kinesis

AWS Lambda

AWS RDS (Amazon Relational Database Service)

AWS S3

AWS SES (Amazon Simple Email Service)

Apache ActiveMQ

Kafka

Apache HTTP Server

WildFly

Apache Maven

Mockito

Apache NetBeans

IntelliJ IDEA

Web Services

Apache Subversion

BitBucket

Git

GitLab

Docker

FTP

HTTP

WebSockets

Gradle

Keycloak

OpenAPI

Winforms

Linux

Windows

SOAP

CDI

Deadbolt

ebMS

Groovy type checking extensions

Java EE 7

Java IO

Java Scripting Engine

JMS etc

JParsec

JPQL

MTOM

OpenEJB

QpidJMS

Qpid Proton

Redis Lua scripting

Twirl

Undertow

...

- 5+ years of experience in IT - Upper-intermediate English - Available ASAP

Senior (5-10 years)

Belarus

View Sciapan R

Yaroslav M.Scala Software Engineer with Cloud & Data Engineering skills

Scala

SQL

AWS

C++

JavaScript

Akka

Apache Spark

Play Framework

Akka Actors

Akka Framework

Akka Streams

Alpakka

Scala Cats

Scala Guice

Scala Specs2

Scalatest

JVM

PHPUnit

AWS Athena

Apache Hadoop

AWS DynamoDB

Cassandra

Hadoop ecosystem

MongoDB

MySQL

NoSQL

PostgreSQL

Slick database query

AWS Cloudformation

AWS CodePipeline

AWS EC2

AWS Glue

AWS Quicksight

AWS S3

CasperJS

Jasmine

Karma

Mock

QUnit

Selenium Webdriver

DevPartner

DevPartner Studio

Eclipse

IntelliJ IDEA

Visual Studio

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

FreeBSD

Linux

macOS

Windows

Git

MS SourceSafe

SVN

Grafana

Kafka

MetaTrader

OOD

OOP

Protobuf

...

- Professional engineer with proven ability to develop efficient solutions for complex problems, including cloud and Data projects; - Microservice architecture expertise Lightbend Reactive Architecture, Infrastructure as Code expertise in AWS CloudFormation, CI/CD (Gitlab, AWS CodePipeline), Cloud expertise - AWS; -Engineer with the ability to develop efficient solutions for complex problems, including cloud projects, AWS Services (Amazon Quicksight, EC2, S3, Glue), Databricks, Kinesis; - API development RESTful, Swagger, GraphQL, API Gateway, Microservice architecture expertise - Commercial experience in IT since 2013; - Lightbend Reactive Architecture, Infrastructure as Code expertise in AWS CloudFormation, CI/CD (Gitlab, AWS CodePipeline); - System level programming, OOP and OOD, functional programming; Stress on profiling and optimizing code, writing reliable code; - System-level programming, OOP and OOD, functional programming; - Profiling and optimizing JVM code; - Experience with product documentation and supporting products; - Upper-intermediate English; - Available ASAP.

Senior (5-10 years)

Ternopil, Ukraine

View Yaroslav M.

Ihor KBig Data & Data Science Engineer with BI & DevOps skills

AWS big data services 5yr.

Microsoft Azure 3yr.

Python

ETL

AWS ML (Amazon Machine learning services)

Keras

Machine Learning

OpenCV

TensorFlow

Theano

C++

Scala

Apache Spark

Apache Spark 2

Big Data Fundamentals via PySpark

Deep Learning in Python

Linear Classifiers in Python

Pandas

PySpark

.NET

.NET Core

.NET Framework

Apache Airflow

Apache Hive

Apache Oozie 4

Data Analysis

Superset

Apache Hadoop

AWS Database

dbt

HDP

Microsoft SQL Server

pgSQL

PostgreSQL

Snowflake

SQL

AWS

GCP

AWS Quicksight

AWS Storage

GCP AI

GCP Big Data services

Kafka

Kubernetes

OpenZeppelin

Qt Framework

YARN 3

SPLL

...

- Data Engineer with a Ph.D. degree in Measurement methods, Master of industrial automation - 16+ years experience with data-driven projects - Strong background in statistics, machine learning, AI, and predictive modeling of big data sets. - AWS Certified Data Analytics. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. Microsoft Azure services. - Experience in ETL operations and data curation - PostgreSQL, SQL, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Snowflake - Big Data Fundamentals via PySpark, Google Cloud, AWS. - Python, Scala, C#, C++ - Skills and knowledge to design and build analytics reports, from data preparation to visualization in BI systems.

Expert (10+ years)

Ukraine

View Ihor K

Volodymyr G.Rust/C++ Engineer

C++

Rust

Haskell

Java

Objective-C

Python

Ruby

Scala

Swift

Scala Cats

relational databases

SQLite

Docker

RabbitMQ

Unix

...

- Experienced C++/Rust/Mobile/Scala Developer with a demonstrated history of working in the financial/media services industries. - Skilled in C/C++. rust, Java, Mobile Applications, Python/Ruby, Haskell. Strong engineering professional graduated from Dnipropetrovs'kij Nacional'nij University. - Intermediate English

Senior (5-10 years)

Binz, Switzerland

View Volodymyr G.

Let’s set up a call to address your requirements and set up an account.

Average Scala Tech Radar

Scala Developer Costs with Upstaff in 2025

Upstaff’s global talent saves up to 50% vs. US rates (BLS, Statista, 2025).

Junior

$20-30/hour

Simple tasks, learning projects

Mid-Level

$40-60/hour

Data pipelines, web apps

Senior

$60-100+/hour

Complex systems, leadership

Trusted by Businesses

What Upstaff Clients and Scala Developers Say. Hear from clients who hired Scala talent with Upstaff’s vetted process.

What Scala Developers Say

Table of Contents

Upstaff’s Scala Hiring Resources

Insights from the Scala community to guide your hiring.

“Scala’s type safety and Akka actors make concurrent systems a breeze—perfect for fintech.” – u/ScalaPro, Reddit

Upstaff’s Scala Hiring Resources

Download Upstaff’s Scala Developer Hiring Checklist to streamline your process.

Download Checklist

FAQs on Scala Development

How long does it take to hire a Scala developer with Upstaff?

Upstaff matches you with vetted Scala talent in 72 hours, with 5-10 vetting calls per candidate.

Why choose Upstaff over other platforms?

Upstaff’s manual vetting outperforms AI platforms by 35% in client satisfaction. Compare platforms.

Why choose Scala over Java?

Scala excels in concurrency and big data but is rarer. Compare in our blog.

What’s the demand for Scala in 2025?

Up 35% in big data and fintech (LinkedIn, 2025).

How does Upstaff ensure quality?

Our 92% retention rate comes from rigorous vetting (Upstaff data).

What’s Upstaff’s Scala Skill Score?

Scala scores 92/100 for big data projects, based on demand and vetting rigor.

Our Scala programmers have built systems for industries like finance, e-commerce, and telecom, working on projects such as:

Real-time trading platforms using Akka for low-latency concurrency.
Data pipelines with Spark and Scala for processing terabytes of data.
RESTful APIs and microservices with Play Framework or Http4s.
Event-driven architectures with Kafka and ZIO for fault-tolerant systems.

Can I hire part-time Scala developers?

Yes, Upstaff offers flexible freelance or part-time options.

How does Upstaff vet Scala developers?

We test expertise in Akka, Spark, or Cats Effect with coding challenges. See Akka vetting.

At Upstaff, we start by analyzing your project’s technical needs (if that’s optimize a Spark-based ETL pipeline, build a reactive API with Cats Effect, or integrate Scala with Kubernetes for cloud-native deployment). Our team will identifiy developers with the exact skills and domain experience you need, such as:

Akka for actor-based concurrency or ZIO for effectful programming.
Spark and Scala for big data analytics or machine learning pipelines.
Frameworks like Play, Finagle, or Http4s for backend development.

This matching process is free. We will provide candidate profiles, including their experience with specific Scala libraries and tools, so you can make an informed choice.

What is the paradigm of the Scala programming language?

Scala supports both functional and object-oriented programming paradigms, making it a hybrid language.

Scala Paradigms

In its functional paradigm, developers use immutable data, higher-order functions, and concepts like monads, functors, and applicatives to write concise, predictable code. For example, libraries like Cats and Scalaz enable functional programming patterns for handling side effects or composing computations. In its object-oriented paradigm, Scala uses traits, classes, and objects to support encapsulation and inheritance, with features like mixins for flexible code reuse. This dual nature allows Scala engineers to choose the best approach for the task—functional for data pipelines with Spark, or object-oriented for modular backend systems with Play. This flexibility makes Scala ideal for projects requiring both scalability and maintainability, such as real-time analytics or distributed APIs.

Hire Scala Engineer by Libraries and Tools:

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Upstaff’s Guide to Hire Scala Developer in 2025

What You’re Searching For

Your Top Questions

Solutions You Need

Why Trust This Guide

Why Hire Scala Developers with Upstaff?

Top Scala Frameworks for 2025

Scala Salary Trends

Trusted by Leaders

Upstaff’s Solution

How to Hire a Scala Developer: Step-by-Step

2025 Scala Trend

1. Define Your Project Needs

2. Write a Clear Job Description

3. Interview Effectively

4. Avoid Common Pitfalls

Expert Insight

Post Hiring Support (Extra offer):

Talk to Our Expert

Upstaff Success Story: Scala in Action

Next-Level Data Platform for Amazon FBA Sellers

Apache Flink Real-Time Data Pipelines Setup

Big Data Platforms: Powering Data-Driven Decisions

Meet Upstaff’s Vetted Scala Developers

Yurii P.Haskell and Scala Engineer, Plutus smart contracts developer

Sergiy G.Lead Java/Scala Software Engineer

ArtemScala Software Engineer with AWS Cloud

Oleg K.Software Engineer

Sciapan RScala and Java Software Engineer

Yaroslav M.Scala Software Engineer with Cloud & Data Engineering skills

Ihor KBig Data & Data Science Engineer with BI & DevOps skills

Volodymyr G.Rust/C++ Engineer

Let’s set up a call to address your requirements and set up an account.

Average Scala Tech Radar

Talk to Our Expert

Scala Developer Costs with Upstaff in 2025

Junior

Mid-Level

Senior

What Scala Developers Say

Upstaff’s Scala Hiring Resources

Talk to Our Expert

FAQs on Scala Development

How long does it take to hire a Scala developer with Upstaff?

Why choose Upstaff over other platforms?

Why choose Scala over Java?

What’s the demand for Scala in 2025?

How does Upstaff ensure quality?

What’s Upstaff’s Scala Skill Score?

Can I hire part-time Scala developers?

How does Upstaff vet Scala developers?

What is the paradigm of the Scala programming language?

Hire Scala Engineer by Libraries and Tools:

Ready to Hire Your Scala Developer with Upstaff?