Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city and a manufacturing and logistics hub. As East Java's commercial center, it draws talent from across the region but also sees steady outflow to Jakarta for senior roles. Cost of living is 30–40% lower than the capital, which attracts mid-career professionals seeking stability. Time-to-hire here typically runs 3–5 weeks for mid-level roles; supply is adequate but quality screening requires local market knowledge. Raffi works as an agentic AI recruiter by handling the first-pass review of applicants who apply to your open roles—filtering for basic qualifications, conducting structured interviews, and flagging top candidates for your team's final decision. This removes the manual triage work that slows hiring in Surabaya, where many candidates apply but few match role specifics without structured vetting. Surabaya's talent pool is price-sensitive and values clear career progression; candidates expect transparent communication and timely feedback. Raffi automates the parts of screening that delay decisions, so you can move qualified candidates through your pipeline faster and reduce the admin burden on your hiring team. Ready to streamline candidate review in Surabaya? Connect with Raffi to see how structured AI screening fits your workflow.
<60 sec
Application to first contact
10-15 min
Per applicant interview
$0
Hire fees, ever
Raffi calls every applicant for a 10-15 min structured interview. Not just the top 5 résumés — every one. Result: nobody good slips through.
Conversational AI interview, rubric-anchored scoring, transcripts you can read. You get a top 3-5 shortlist while competitors are still scheduling first-rounds.
SaaS pricing from $199/mo. No 15-25% of first-year salary, no per-hire kickback. Cancel anytime.
Surabaya's 2026 hiring market remains active in manufacturing, logistics, and port-adjacent operations, with steady demand for production supervisors, supply-chain coordinators, and technical trades. Retail and hospitality are cooling as consumer spending moderates. IT and customer-service roles remain steady but increasingly competitive; candidates in these fields are more likely to explore Jakarta options for higher compensation. Time-to-hire for production and logistics roles has ticked down to 2–3 weeks due to higher candidate volume; white-collar and technical roles still hover at 4–6 weeks. Talent supply for entry-to-mid-level positions remains healthy; scarcity is visible only in specialized technical skills and bilingual account management. Salary expectations have risen 8–10% year-over-year, tracking inflation and regional cost adjustments.
Hiring in Surabaya demands fluency in Indonesian and often Javanese, particularly for roles involving local team leadership. Remote work is common for IT and customer service but less standard in manufacturing and logistics, where on-site presence is non-negotiable. Salary expectations sit 25–35% below Jakarta levels for equivalent roles, but candidates are increasingly aware of national benchmarks and expect transparent salary bands. Top sectors are manufacturing, port and logistics operations, petrochemicals, and e-commerce fulfillment. Commute times can be significant; candidates factor in traffic patterns and prefer roles in central business districts or near their home neighborhoods. Retention risk is real for high-performers—strong candidates often test Jakarta market appetite before committing locally.
Yes. Raffi operates in 30+ languages and supports candidate calls in any timezone via self-booking — there's no per-city integration. If you can post a role from Surabaya, you can run Raffi from Surabaya.
Raffi is calibrated against the major AI-in-hiring frameworks (EU AI Act + NYC Local Law 144) and discloses AI use to every candidate before the call. For Surabaya-specific work permits and right-to-work checks, those happen outside Raffi — we screen, you verify eligibility before extending an offer.
Indonesian is essential for all roles. Javanese is spoken widely in the city and useful for building rapport with local candidates, though not required for hiring. English is expected for IT, customer service, and management-track roles, but don't assume fluency in operational or technical trades.
It depends on the role. IT and customer-service teams increasingly accept remote arrangements. Manufacturing, logistics, and port-operations roles are almost always on-site. If you're open to hybrid or remote, say so clearly—it's a competitive advantage and filters candidates early.
Mid-level roles usually take 3–5 weeks from posting to offer. Delays often come from slow candidate response to follow-up interviews and internal approval cycles. Using a structured screening process upfront—like Raffi's candidate review—cuts admin friction and reduces time-to-decision.
Agentic recruiting is recruiting done by an AI agent that takes action on your behalf — not a chatbot or résumé summarizer. Raffi calls every applicant for a structured 10-15 minute interview, scores them against your rubric, and hands you a ranked top 3-5. The work happens autonomously.
Most agencies charge 15-25% of first-year salary as a placement fee — a $90k hire runs $13-22k. Raffi is SaaS at $199-599/mo plus per-action credits, typically landing under $10k/year for a team hiring 12 people. Same shortlist quality, no placement contract.
About 25 minutes to onboard, post your first role, and have Raffi ready to interview applicants. No engineering work, no integration project. Connect your work email, paste a JD, you're live.
Free $25 starter credit. No credit card. Screening live by tonight.