Europe presents an increasingly complex tech talent landscape. The continent boasts a growing pool of engineers, but talent is more geographically dispersed than ever. Sequoia has prepared Sequoia Atlas, an interactive tool highlighting 24 cities with outlier talent density across 14 engineering skill areas, and providing insight into tech talents across Europe. AIN.Capital shares the key points.
- Hybrid work became the new norm for the tech specialists. 31% of companies operate remotely, and 59% in the survey have permanent distributed teams, while nearly two-thirds anticipate more remote employees in the coming years. Front-end is the most outsourced specialty, hitting 71%.
- With a concentration of talent and innovative policies, Europe is positioning itself as a global leader in AI technologies. However, tech giants usually dominate the AI field, with Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and IBM taking the lead at AI-specialized talent pool.
- Because of the hybrid work, salaries are converging across Europe. However, the Eastern Europe can still feel unsatisfied with the cost of living, as over half of the surveyed specialists answered.
Tech ecosystems
Europe is home to a rich supply of engineering talent across a range of tech hubs. Its major cities are home to a total of 2.6 million tech engineers working in various fields. London is still a leading hub, grabbing almost 10% share of the talent. Budapest is sitting on 1.46% share with 39,361 engineers and Warsaw — 1.18% with 31,950 tech specialists. Other CEE ecosystems include:
- Bucharest, Romania is an emerging tech hub having a relatively low cost of living, low taxes, and high proportion of female tech (21%). The tech ecosystem is worth €2.8 billion with over 21,800 mostly Front-End engineers operating within its borders.
- Helsinki, Finland, is an ecosystem that has a long-standing tradition of design and technology innovation. With one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, it employs more than 28,900 engineers, generating an ecosystem worth of €38.4 billion. Helsinki also has the biggest percentage of Graphics & Gaming specialists in Europe.
- Krakow, Poland, is poised to become a tech powerhouse. The country’s second-largest city has over 29,300 tech engineers, primarily Application Developers, who make up a total value of €9.1 billion. Motorola Solutions and EPAM Systems are the major employers here.
- Prague, Czechia, is a hub of hypermodern tech startups. The ecosystem is worth €20.6 billion, with over 892 startups housing 28,000 engineers specializing in Databases.
- Tallinn, Estonia, is the Baltic hotbed for innovation and young talent. The ecosystem has numerous startups, reaching 1,136 which are worth €14 billion. The 4,400 tech engineers here primarily specialize in Front-End Frameworks.
- Vilnius, Lithuania is a magnet for startups, business hubs, and accelerators. The region employs more than 3,800 tech specialists, mainly in Front-End, making up a total of €9.3 million.
Ukrainian talent pool
In Ukraine, a country renowned for tech talent, engineers have found ways to keep working despite the war, with 85% of developers managing to keep working full-time. According to the survey, only 16% of tech companies lost more than 10% of their customers and just 2% of Ukrainian IT companies were forced to shut down. In 2022, the country’s IT industry yielded 5.8% more in export revenues than in 2021. And approximately 60% of tech employees continue to work within Ukrainian borders.
