You chose a career path that rewards you with international mobility, besides being one of the most in-demand tech jobs at the moment. That’s a great start!

Even so, this pool of choices and opportunities makes us wonder where the best job opportunities and salaries are.

With the purpose of answering these questions, our team of tech recruitment experts delved deep into compensations, net salaries and cost of living in the hottest European tech hubs to help you decide if a career in those cities can be a good idea.

How did we exactly gathered this data?

The table below considers Amsterdam as our base reference city (that’s why its reference value is equal to 100).

The Dutch capital was then used as a parameter to calculate the comparable median net salary in each tech European hub, taking into account expenses that include local taxes and cost of living.

First, we obtained the median gross total compensation for Amsterdam and calculated the estimated net salary (total amount after deductions, such as taxes).

Next, the comparable median net salary in each city is calculated and ranked according to the reference city (Amsterdam).

The Total Compensation Amount was obtained from Levels.fyi and the Average Cost of Living was calculated using Expatistan as a reference.

After conducting the research, here’s the data we’ve found:

Sr Software Engineer Salaries

Some relevant insights

According to the results, we found out that, although Lisbon is a wonderful city to live in, Senior Software Engineers have 0.75x the purchase power of their Amsterdam counterparts, taking into account the actual net salary and taxes and cost of living!

Warsaw, on the other hand, is crushing it – their tech champs are raking in 1.5x the purchase power of their Amsterdam counterparts! Not convinced yet? That might explain why Poland is one of the EU countries with the least difficulties in filling vacancies in tech, according to Eurostat indicators.

Viva la vida! Spanish cities like Madrid and Barcelona are also above the reference when it comes to actual median net salary versus comparable median net salary. And also according to Eurostat, Spain is the EU country with the least difficulties in filling vacancies in tech.

Boat cruises in Paris or Amsterdam? Here’s one important thing to keep in mind: To maintain the Parisian lifestyle with €86K, you'd need to make €105K in Amsterdam, considering the higher Dutch taxes.

Ready to level up your tech career? Whether you're eyeing Lisbon's sunsets, Warsaw's energy, or Paris' elegance, our data-backed insights will guide your journey.

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