The Tech Hiring Reality Check

Current Market Data (Updated Monthly)

Salary Ranges by Engineering Role (Dublin, October 2025)

• Junior Engineer (0-2 years): €31,000 - €50,000
• Mid-Level Engineer (3-5 years): €55,000 - €75,000
• Senior Engineer (5-8 years): €80,000 - €120,000
• Staff/Principal Engineer (8+ years): €120,000 - €150,000
• Engineering Manager: €90,000 - €130,000
• Head of Engineering: €120,000 - €180,000

Time-to-Hire Reality

• Average time from job post to accepted offer: 4-6 weeks
• Average time from first interview to offer: 2-3 weeks
• Candidate interview load: 3-5 concurrent processes
• Counter-offer rate: 40-50% (even higher for in-demand specialisations)

In-Demand Specialisations

• AI/ML Engineers: 383% increase in demand year-over-year
• Cybersecurity Engineers: Up to €130,000 for experienced professionals
• Python Developers: High demand across fintech and data science
• Green Tech/Sustainability Engineers: Emerging but growing rapidly
• Product Engineers: Increased demand for full-stack engineers who understand product

The Counter-Offer Reality

• 81% of professionals will seek alternative employment if they don't get a raise
• Average counter-offer: 15-20% above current salary
• Your offer needs to be compelling enough that they won't even entertain the counter

Visa Sponsorship Complexity

• Critical Skills Employment Permit: 2-3 months processing
• Certain roles pre-approved (software engineers included)
• Salary minimums apply (€34,000 generally, €30,000 for recent graduates)
• Increasingly common as Irish talent pool can't meet demand

What This Means for Your Hiring Strategy

Budget More Than You Think If you're hoping to hire a senior engineer for €75k, you're competing with one hand tied behind your back. Either increase the budget or get creative with equity, remote work, learning budgets, and other non-cash compensation.

Move Faster Than Comfortable If you need 4 rounds of interviews and 2 weeks to make a decision, you'll lose candidates to faster-moving companies. Compress your process. Make decisions with incomplete information. Get comfortable with some uncertainty.

Prepare for Counter-Offers Have your best offer ready at offer stage. Don't lowball and plan to negotiate up. When they get counter-offered, you want them thinking "Treqs' client is already offering me the best possible package" not "maybe I can squeeze more out of them."

Consider Non-Traditional Backgrounds The bootcamp graduate with 2 years of shipping product might be better than the CS grad with 4 years at a tech giant attending meetings. The self-taught engineer who contributes to open source might outperform the traditional candidate.