.NET / C#: market

Vacancy

an open job that cleared the quality gate and lists at least two technologies

Observed candidate

a candidate whose stack contains this technology; an aggregate — not a single record leaves the perimeter

Matchable candidate

not counted yet

Window

jobs open at the moment the snapshot was built

The biggest jump is between Junior and Middle (ASP.NET Core + EF + DI mastery). Senior owns service architecture + mentor. Lead — managing 3-7.NET engineers + tech decisions. Career flow: Junior → Middle → Senior → either.NET Architect (technical depth) or Tech Lead (management).

Top 5: c#, sql, azure, cloud, ci/cd. .NET 8/9 LTS — must,.NET Framework 4.8 still in legacy. C# 12+ — must (primary constructors, records, pattern matching, init-only setters). ASP.NET Core — the standard for APIs/web. Entity Framework Core — ORM dominator, EF6 in legacy. SQL Server — the main DB (.NET ecosystem); PostgreSQL is growing in open-source-friendly projects. Azure — the cloud dominator of the Microsoft stack (AKS, App Service, Functions, Service Bus, Cosmos DB), AWS less often. Redis, RabbitMQ/Azure Service Bus/Kafka. Docker+Kubernetes — the standard. Testing: xUnit/NUnit + Moq + FluentAssertions + Testcontainers. Serilog+OpenTelemetry for observability. MediatR + FluentValidation + AutoMapper — typical product stack. Polly for resilience. Knowledge of Clean Architecture / DDD — Senior must.

.NET / C# — the foundation of the Microsoft stack. Dominates enterprise/banks/telco + US/EU outsourcing. Pay in Moscow ≈ Java, in US/EU outsourcing often higher. Mature ecosystem, excellent type system (Nullable Reference Types), LINQ. Downsides: Microsoft vendor lock (though.NET Core has been fully cross-platform since 2016+). Java — the largest market in CIS, especially in banking. Spring Boot. Pay ≈.NET. Go — cloud-native + microservices. Above Python, below Java/.NET on average. Career strategy: .NET if your intersection is with US/EU outsourcing or a Microsoft product shop. Java for maximum stability + banks. Go for cloud-native + microservices. Many Senior engineers know 2 languages for flexibility.

ASP.NET Core — must, dominates 90%+ of.NET jobs. REST/gRPC APIs, microservices, SignalR (realtime). Blazor (C# in the browser) — modern frontend on.NET. Blazor Server (SignalR-backed, instant updates) or Blazor WebAssembly (full SPA in the browser on WASM). A growing niche —.NET teams use Blazor instead of React/Vue for internal tools. Senior Blazor — premium +10% over ASP.NET Core. MAUI (.NET Multi-platform App UI) — cross-platform desktop/mobile. Niche but growing after Xamarin's retirement. Career strategy: ASP.NET Core first (market necessity), then Blazor for diversification (especially in Microsoft shops). MAUI — only if you're going into cross-platform mobile/desktop.

Yes, 31% of.NET jobs are full-remote or hybrid. Outsourcing shops — almost always remote; the.NET ecosystem is fully cross-platform with Linux/macOS + Docker. Russian banks — hybrid or office due to compliance. Relocant hubs for Russian-speaking.NET developers: Poland (Warsaw/Krakow — huge.NET market), Germany, Czechia (Prague), Serbia, Georgia.

.NET Backend (this page) — server-side development of REST/gRPC APIs + business logic on ASP.NET Core. Unity / Game Dev on C# — game development: 3D/2D games, physics, AI, rendering. A completely different stack: Unity engine + ECS + shader programming. Senior Unity pay ≈ Senior.NET in Moscow. Xamarin/MAUI (cross-platform mobile on C#) — mobile development for iOS/Android from a single codebase. Niche, but MAUI is growing after Xamarin's retirement. A career switch.NET Backend → Unity Game Dev requires learning engine APIs + shader basics over 6-12 months..NET Backend → MAUI — 2-3 months (ASP.NET knowledge doesn't help, but C# and LINQ transfer).

Roadmap: 1) C# — syntax, OOP, generics, LINQ, async/await. Books: "C# in Depth" Skeet, "Pro C# 10 with.NET 6" Troelsen. 2) SQL + one RDBMS (SQL Server for the Microsoft stack / PostgreSQL for cross-platform). 3) ASP.NET Core — official tutorial + one pet project (REST API with auth + EF Core + PostgreSQL/SQL Server + Docker). 4) Entity Framework Core — ORM mastery (N+1, Include strategies, raw SQL). 5) DI/IoC — the built-in.NET DI container, understanding lifetimes (Singleton/Scoped/Transient). 6) xUnit + Moq + FluentAssertions + Testcontainers for testing. 7) Azure basics — AZ-204 certification prep (App Service, Functions, Service Bus, Cosmos DB). 8) Docker + Kubernetes basics. 9) Pet project: REST API + EF Core + PostgreSQL + auth + Redis cache + Docker + GitHub Actions CI. Time to Junior — 8-12 months full-time.

682 active open.NET Backend positions in the Zorky CRM sample. Geography: Russia / Ukraine / Poland. The real market is wider than the sample thanks to the huge number of US projects via outsourcing. Time to close a Senior.NET role — 3-6 weeks.

A Senior.NET Backend owns the full cycle. C# mastery: async/await under the hood (TaskScheduler, SynchronizationContext), records and pattern matching, nullable reference types, primary constructors, source generators (awareness level). ASP.NET Core: middleware pipeline design, custom filters/handlers, SignalR for realtime, minimal APIs vs Controllers trade-offs, output caching, rate limiting. Entity Framework Core: N+1 detection (Include/ThenInclude/Split queries), query optimisation via EF.Functions, raw SQL for performance, migration patterns. Architecture: Clean Architecture (Onion/Hexagonal), DDD (aggregates, value objects, domain events), CQRS + MediatR, event-sourcing on Marten/EventStore. Performance: profiling via dotMemory/dotTrace, BenchmarkDotNet, Span<T>/Memory<T> for allocation-free code, ValueTask vs Task. Cloud: Azure to the architect level (AKS, App Service, Functions, Service Bus, Cosmos DB, App Configuration). Testing: 70%+ coverage, integration via WebApplicationFactory + Testcontainers, contract testing via Pact. DevOps: Docker, k8s basics, Azure DevOps Pipelines. Soft: code review, mentoring, communication with PM/client (for outsourcing).