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Almost all software consulting companies require Finnish, though, as most contracts these consulting firms have with their clients are that the developers are fluent in Finnish.

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Finland is a relatively small market. Sure, some consultancies make (or customize and integrate) software for local old fashioned companies like banks or for the government. But if you want to build a product and be ambitious and grow, exporting and going international is the only way. The local market just isn't that big. It looks very different compared to a larger country. I bet in Germany, you can make a lot of money with software just for German schools or banks or municipalities. Same in the UK.

You can still grow outside your local market with just local developers.

The grandparent's point was that the engineer needs to communicate with the customer in Finnish.

In reality, international companies have decoupled sales and development. Sales will be in customer countries. Sales will communicate with customer in customer's mother tongue. Sales will communicate with development in English. Software development will be done in English, with a diverse group of people, whether centralized or distributed.

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