Demand for Vaadin Developers Continues to Expand
The complexity of today’s web development landscape can make it burdensome to find and hire the right web developer—and specialists in the enterprise-ready Vaadin framework are no exception. Recent JetBrains and Stack Overflow surveys confirm Java’s steady popularity among programming languages, which has helped Vaadin carve out its niche among open-source Java frameworks. Its first-class support for React front ends via the Hilla framework has further boosted its adoption. Vaadin’s accessibility and reliance on ubiquitous technologies mean that the candidate pool for developers—and the competition for it—can be overwhelmingly large.
At the same time, true Vaadin experts are relatively rare. Your organization, team, and project must stand apart while competing for them alongside enterprise Vaadin adopters like Lufthansa, Rockwell Automation, Primerica, HSBC, and Johnson & Johnson. Meanwhile, hiring Vaadin developers combines all the nuances of hiring full-stack software engineers (back-end expertise, strong front-end skills, UI/UX design competence) with hiring Java framework specialists and web developers. In an era when web development projects often include thousands of dependencies, knowing which skills to assess can seem anything but straightforward.
This guide offers insights on how to discern an excellent Vaadin developer, identify your ideal candidate, craft a focused job description, and conduct fruitful interviews.
What Attributes Distinguish Quality Vaadin Developers from Others?
The server-side portion of Vaadin code always uses Java, so a quality candidate will be able to demonstrate their prowess and years of experience as a Java developer. (Note that Java is an entirely different language than JavaScript, despite the naming overlap.) Likewise, quality Vaadin developers will be skilled with Spring Boot, the default Java framework used for its back-end code, especially among enterprises. Experts may also have experience with legacy Vaadin back ends like Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE).
Vaadin also generates front-end code (i.e., the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that runs directly in the end user’s web browser). Unlike frameworks like Angular, Vaadin Flow—the flagship front-end framework of Vaadin since 2018—lets developers avoid JavaScript-heavy front ends. Instead, they construct UI components in Java, ensuring type safety and streamlined functionality without direct client-side coding. Thus, Vaadin developers may not need as much expertise as most web developers do in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but top-tier developers will still be comfortable with customizing these parts as needed. With Vaadin Flow, a single Java developer can work on the full stack for a more efficient workflow; some SMBs and startups might also want them to act as the project manager and DevOps expert.
Vaadin comes with another front-end framework: Hilla. Though its first release in 2022 is more recent than that of Vaadin Flow, Hilla’s support for React integration has attracted many organizations to it, and both are gaining popularity. By using Hilla, however, candidates can no longer do full-stack development in Java alone—they must also know their way around TypeScript and have a passing familiarity with Node.js to run a Vite server for local development. This extra requirement isn’t a problem for larger teams, where there’s likely a division between front- and back-end development anyway, and it allows for hiring React developers to train in Vaadin’s specifics.
Regardless of their expertise in Hilla versus Flow, the best Vaadin developers will be comfortable working on not only front-end and back-end code but also SQL databases, ORM tools like Hibernate, modern deployment tools like Docker, and cloud services like AWS, GCP, and Azure.
Lastly, high-performing candidates will be well-versed in user interface layouts and user experience (UI/UX) principles. In industries like e-commerce or SaaS, where user satisfaction translates directly into revenue, effective UI/UX design can differentiate a merely functional web app from a market-leading product.
How Can You Identify the Ideal Vaadin Developers for You?
Thanks to the framework’s opinionated architecture (leaving less to decide) and gentle learning curve, your ideal candidate may not need direct Vaadin experience. For example, if your project uses Hilla and you want a front-end developer, hiring a React expert with TypeScript skills will be much easier than finding a full-stack Vaadin specialist. Even for projects without Hilla, extra onboarding time can suffice, especially if you have team members who can provide Vaadin mentorship. The same goes for hiring full-stack or back-end developers. Instead of assessing experience with Vaadin itself, you can focus on all the other skills (e.g., Java, Spring Boot, full-stack, web, UI/UX, security) that enable a quick learner to adapt readily to your Vaadin project.
Candidate assessments are more complicated if your project involves upgrading from significantly older versions of Vaadin. For example, versions 7 (from 2013) and 8 (from 2017) used Google Web Toolkit (GWT) heavily. Though Vaadin’s warranty offerings are relatively extensive—even Vaadin 7 users can have support until 2029 for a price—most new development has shifted firmly to Flow and Hilla. For such migrations, your ideal developer will know the source (GWT) and target (Flow or Hilla, or at least Java or TypeScript) well.
Other technologies in your project may also expand your hiring requirements. For example, if your team is adopting cloud-native or microservice patterns, you may need candidates with exposure to Kubernetes container orchestration, specific cloud ecosystems, or frameworks like Quarkus or Micronaut. Or if your team is integrating an AI service on the back end, the right Vaadin developer may be one with technical skills in Python libraries like scikit-learn. It all depends on your project plan and the exact responsibilities of the role for which you’re recruiting.
How to Write a Vaadin Developer Job Description for Your Project
Your job description must be accurate and appealing to attract top-notch Vaadin software developers. Start with the appropriate template—full stack, front end, back end, or Java—and clearly state the role, hiring model (full-time, part-time), project goals, and requisite skill set. Be specific about how Vaadin is used in your project—whether it’s built with Flow, Hilla, or migrating from older versions—so candidates understand the technical context and challenges they’ll face.
If you’re seeking someone with direct Vaadin experience, you’re more likely to attract qualified candidates if the role allows for remote work. In such cases, mention expectations around English communication skills and highlight your development team’s time zone requirements early in the description. Either way, including a description of your company and team culture—if possible, even profiles of the role’s specific collaborators—can significantly improve candidate alignment and reduce mismatches during the hiring process.
What Are the Most Important Vaadin Developer Interview Questions?
Determining which questions are most important to ask while vetting candidates also depends on your overall hiring strategy. In cases where you’re interviewing full-stack developers and intend to provide on-the-job Vaadin training, the best approach is to mix questions on web application development and widely used tools like Git with those that match the role’s specific technical requirements. For example, the interview will cover deployments on AWS, tools like Docker, methodologies like DevOps, frameworks like React, and programming languages like Java or TypeScript, as applicable.
To hire top Vaadin developers specifically, the following questions will help you better discern a candidate’s Vaadin-specific expertise.
How would you securely integrate Vaadin with a preexisting Spring Boot back end?
Answers will typically cover Vaadin’s integration with Spring Boot via the vaadin-spring-boot-starter dependency to simplify routing, dependency injection, and session management. A top candidate will describe the use of Spring Security alongside Vaadin’s session management to enforce authentication and authorization. They’ll also know how to handle Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) tokens properly.
Excellent candidates will be able to name several specific techniques, including:
- The use of lazy-loading and lazy-rendering components like Vaadin Grid.
- Reducing unnecessary component updates and avoiding large UI trees.
- Minimizing custom JavaScript use.
- Using Vaadin’s built-in theming tools rather than overloading UIs with excessive CSS or third-party libraries.
They’ll also be able to describe using Vaadin’s client-side profiler or browser developer tools (or both) to measure performance, pinpoint memory leaks, and identify inefficient rendering paths.
How would you troubleshoot a Vaadin application that is showing blank views or failing to render components correctly?
A high-quality answer will outline systematic problem-solving approaches, like checking server logs for exceptions—particularly a NullPointerException, a bean injection failure, or a session-related error—and using the corresponding stack traces as a starting point for debugging. Top candidates will mention checking browser developer tools to see whether client-side prerequisites are loading and if the console contains any blocking errors that could hint at the problem. Experienced developers will also know how to create minimal reproducible examples when debugging issues that stem from an upstream codebase (like the framework itself or a third-party dependency).
Why do companies hire Vaadin developers?
Organizations hire developers to work with Vaadin because selecting this enterprise-proven framework is one of the most stable, risk-free bets in modern web development. The framework offers 15 years of support, runs within the widely adopted Java ecosystem, and avoids the volatility of ever-shifting, JavaScript-heavy front-end frameworks.
Vaadin developers can quickly deliver secure, high-quality web apps with consistent user interfaces. Since this makes them as valuable to startups and SMBs as they are to enterprises, they can be challenging to find in today’s hiring market; a more realistic strategy may be to train them up from experienced Java programmers. Either way, an investment in capable talent is an investment in your company’s long-term success.
