How to hire creative talent in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has a real commercial creative industry concentrated in Almaty, built on advertising, broadcast and a fast-growing technology sector. Studios there produce work for regional brands and increasingly for clients abroad, which means the people you find are used to client feedback and delivery deadlines rather than personal projects alone.
What the creative pool in Kazakhstan actually looks like.
The strongest supply is in motion design and video editing, largely because local agencies and broadcasters have trained a generation on After Effects and Premiere. 3D is thinner but present, mostly around product visualisation and architectural work. Art direction is available at the mid level, less so at the very senior end, where people have often already moved to Dubai or Europe.
- Motion design
- Video editing
- Graphic design
- 3D visualisation
Language, hours, contracts and getting paid.
- Russian is the working language of the creative industry, and Kazakh is the state language. English is common among younger designers and near universal in people who have worked with foreign clients, but a brief written only in English will cut your applicant pool substantially.
- Five hours ahead of London. A Kazakh working day is largely over by the time London reaches lunchtime, so the practical overlap is the UK morning.
- Payment in US dollars to a local bank account or through Wise and Payoneer is routine and expected. Local designers working with foreign clients are generally comfortable invoicing monthly.
- Most agencies engage people here as independent contractors on a monthly retainer, which does not require a local entity. The contractor invoices you and handles their own tax locally.
The boards people in Kazakhstan actually use.
Job hunting is local. The global boards you already know have almost no audience here, and the sites that do are not in English and mostly will not take a posting from a company without a local presence.
What catches foreign agencies out.
Posting on the main boards requires a verified local phone number and, on some of them, a registered company. This is the single biggest reason foreign agencies never get past browsing.
Portfolios are often hosted on Behance rather than a personal site, and reels are frequently shared as Google Drive links rather than Vimeo.
Almaty and Astana are different markets. Almaty holds most of the creative industry.
Or skip all of it and post once.
Everything above is doable on your own. It takes a local number, a local entity on some boards, a translated description and somebody to read applications in Russian. Elsewhere does that part for you. You write the role once in English, pick your markets, and upload examples of the work you want. We translate it, post it to the local boards, pay the posting fees, and score every applicant’s portfolio against your references before you see them.
- One job description in English, plus examples of the work you are looking for.
- Translation into Russian, posting to the local boards, and the fees they charge.
- Applicants ranked by how closely their portfolio matches the work you uploaded.
Do I need a local entity to hire someone in Kazakhstan?
Not to engage a contractor. Most agencies engage people here as independent contractors on a monthly retainer, which does not require a local entity. The contractor invoices you and handles their own tax locally. Employing someone on a local payroll is a different question and does normally require an entity or an employer of record.
What language should I write the job description in?
Russian is the working language of the creative industry, and Kazakh is the state language. English is common among younger designers and near universal in people who have worked with foreign clients, but a brief written only in English will cut your applicant pool substantially. Elsewhere translates your English description into the local language automatically, so you write it once.
Which job boards should I post on in Kazakhstan?
The boards that matter locally are Enbek.kz, hh.kz, Rabota.kz. Elsewhere posts to them for you and covers the posting fees.
How much overlap will I get with my working day?
Five hours ahead of London. A Kazakh working day is largely over by the time London reaches lunchtime, so the practical overlap is the UK morning.
How do I pay someone in Kazakhstan?
Payment in US dollars to a local bank account or through Wise and Payoneer is routine and expected. Local designers working with foreign clients are generally comfortable invoicing monthly.