Your Product Vision.
Our Operational Excellence.
Don't Just Outsource. Expand. We advise, build, operate, and scale entire R&D centers — with local leadership, proven processes, and full operational ownership.
Built for leaders who need speed, control, and minimal HQ overhead
PrimeNode is designed for buyers who do not want a vendor dependency, a weak compliance setup, or a remote satellite office that consistently underperforms.
"I need capacity fast without becoming Poland ops manager."
You stay focused on product and roadmap while local execution, hiring, and setup are handled on the ground.
"I need transparent cost logic and a clean ownership model."
You see pass-through salaries, setup costs, and management fees clearly instead of getting one opaque blended invoice.
"I need to enter Poland without structural mistakes on day 1."
You get a phased path from blueprint to transfer instead of improvising entity, team, and operations in parallel.
Why Poland for your R&D Hub?
Europe's largest tech talent market offering a superior price-to-safety ratio. Not the cheapest — the smartest. Perfect alignment with Western engineering culture and ethics.
R&D Tax Incentives
Generous tax reliefs (Ulga B+R / IP Box) backed by EU law that can drastically lower your effective tax rate compared to local operations.
Long History as a Hub
Decades of American and European enterprises educating the market. Talents here have an incomparable reference and experience base.
We manage the machine, you ship the code.
Build, run, and scale your tech hub. We execute parallel workstreams — your first engineers can be writing code within weeks while we build the permanent infrastructure in the background.
Your Dedicated Polish R&D Center
Built for you. Transferred to you. The model is designed to reduce dependency, not extend it. When stable, the entity, team, and routines transfer cleanly to your HQ.
Feasibility & Go/No-Go
We assess talent availability, costs, and risks. If another market fits better, we'll tell you before you commit a single euro.
Blueprint & Foundation
Entity vs. EOR decision, legal/tax architecture (IP Box setup), and a strict launch roadmap.
Build & Recruit
Workspace setup and Core Team recruitment. First hires start from flex-office while the hub is prepared.
Operate & Deliver
Powered by the PrimeNode Operating System. We deploy our proprietary local people management, culture, and Agile frameworks to ensure <5% attrition while our Interim Site Leader manages daily operations.
Scale & Transfer
Your Dedicated Polish R&D Center. Built for you. Transferred to you with zero lock-in.
How we compare against alternatives
See why scaling with PrimeNode beats traditional options across operational pillars.
| Selection Criteria | Staffing Agency Body Leasing | Standard EoR Employer of Record | DIY from HQ Do It Yourself | PrimeNode Full Hub Extension |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Setup & CAPEX | ✓ Zero CAPEX.Pay as you go per head. | ✓ Low upfront.Standard deposit only. | ✗ Extreme CAPEX.Sunk legal & real estate costs. | ⚠️ Upfront investment.Requires funding for setup & physical workspace. |
| HQ Operational Load | ✗ No local ops.HQ manages devs directly. | ✗ Admin only.Payroll managed, HQ runs daily ops. | ✗ Extreme load.Build legal & ops from scratch. | ✓ Dedicated site leader.We run ground ops. HQ focuses on product. |
| Speed to Value | ⚠️ Fast hires.Individuals need HQ onboarding. | ⚠️ Fast hiring.No local culture integration. | ✗ Slow (6-12 Mo).Legal & real estate delays launch. | ✓ 90 days.To a fully operational, managed hub. |
| Culture & Retention | ✗ Transactional logic.Agency brand. High churn risk. | ⚠️ Remote isolation.No physical footprint. Average retention. | ⚠️ HQ Culture.Works if you hire local leaders early. Most don't. | ✓ Highly cohesive.Your brand locally. < 5% proven attrition. |
| Cost Transparency (TCO) | ✗ Hidden margins.Margin embedded in blended rates. | ⚠️ Predictable HR fee.But no operational layer included. | ✗ Hard to forecast.Hidden costs in administration & mistakes. | ✓ Transparent.Pass-through salaries + flat management fee. |
| IP & Transfer | ✗ High Lock-in.Buyout fees to retain talent. | ⚠️ Complex transfer.Hard to move to own entity. | ⚠️ Yours in theory.Contract traps without expert setup. | ✓ 100% Client Owned.Clean handover when scaling. |
"Not just FTEs on an invoice. We take ownership of delivery, culture, and retention."
Case Study: Metso
How we built a fully operational Digital R&D Studio in Kraków from scratch for a global Finnish industrial technology leader.
The "DIY" Reality Check
Without a local partner, setting up a hub is an administrative nightmare that delays your roadmap.
- ~16 months typical timeline to a functioning permanent office.
- 6 months lost on internal stakeholder alignment and location selection.
- Heavy HQ burden: managing 8+ external vendors.
The PrimeNode Execution
Skip the operational headache. Full legal compliance, recruitment, and local leadership in one framework.
- Turnkey Setup: Fast-tracked entity creation and IP/Tax optimization.
- Workspace Readiness: Managed transition to custom R&D studio.
- Local Leadership: Interim Site Management provided for Agile delivery.
Transparent Pricing, Zero Surprises
Your Management Fee covers what corporations typically discover they need only after 6 months of costly trial and error. We work exclusively with serious scale-ups and enterprises, providing clear logic.
Typical Staffing Agency
The "Body Leasing" Black Box
- Developer Salary€X
- Hidden Margin (per month, forever)+ 25-40%
- Operational SupportNone
- Legal / IP ProtectionBasic B2B
PrimeNode BOT
100% Transparent Model
- Blueprint & Setup Fee (Phase 1)One-time CAPEX
- Developer SalariesPass-through Option Available
- Hub Operations Fee (Starts Phase 2)Flat Monthly Fee
- Entity & IP Transfer (Phase 4)€0 Exit Fee (Month 31+)
Led by Engineering Practitioners
We are not a staffing agency or a legal desk. We are engineering leaders who have built, scaled, and fixed global R&D centers from the inside.
Paweł Macuda
Founder & Managing PartnerI am an engineering leader, not a staffing recruiter.
Over the last decade, I’ve built and scaled R&D hubs for global enterprises in Poland, witnessing firsthand how remote DIY setups fail due to cultural isolation and weak local governance.
I founded PrimeNode to be the antidote.
I step in with an expert core operational team to deploy the PrimeNode Operating System—bringing an 'Opinionated Setup' to your HR, compliance, and daily operations.
We fix what usually breaks when local leadership is missing, ensuring you scale safely. When the time comes, we can even transition the Site Leader directly to your payroll.
Michał Ćwikliński
Co-Founder & Technical AdvisorOver the last 15+ years, I’ve gone from hands-on engineering to leading multi-team organizations across banking, media, and product companies in Poland, building teams that ship reliably instead of just existing on the org chart.
At PrimeNode, I bring the engineering and delivery spine to our hubs. I partner with your leadership to turn needs into a real team: defining roles, running or supporting recruitment, and setting up onboarding so new hires are productive in weeks, not months.
I’ve led and scaled teams as Engineering Manager. I know exactly what kind of people and processes you need at each maturity stage of your hub, from the first 5 engineers to multiple cross-functional squads.
Strategic FAQ for CTOs & CFOs
Why do typical DIY Poland hub setups fail in the first 12–24 months?
What do you mean by an "Opinionated Setup"?
Entity vs Employer of Record (EOR): When should we switch?
Who owns the Intellectual Property and the code?
Are developer salaries marked up, or are there hidden margins?
How do R&D Tax Relief and IP Box impact our total cost?
What happens when we want to take over the hub? Is there an exit fee?
Let’s build the commercial model around your target team
We’ll walk through headcount, workspace path, operating scope, pricing logic, and the right tier for your first phase in Poland.