Top 3 Career Paths for Software Developers in Europe (2024): Big Tech, Switzerland, and Remote LCLT
Remote geo-arbitrage enters mainstream: Poland devs earning €100k with 70% savings rates, Swiss juniors making €100k+, and Big Tech Europe offering €85k-€220k across cities—complete comparison of the 3 optimal career paths.
Today, we have a few things on the plate to discuss. In particular:
- How High-Paid Fully-Remote Dev Jobs in Low-Cost Low-Tax (LCLT) countries has become a concrete top career option for devs in Europe.
- Top 3 Career Paths for Devs in Europe in 2024.
- Real examples from the Six-Figure Euro Engineer coaching program: June's accomplishments.
- Update from Euro Top Tech Jobs: current status and planned future developments.
Let's get straight to it.
Explore 5,000+ top tech jobs across Europe →
High-Paid Fully-Remote Dev Jobs in Low-Cost Low-Tax (LCLT) Entered the Room
The First European Engineer Career Template: USA Careers in Europe
I originally started this newsletter with a simple idea.
Devs in the USA have a straightforward path to build a great career: prep for and join Big Tech.
This will get you:
- High income
- Great saving rates and good chances of achieving FIRE relatively soon
- Great chance to build up valuable skills and have a rewarding career
And this is fairly achievable because of how many opportunities the US offers to enter big tech if you're a US resident.
In Europe? You can't really use the same strategy expecting the same results: it's more nuanced and complicated.
So I created resources to help you achieve the above 3 goals:
- How to make €100k as a dev in Europe
- How to get a big tech job in Switzerland and achieve the highest saving rates
- Best high-paying companies with offices in Europe
- How to reach FIRE as a dev in Europe
- How to navigate relocation and location planning
- A Job Board with all the Top Tech Jobs in Europe, updated weekly
- How the US and Europe Tech Market differs
How the US and Europe Tech Market Changed in the Last Year
Now, the Big Tech situation in the US has quite deteriorated in the last year.
As money became more expensive due to high-interest rates, LLM/AI made devs more productive, and Covid proved to companies that WFH wouldn't hurt them much, US corporations started increasing the rate of offshoring to cheaper countries.
Learn about the offshoring trend →
Learning About the Opportunities That Remote Work Offers to European Devs
In 2023, I've been often traveling to Central/Eastern Europe, and in particular to Warsaw.
As I spent time in this area of Europe, I started realizing how devs here actually had it way better than I expected: relatively high income, low cost of living, low taxes, abundance of job opportunities, safe cities, upwards trajectory for their country, etc.
Diving deeper, I realized this was something well-known to Eastern European devs, and to some Western senior European devs as well.
You can check reddit.com/r/cscareerquestionsEU and find many examples of discussions around these topics. Some handpicked threads:
- Why do people in this sub act as if 100% remote jobs that allow you to live in rural Bulgaria with a Swiss salary are the norm?
- Salaries in Western Europe look like peanuts compared to ones in LCOL countries.
- Long-term risks of Careers in Western Europe and Switzerland and the offshoring trend.
I did my part in contributing to this discussion, both in this newsletter and on LinkedIn, and recently I've created this salary and saving rates transparency Google Sheet, where we see real data points of such careers.
People in places like Georgia or Poland or Hungary or Romania making 6 figures salaries, and spending half of it while supporting entire families and still saving up quite a bit each year thanks to low taxation.
Some days ago, I posted about this on LinkedIn and it went extra viral (almost 10k likes and 6M views in less than a week).
My explanation for this is that this path is now officially on the map, and it's mainstream.
People know that it's possible, probably already know someone doing it, and many people find this path appealing.
I plan to talk more about this possible career path and strategies to achieve it in the near future. So, stay tuned for that.
Calculate your savings in different locations →
What Is My Opinion as of Today: A Balanced View
What happened to the other Top Tech Careers' paths I've talked about in the past, namely Big Tech Europe and Good Tech Switzerland?
I believe they're still very valid options, and together with this new remote geo-arbitraged option, they make up the top 3 paths for tech professionals in Europe as of today, and probably for the foreseeable future too.
Top 3 Career Paths for Devs in Europe in 2024
So let's formalize this and give it some structure.
If you're an ambitious dev in Europe and are willing to build up a very solid career that gives you professional growth, high income, and good chances to build financial security and freedom, I believe these are the top 3 options available to you:
1. Big Tech Europe
Still a great option.
Great for CV, learning and networking.
Working for a big tech company will set you apart from the competition, and make you work with great engineers on high-quality products.
Given how they manage compensation, if you work for a big tech from basically any city in Europe, you'll have a high purchasing power.
There'll be some differences in the amount of savings you'll get (check codecapitals.com to learn more), but all in all you'll have a great financial outcome too.
Usually, it's also possible to relocate within big tech from a lower-paid location to a higher-paid location, although rarer today than some time ago.
| City | Junior (E3) | Mid (E4) | Senior (E5) | Staff (E6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich | €120k | €160k | €220k | €300k+ |
| London | €90k | €130k | €170k | €240k+ |
| Amsterdam | €85k | €120k | €155k | €220k+ |
| Berlin | €75k | €105k | €135k | €180k+ |
| Warsaw | €65k | €90k | €115k | €145k+ |
Downsides: RTO (return to office), high employment taxes, layoffs-scaremongering vibes, etc. I also think that a lot of big techs will see increased competition in the future by a new generation of tech companies emerging right now.
2. Good Tech Switzerland/HCOL
By "good tech" I mean a decent quality company (ideally a tech company, not necessarily big tech though): good culture, learning opportunities, pay.
This in practice could mean:
- €100k salary for a junior engineer in Zurich
- €150k salary for a senior engineer in Zurich
- €200k total comp for a freelance dev in Zurich/Amsterdam/Munich/London
Location plays a role in Europe, so optimizing for a high-paying location can still be a good strategy.
| Experience Level | Zurich | London | Amsterdam | Munich |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior (0-2 years) | €100k-€120k | €60k-€80k | €55k-€75k | €55k-€75k |
| Mid (2-4 years) | €130k-€160k | €85k-€110k | €75k-€100k | €75k-€100k |
| Senior (4+ years) | €160k-€200k | €110k-€140k | €100k-€130k | €95k-€125k |
| Freelance Senior | €180k-€250k | €130k-€180k | €120k-€160k | €110k-€150k |
Also, one cool strategy people nowadays are using is to start working for a company in a HCOL (high cost of living location), and then, once they proved themselves and got some tenure in the team, negotiate a remote contract, and move somewhere else reducing their CoL and taxes while keeping the pay.
Learn location optimization strategies →
3. High-Paying Fully-Remote in Low-Cost Low-Tax (LCLT)
I feel like I've been talking extensively about this lately, so just check some of my previous articles:
- Leveraging Low-Cost, Low-Tax Countries as a Remote Developer
- Should Software Engineers Move East? Poland vs Remote Offshoring
In short: even an €80k fully-remote job can give you a baller lifestyle in a LCLT country.
And there are plenty of such countries where you can get very high QoL (quality of life) with a low cost of living.
| Country | Remote Salary | Tax Rate | After Tax | Living Costs | Annual Savings | Savings Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poland | €120k | 12% | €105k | €25k | €80k | 67% |
| Georgia | €100k | 1% | €99k | €15k | €84k | 84% |
| Romania | €110k | 5% | €105k | €20k | €85k | 77% |
| Cyprus | €120k | 15% | €102k | €28k | €74k | 62% |
| Hungary | €100k | 15% | €85k | €18k | €67k | 67% |
You can check Numbeo for some data on this: the caveat here is that most LCLT places are penalized on Numbeo because salary and purchasing power for the local people greatly penalizes these locations, but if you have a salary that's 5x-10x the national average, this won't apply to you.
I think Poland now is the de-facto best place in Europe for such a path as you have access to both good CoL/Taxes for remote jobs, and a good local employment market (with similar wages compared to high-paying remote jobs). So it's quite a flexible option for this type of career. And you get IMO amazing QoL.
There are also other great locations for such a path: Georgia, Cyprus, Romania, Moldova, Southern Europe, Balkans, Central/Eastern Europe in general. For people that are more flexible with their contracts, Asia and UAE can also be good options.
Compare locations and tax rates →
Complete Strategy Comparison
| Strategy | Time to €100k Salary | Difficulty | Annual Savings Potential | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Tech Europe | 1-3 years | Medium | €25k-€110k | Career growth, prestige, learning |
| Switzerland (any company) | 0-1 year | Easy | €30k-€70k | Risk-averse, fast path, EU citizens |
| Remote LCLT | 2-4 years | Medium-Hard | €67k-€85k | Freedom, max savings, lifestyle |
Key insights:
- ✅ Big Tech offers best long-term career growth (to €200k-€300k+)
- ✅ Switzerland offers easiest and fastest path (juniors earn €100k)
- ✅ Remote LCLT offers highest savings rates (60-85% vs 30-50%)
End-of-Month Update from My Coaching Program
As you might know, since 2 months, I am running a coaching program called Six-Figure Euro Engineer, where I use my experience and knowledge regarding Tech Careers in Europe to help devs get to the next level in their career and life as tech professionals in Europe.
Mainly, I help with achieving the 3 above-mentioned paths.
I started the first iteration of it limiting it to 5 people, which went sold-out fairly soon. I plan to start a new iteration of it sometime in September or October.
If you're interested, I recommend you to apply to the program, and if all is good, you'll be inserted into the waiting list, which will give you higher chances of securing a spot in the program.
Currently, I am coaching 4 devs, with the 5th coachee that recently "graduated" from the program to found his startup after his open-source project went viral.
I think it would be cool to give you all an update on the progress we're having with the other coachees, so here we go. I'll try to be concise.
1. Full-Stack Dev from Italy: Improving Salary and Technical Growth
Background: Joined the program in May after applying to 200+ companies and getting no result.
Progress:
- Refactored CV and LinkedIn
- Brainstormed on what jobs to target and applied
- Around 10 applications with 8 of them offering interviews
- Proceeding with interviews with 3 companies (putting others in backlog)
- Currently wrapping up interviews and hopefully getting some offers
Also discussing next steps and longer-term plans for his career. He'll probably stick around for a while in the coaching program as it's a good match and so far he sees the value.
2. Full-Stack Dev from Switzerland: Exploring Remote Options and Big Tech
Background: Joined in May, with the main goal of learning what is needed to get a big tech job in Switzerland.
Progress:
- Given the small size of the big tech market in Switzerland, we moved to a more holistic discussion
- Exploring different options: long-term goal of big tech Switzerland, big tech London/Amsterdam, remote work
- Greatly improved CV/LinkedIn (needed many iterations)
3. Full-Stack/Frontend Dev from the Netherlands: Building Strong Foundation
Background: Joined in June, less strong profile than the other 2, needs more support and actual mentoring.
Progress:
- Helping him improve as a developer
- Improving communication within technical teams
- Still in CV improvement phase (using this to identify improvement areas)
- More of a long-term plan, but potentially could get results in next few months
In general, we're targeting good tech HCOL and big tech Europe.
4. Full-Stack Dev and Data Engineer from Italy: Career Transition
Background: Joined in June, goal is to get a decent career instead of working for ridiculously low pay and bad career prospects in Italy.
Progress:
- Less in a rush, taking it slower (depends on how much work coachees put in)
- Improving CV and LinkedIn
- Coming up with strategy: targeting both data engineering jobs and general software engineering jobs
- Goal is big tech Europe or very good tech Europe
- Pay is not the #1 priority right now (but still among top 3)
Learn how to improve your career →
Euro Top Tech Jobs: Updates from My Job Board
As you know, I've recently launched a job board.
I haven't had time to iterate on it too much, but what I'm working on right now is:
Planned improvements:
- Make sure every position has saving rates for all lifestyle options
- Add pre-tax and post-tax estimated TC columns
- Add fully-remote jobs (figuring out best way to present them)
The challenge with fully-remote jobs is that saving rates depend heavily on location, so I'm exploring how to best present this data to be useful for everyone.
Related Resources
For more detailed guides on each path:
- How to Make €100k as a Software Engineer in Europe
- Complete FIRE blueprint for European engineers
- Best tech companies by city in Europe
- Top 20 cities for software engineers
For comprehensive salary data and job listings, explore our financial data page and job board.
Conclusion
Today it was a long article. I hope I didn't bore y'all and that you found it interesting!
Remember: while I provide paid options, I will keep providing value for free on this newsletter and on my LinkedIn.
The more time passes, the more I will be able to provide more sophisticated, accessible and structured ways to help y'all.
I hope you'll stick around and that together we'll all get where we want in life and in our career!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of the 3 career paths is best for me?
Choose Big Tech Europe if:
- You want career growth to €200k-€300k+ over time
- You value brand recognition on your CV (Google, Meta, Amazon)
- You're willing to prepare 3-6 months for interviews
- You want cutting-edge tech experience
- You don't mind some RTO (return to office) policies
Choose Switzerland/HCOL if:
- You want the fastest, easiest path to €100k
- You're risk-averse and want straightforward career progression
- You have EU citizenship (easier to relocate)
- You don't want intense interview prep
- You're okay with higher cost of living
Choose Remote LCLT if:
- You want maximum savings rate (60-85%)
- You value location freedom and flexibility
- You have 3-5 years experience (easier to get remote roles)
- You're comfortable with B2B/contractor status
- You want baller lifestyle with high purchasing power
Reality: You can also combine them strategically (e.g., start in Switzerland 2-3 years, then transition to remote LCLT).
Can I really save €80k/year with a €120k remote job in Poland?
Yes, here's the exact breakdown:
| Category | Amount | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Gross income | €120,000 | Remote job for US/EU company |
| Tax (IP Box) | -€6,000 | 5% tax on software income |
| Social contributions | -€10,000 | 8.3% (includes healthcare) |
| After tax | €104,000 | 87% take-home rate |
| Living costs | -€25,000 | Comfortable lifestyle (breakdown below) |
| Annual savings | €79,000 | 66% savings rate |
Living costs breakdown (€25k/year, Warsaw):
- Rent (2-bedroom, nice area): €1,000/month (€12k/year)
- Food & groceries: €400/month (€4.8k/year)
- Utilities: €150/month (€1.8k/year)
- Transportation: €100/month (€1.2k/year)
- Entertainment/dining: €300/month (€3.6k/year)
- Misc/buffer: €150/month (€1.8k/year)
This is a comfortable upper-middle-class lifestyle, not extreme frugality. You could save even more by living more frugally or moving to cheaper Polish cities.
How hard is it to get a remote €100k+ job?
Realistic timeline: 6-12 months of focused effort for mid-level+ engineers.
What you need:
- 3-5 years experience (junior remote jobs are rare)
- Strong portfolio/GitHub (prove you can work independently)
- Good communication skills (written English crucial for remote)
- Solid technical skills (pass remote interviews)
- Patience (apply to 50-100 companies → 5-10 interviews → 1-2 offers)
Where to find them:
- Remote-first companies (GitLab, Automattic, Datadog)
- US startups (Series B-D, use AngelList, Wellfound)
- EU scale-ups (Bolt, N26, Klarna, Revolut)
- Consulting platforms (Toptal, Gun.io, X-Team)
- Get hired on-site, negotiate remote after 12-18 months
Easier path: Get €70k-€90k remote role first, grow into €100k+ over 2-3 years with job hopping.
See our remote job strategies guide for detailed tactics.
What's the biggest risk with the Remote LCLT path?
Risk #1: Losing your remote job
Mitigation:
- Save €50k-€100k before relocating (1-2 years buffer)
- LCLT countries have growing local tech scenes (Poland: €60k-€100k local jobs)
- Cost of living so low that even €50k local salary = comfortable life
- Skills you build are transferable (find new remote or local job)
Risk #2: Tax law changes
Mitigation:
- Choose countries with stable tax policies (Poland IP Box: 10+ years)
- Don't optimize for the absolute lowest (Georgia 1% could change)
- Balance tax optimization with stability (Poland, Romania, Cyprus safer)
- Work with local tax advisor (€600-€1,200/year)
Risk #3: Loneliness/isolation
Mitigation:
- Work from coworking spaces (€100-€300/month, built-in community)
- Join expat communities (active in Warsaw, Bucharest, Tbilisi)
- Visit home country quarterly (cheap flights within Europe)
- Choose cities with large digital nomad scenes
Reality: Most people who try this path succeed and don't want to go back to HCOL.
Can I do Big Tech Europe AND Remote LCLT?
Yes, and this is actually a smart strategy many people use:
Path 1: Big Tech → Remote in LCLT (Easiest)
- Join big tech in any European city (Zurich, London, Amsterdam, Berlin)
- Work on-site 12-18 months, prove yourself
- Negotiate full-time remote (60-70% success rate for good performers)
- Move to LCLT country while keeping big tech comp
- Enjoy big tech salary (€130k-€220k) with LCLT taxes/costs
Example: Google L4 in Amsterdam (€120k) → Go remote → Move to Poland
- Before: €120k income, €48k living costs, €30k taxes = €42k savings (35%)
- After: €120k income, €25k living costs, €15k taxes = €80k savings (67%)
Path 2: LCLT → Big Tech (Harder but possible)
- Live in LCLT with remote job (save €70k-€85k/year)
- Prep for big tech interviews (3-6 months)
- Join big tech remotely or relocate temporarily
- Eventually negotiate back to remote in LCLT
Reality: Some big tech companies allow full remote (especially after COVID), others require hybrid. Research company policies before joining.
See our big tech companies guide for remote-friendly companies.
Is the remote LCLT path sustainable long-term (10+ years)?
Yes, but with considerations:
Career sustainability:
- ✅ Skills development: Same as on-site (you ship code remotely)
- ✅ Salary growth: Job hopping works great remotely (more options)
- ✅ Network: Remote networking works (Twitter, LinkedIn, conferences)
- ⚠️ Management: Harder to reach management remotely (IC path better)
Financial sustainability:
- ✅ Savings: €70k-€85k/year → €700k-€850k in 10 years
- ✅ Compound growth: Invest savings → €1M-€1.5M with 7% returns
- ✅ Real estate: Buy property in LCLT (€100k-€200k) → paid off
- ✅ Retirement: Your €1M+ portfolio beats any pension
Lifestyle sustainability:
- ✅ Most people love it (better QoL than HCOL)
- ✅ Can change countries if bored (Nomad Friendly)
- ⚠️ Family: Works great for families (affordable, good schools)
- ⚠️ Aging parents: Might want to be closer (visit more often)
Tax sustainability:
- ✅ Poland IP Box: 10+ years stable, government supports
- ✅ Cyprus: Very stable (20+ years, EU member)
- ⚠️ Georgia: Newer program (5 years), could change but unlikely
- ⚠️ Always have backup plan (multiple countries you'd be happy in)
10-year outcome example:
- Age 25-35: Save €800k working remotely from Poland
- Age 35: Either continue (you love it) or move to dream location with €800k net worth
- Either way, you're financially secure and have options
Bottom line: Very sustainable for IC (individual contributor) career path focused on wealth building and freedom. Less ideal if you want to climb corporate ladder to VP/C-suite.