Best Tech Companies by City in Europe: Complete Guide (2024)
Comprehensive list of 200+ top-paying tech companies across 20 European cities including FAANG, high-frequency trading firms, and high-paying scale-ups with detailed city-by-city breakdown.
Looking for the best tech companies to work for in Europe? This comprehensive guide lists 200+ top-tier companies organized by city, making your job search strategic and efficient.
The criteria for selecting companies in this list include factors that most developers find attractive:
- Compensation: High salaries, competitive packages
- Office size: Significant presence with many job openings
- Quality of work: Cutting-edge technology and impactful projects
- Company brand: Recognized names that strengthen your CV
- Career progression: Clear growth paths and promotion opportunities
- Engineer treatment: Companies where engineers are first-class citizens, not cost centers
This includes classic big tech companies (FAANG+), high-frequency trading firms, and high-paying scale-ups across Europe.
Browse 5,000+ high-paying jobs from these companies →
How to Use This Guide
For High-Paying Cities
For expensive locations like Zurich, I include some "second-tier" companies (UBS, Swisscom, GetYourGuide) that aren't at FAANG level but still easily pay six-figure salaries and have many openings.
For Growing Markets
In emerging tech hubs, I include companies that are expanding their presence and offer interesting opportunities, even if they're not yet household names.
Keep This List Updated
While I try to maintain accuracy, the tech landscape changes rapidly. If you have updates or corrections, let me know and I'll update the list!
For a weekly updated list of 4,000+ top-paying dev jobs in Europe, plus a growing list of high-paying fully-remote companies, check out EuroTopTechJobs.com.
Top-Tier European Tech Hubs
Zurich, Switzerland
Why Zurich: Highest salaries in Europe, excellent quality of life, financial sector opportunities
| Big Tech | Trading Firms | Scale-ups | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Snyk | UBS | |
| Meta | - | DFINITY | Swisscom |
| Apple | - | GetYourGuide | Cisco |
| Microsoft | - | - | Expedia (Geneva) |
| NVIDIA | - | - | Oracle |
| Snap | - | - | - |
Average senior engineer salary: €150k-€200k+ total compensation
London, England
Why London: Largest tech market in Europe, unmatched variety of companies, high salaries
| Big Tech | Trading Firms | Scale-ups | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jane Street | Stripe | Bloomberg | |
| Meta | Hudson River Trading | Coinbase | Palantir |
| Apple | Citadel | Revolut | BlackRock |
| Amazon | Two Sigma | Starling Bank | Point72 |
| DeepMind | DE Shaw | Monzo | GSA Capital |
| ByteDance | Jump Trading | Personio | Marshall Wace |
| Snap | IMC | Wise | Quadrature |
| Twitter/X | Optiver | - | Five Rings |
| - | SIG | - | G-Research |
| - | XTX Markets | - | DRW |
| - | Old Mission | - | Millennium |
| - | QRT | - | MAN Group |
| - | Maven Securities | - | AQR |
Average senior engineer salary: €130k-€180k+ total compensation
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Why Amsterdam: Strong tech scene, excellent work-life balance, international environment, trading hub
| Big Tech | Trading Firms | Scale-ups | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uber | Optiver | Booking.com | Elastic |
| IMC | Miro | GitHub | |
| Amazon | Flow Traders | Bitvavo | Atlassian |
| Databricks | Radix Trading | Adyen | JetBrains |
| Spotify | Headlands Tech | MessageBird | Catawiki |
| DRW | Flexport | - | |
| Stripe | Tower Research | - | - |
| Box | - | - | - |
Average senior engineer salary: €120k-€160k+ total compensation
Major European Tech Cities
Paris, France
Why Paris: Growing AI/ML hub (Meta AI, Google AI), strong scale-up scene, improving tech ecosystem
Companies: Google, Meta, Datadog, Criteo, Microsoft, Stripe, Airbnb, Amazon, Atlassian, HubSpot, Workday, Ankorstore, Red Hat, Algolia, Alan, 360Learning, ContentSquare, Snap
Average senior engineer salary: €90k-€130k+ total compensation
Berlin, Germany
Why Berlin: Second-largest tech market in Europe after London, vibrant startup scene, lower cost of living
Companies: AWS, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Apple, HubSpot, Stripe, NVIDIA, Snowflake, Personio, Databricks, JetBrains, Wolt, Zalando, Delivery Hero, SoundCloud, HelloFresh, Wayfair, Shopify, Datadog
Average senior engineer salary: €95k-€140k+ total compensation
Dublin, Ireland
Why Dublin: Low corporate tax attracts big tech, many ops/infrastructure roles, English-speaking
Companies: AWS, Microsoft, Google, Mastercard, Workday, Salesforce, Meta, Stripe, VMware, LinkedIn, Etsy, Personio, ByteDance, Coinbase, HubSpot, Oracle
Average senior engineer salary: €110k-€150k+ total compensation
Strong Secondary Markets
Munich, Germany
Why Munich: High salaries, quality of life, access to nature, automotive tech
Companies: Google, Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Adobe, Workday, Celonis, BMW, Salesforce, SIXT, SAP, Huawei, Personio, Intel, JetBrains, IBM, Amazon
Average senior engineer salary: €100k-€140k+ total compensation
Warsaw, Poland
Why Warsaw: Fast-growing market, unique companies (Netflix, Waymo), low cost of living, favorable B2B taxation
Companies: Google, Snowflake, Asana, Netflix, Pinterest, Rippling, Oracle, Waymo, AMD, Samsung, NVIDIA, Box, Warner Bros, Visa, Amazon, Bolt, Samsara
Average senior engineer salary: €70k-€110k total compensation (but with very low living costs)
Barcelona, Spain
Why Barcelona: Mediterranean lifestyle, sunshine, growing tech scene, good work-life balance
Companies: Amazon, Apple, New Relic, Stripe, Rippling, Revolut, Skyscanner, Microsoft, N26, Criteo, Adobe, Thoughtworks, Oracle, Glovo, Personio, MongoDB, Meta
Average senior engineer salary: €70k-€110k+ total compensation
Madrid, Spain
Why Madrid: Spanish tech capital, sunny weather, affordable compared to Barcelona
Companies: Amazon, Datadog, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Personio, Twilio, Glovo, VMware, Meta, Oracle, Revolut, Indra
Average senior engineer salary: €70k-€110k+ total compensation
Stockholm, Sweden
Why Stockholm: Excellent work-life balance, Nordic welfare, strong local companies
Companies: Klarna, Spotify, Netlight, PayPal, Ericsson, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, King, Google, Oracle, AWS, Microsoft, Wolt
Average senior engineer salary: €80k-€120k+ total compensation
For more insights on these cities, check out our guides on the Top 3, Top 10, and Top 20 cities for software engineers in Europe.
Emerging & Specialized Markets
Cambridge, England
Why Cambridge: Research-oriented roles, AI/ML focus, university town atmosphere
Companies: Apple, Amazon, Roku, Arm, Microsoft, Qualcomm, MathWorks, AMD, Nutanix
Focus: Research, chip design, AI/ML, academic-industry collaboration
Edinburgh, Scotland
Why Edinburgh: Lower cost than London, quality of life, growing gaming/fintech scene
Companies: Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, Flutter, Unity, Skyscanner, Huawei
Focus: Gaming, fintech, cloud engineering
Belgrade, Serbia
Why Belgrade: Low cost of living, Databricks hub, friendly culture, B2B tax benefits
Companies: Databricks, Microsoft, Nutanix, Rivian, Foursquare, Yandex, JetBrains, Nordeus, Luxoft
Focus: Databricks' largest European engineering office
Kraków, Poland
Why Kraków: Historic charm, lower costs, Splunk's largest EU office, B2B friendly taxation
Companies: Google, Rippling, Oracle, Revolut, Uber, Amazon, Deliveroo, IBM, Splunk
Focus: Backend engineering, cloud infrastructure
Bucharest, Romania
Why Bucharest: Fast-growing market, recent Stripe expansion, affordable living
Companies: Crowdstrike, UiPath, Google, Adobe, Stripe, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Amazon, Bolt, Booking, Revolut
Focus: Rapid growth, security, automation
Additional European Tech Hubs
Copenhagen & Aarhus, Denmark
Copenhagen: Microsoft, Maersk, Zendesk, Workday, Unity
Aarhus: Google, Uber, Databricks, Microsoft/GitHub, CrowdStrike, Chainalysis, Roku
Why: Excellent work-life balance, Nordic welfare, high quality of life
Prague, Czech Republic
Companies: Productboard, Pure Storage, Apple, Workday, Oracle, Microsoft, JetBrains, Proton, Parrot
Why: Beautiful city, manageable costs, favorable B2B taxation, high quality of life
Tallinn, Estonia
Companies: Bolt, Wise, Microsoft, Twilio, Wolt
Why: Startup ecosystem, digital nomad friendly, 0% tax on reinvested profits
Oslo, Norway
Companies: Microsoft, Cisco, Aker Solutions, Arm, Mastercard, Meta, Kahoot, Autostore, Remarkable, Netlight
Why: Highest Nordic salaries, excellent work-life balance, strong social safety net
Sofia, Bulgaria
Companies: VMware, Docker, IBM
Why: Very low cost of living, favorable remote work taxation
Luxembourg
Companies: Amazon (one of largest EU engineering offices after London/Dublin)
Why: Low taxation, financial sector hub, international environment
Manchester, England
Companies: Booking.com, Roku, IBM, Arm
Why: Lower cost than London, growing tech scene, Northern England hub
Vienna, Austria
Companies: Snap (Computer Vision focus), Microsoft, IBM
Why: High quality of life, central European location, specialized roles
Complete City-by-City Company Table
| City | Big Tech Count | Trading Firms | Notable Unique Companies | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 10+ | 15+ | Jane Street, Citadel, DeepMind | Highest variety, trading |
| Zurich | 6 | - | DFINITY, Snyk | Highest salaries |
| Amsterdam | 8 | 5 | Booking, Adyen, Optiver | Trading, work-life balance |
| Berlin | 10+ | - | Zalando, Delivery Hero | Startup scene, growth |
| Paris | 10+ | - | Datadog, Criteo, Alan | AI/ML, French market |
| Dublin | 10+ | - | Workday, LinkedIn | Big tech ops roles |
| Munich | 9 | - | BMW, Celonis | Automotive tech, stability |
| Warsaw | 8+ | - | Netflix, Waymo | Fast growth, unique companies |
| Stockholm | 7 | - | Spotify, Klarna | Work-life balance, local champions |
| Barcelona | 8+ | - | Glovo, Skyscanner | Mediterranean lifestyle |
| Madrid | 8+ | - | Datadog | Spanish capital, sunshine |
| Cambridge | 5 | - | Arm, Roku | Research, chip design |
| Belgrade | 5 | - | Databricks | Low costs, friendly culture |
| Bucharest | 9 | - | UiPath, Crowdstrike | Fast growth, Stripe |
| Prague | 6 | - | Productboard, Proton | Beauty, affordability |
Compare salaries across all cities →
How to Target These Companies
1. Research Company Offices
Not all companies have engineering roles in all offices. Use:
- Company career pages
- LinkedIn job search
- EuroTopTechJobs.com for filtered, updated listings
2. Optimize Your Application Strategy
For big tech: Focus on algorithm prep, system design, behavioral questions
For trading firms: Emphasize math, low-latency systems, competitive programming
For scale-ups: Highlight impact, ownership, fast-paced experience
3. Use Referrals
Referrals increase your success rate by 3-5x. Network on:
- Tech meetups in target cities
- Online communities (Reddit, Discord, Slack groups)
4. Apply in Batches
Apply to 5-10 similar companies simultaneously to:
- Create optionality
- Practice interviews
- Generate competing offers
Compensation by Company Type
Understanding what different company types pay helps you target effectively:
| Company Type | Junior (0-2 yrs) | Mid (3-5 yrs) | Senior (5-8 yrs) | Staff+ (8+ yrs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAANG | €70k-€120k | €100k-€160k | €140k-€220k | €200k-€350k+ |
| Trading Firms | €120k-€200k | €150k-€250k | €200k-€350k | €300k-€500k+ |
| Top Scale-ups | €60k-€100k | €80k-€130k | €110k-€170k | €150k-€250k |
| Enterprise | €50k-€80k | €65k-€110k | €90k-€140k | €120k-€190k |
| Local Champions | €45k-€75k | €60k-€95k | €80k-€120k | €100k-€160k |
Figures vary significantly by location. Zurich/London at high end, Eastern Europe at lower end
Explore current openings from these companies →
Special Categories
Best for Fresh Graduates
High volume hiring: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Accenture
Structured onboarding: Stripe, Databricks, Meta, Booking.com, Spotify
Best for Work-Life Balance
Nordic companies: Spotify, Klarna, companies in Stockholm/Oslo/Copenhagen
Dutch scale-ups: Booking.com, Adyen, Elastic
Specific cultures: JetBrains, Atlassian, GitLab
Best for Career Growth
Rapid promotion paths: Meta, Amazon (leadership principles), Stripe
Strong internal mobility: Google, Microsoft, Amazon
Clear leveling: All FAANG companies
Best for Remote Work
Remote-first: GitLab, Automattic, companies on our remote jobs page
Remote-friendly: Stripe, Datadog, Databricks, many scale-ups post-COVID
Your Next Steps
- Choose 2-3 target cities based on your priorities (salary, lifestyle, language, etc.)
- Identify 10-20 target companies from this list in those cities
- Research their tech stacks and recent projects
- Prepare for interviews (algorithms, system design, behavioral)
- Start applying consistently (5-10 per week)
- Network actively in your target markets
For more strategic guidance, check out:
- How to reach €140k+ as a developer in Europe
- Top 20 cities for software engineers
- Salary and savings data across Europe
Start your job search across 200+ top companies →
Frequently Asked Questions
Which city has the most tech companies in Europe?
London has the largest tech market in Europe with 100+ major tech companies including all FAANG, 15+ trading firms (Jane Street, Citadel, HRT), and numerous scale-ups (Stripe, Coinbase, Revolut). Berlin comes second with focus on startups and fast-growing companies.
What are the highest-paying tech companies in Europe?
Trading firms pay the most: Jane Street, Citadel, Hudson River Trading, Optiver, and IMC offer €150k-€300k+ for junior to mid-level engineers. Among tech companies, FAANG (Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon) and top scale-ups (Stripe, Databricks, Datadog) offer €120k-€250k+ for senior engineers in high-paying cities.
Should I target big tech or trading firms?
Choose trading firms if:
- You have strong math/algorithms background
- You're interested in low-latency systems and performance optimization
- Maximum compensation is your top priority
- You're comfortable with intense, competitive environments
Choose big tech if:
- You want diverse product impact and scale
- You value internal mobility and transferability
- You prefer clearer career paths and more roles
- You want better name recognition for future opportunities
Which companies are best for remote work in Europe?
Fully remote: GitLab, Automattic, companies on our remote opportunities page
Remote-friendly: Stripe, Datadog, Databricks, Shopify, many scale-ups post-2020. Strategy: Join on-site for 6-12 months, then negotiate permanent remote after proving performance.
Are salaries really that different between cities?
Yes, massively. A senior engineer at Google:
- Zurich: €180k-€220k total comp
- London/Amsterdam: €140k-€180k total comp
- Berlin: €120k-€150k total comp
- Warsaw: €90k-€120k total comp
However, cost of living varies proportionally, so savings potential can be similar. Check our financial data page for detailed comparisons.
How do I get a referral to these companies?
- LinkedIn: Connect with engineers at target companies, engage with their posts, ask for informational interviews
- Tech meetups: Attend events in your target city (many are virtual now)
- Online communities: Join city-specific tech groups on Reddit, Discord, Slack
- Alumni networks: Reach out to university alumni working at these companies
- Blind/TeamBlind: Tech professionals forum where people often share referrals
Should I move to a new city for a tech job?
Move if:
- Salary increase is 30%+ (enough to offset relocation costs and lifestyle changes)
- Target city aligns with your lifestyle preferences
- Company has strong office presence (not just remote team)
- Career opportunities are significantly better
Consider carefully if:
- You have family/partner commitments
- Language barriers are significant
- Cultural adaptation would be challenging
- Remote work could achieve similar goals
Use our city guides to research before deciding.
What's the best strategy for applying to multiple companies?
Batch applications: Apply to 5-10 similar companies within 2 weeks so interviews cluster together. This lets you:
- Practice on "backup" companies before "dream" companies
- Generate competing offers for negotiation
- Optimize your interview performance while skills are sharp
Target company tiers: Apply to all tiers (FAANG, scale-ups, enterprise) simultaneously to maximize options.