(Editor’s note: This post on tech jobs in the UK is part of Dispatches’ Tech Tuesday series. We cover tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers, researchers and investors.)
Since Brexit ended freedom of movement for European Union citizens keen to try their luck in the United Kingdom, there has been an overall drop in EU citizens working in Britain. According to Revelio Labs workforce data research since 2016, there has been a decline of 4.7 percent in EU software engineers working in the UK. In the past 10 years, the number of non-EU workers filling vacancies across multiple industries, including tech, has increased, jumping from 13% of new positions in 2015 to 20.7% in 2024.
But what does this mean for expat tech job opportunities in the UK?
It’s smart to check out where the shortages, and therefore the vacancies, are. Farheen Akhtar, policy and engagement manager, UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy, outlined in a blog post for the Higher Education Policy Institute identified six key tech sectors with acute skills shortages in the UK:
- Advanced connectivity technologies
- AI
- Cyber security
- Engineering biology
- Quantum technologies
- Semiconductor industries
Where are UK tech companies investing?
According to tech recruiter Bristow Holland’s Lané Venter, UK organisations are still investing in cloud migration, cyber security, digital transformation, AI, automation, data platforms and modernisation programmes, all of which “require specialised expertise that cannot be easily replaced.” She says that cyber security is a clear example of this because AI-driven threats are becoming “more sophisticated and regulatory requirements continue to evolve, [so] more organisations require more security professionals rather than fewer.”
Venter adds that cloud engineering, DevOps, infrastructure automation, platform engineering and enterprise architecture “remain similarly important” to organisations:
“The challenge is not a lack of demand. Instead, demand continues to outpace the number of professionals actively looking for roles.”
Tech is such a broad industry and the job search net can be cast wider when you consider that there are tech roles across almost all industries and businesses. It’s not just technology companies that need technology expertise. For example, Tristan Palmer, director and co-founder, Exorde Labs, points out that consultancy firm Accenture has bought Faculty AI, “but you wouldn’t think of Accenture as a tech company.”
As the UK tries to play catch-up with training in these sectors, overseas hires will be required for the foreseeable future, so these are the jobs where you’re more likely to find employers willing to sponsor visas.
Types of visa for tech professionals
Next, it’s worth researching the different types of visa that will enable tech professionals to work legally in the UK. Jobseekers who do not have a British partner/spouse or other family ties that make them eligible for residency or citizenship, will need to consider their immigration options.
- The five-year Global Talent visa has been created with the intention of attracting more digital technology professionals to the UK, it requires the applicant to be endorsed as a leader in their field, and it allows people to bring their families with them.
- For positions that pay an annual salary of at least £41,700, the Skilled Worker visa can be an option. Many technology jobs are considered appropriate under this scheme.
- If you have a confirmed job offer for an approved scale-up business and the job is for at least six months, the Scale-up Worker visa is another option, as the UK seeks to encourage smaller enterprises to grow.
Who is leading the search for non-UK employees
Sophie Njagi, CEO, EQWIRE, an electronic money institution (EMI), says she has looked beyond the UK’s borders for fresh talent.
“We are a young EMI, very much still in build mode – we went overseas because the expertise we needed, such as cross-border payments, safeguarding and compliance, doesn’t sit in one country,” she says. “You can’t train that up fast enough from scratch when you’re a young, regulated business racing against time, so instead of hiring cheap, we hired for people who’d already lived through regulation like ours somewhere else – Cyprus, wider EU, Hong Kong rather than starting someone from zero here in the UK.”
But this means that while EQWIRE is a UK-based company, the whole team is not working exclusively from Britain. This is not uncommon in the technology industry, especially as the industry has been a natural leader in remote working, developing the very solutions that make borderless companies possible. For some tech industry jobseekers, a position with a British company may not necessarily mean the opportunity to live full-time in the UK.
Palmer agrees: “I’ve been involved in startups for years and most recently, I was in a cybersecurity startup called Elementa back in 2019, then through COVID, pretty much everyone was fully remote. Even then, the CEO was often in Greece or in Amsterdam, and everyone worked at home.”
In his current role at Exorde, there are team members based in the UK, Lyon, the Czech Republic and Rhode Island: “We simply don’t consider borders anymore.”
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Read more about the tech opportunity in London here.
See more from Georgia here.
Georgia Lewis
Georgia Lewis is an Australian expat who spent five years living in the United Arab Emirates before moving to London in 2011. She is a freelance writer and editor. When she's not writing or editing, she loves cooking, trying new restaurants, going to the theatre and travelling. Her favourite destinations are the Greek islands, Mallorca, Oman and Vietnam.
