Coined in 2013 by a host of an American financial TV show, the acronym FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) was initially meant to designate the 5 companies with the strongest stock market appreciation in the USA. However, the meaning of this abbreviation became different for techies, who often use it to describe the most sought-after tech employers.
Working for a FAANG company means competitive compensations, challenging projects, and extra benefits (such as education and healthcare coverage), as well as extended opportunities for networking and career development. So, it's no wonder that for many engineers getting an offer from a FAANG company is a major achievement. The cherry on top, although all of the 5 companies are headquartered in the USA, engineers from Europe or Asia don't have to relocate to another continent to land an IT job at a FAANG company. All of them have a broad network of offices in Europe with plenty of software engineering jobs offered continually. In fact, due to the complicated visa application process in the United States, FAANG jobs in Europe seem even more attractive to most engineers than comparable jobs in the US.
In this article, we gathered all the information about FAANG jobs in Europe so that you could see where your technology stack would be the most valuable and maybe even find a life-changing job opportunity!
Countries: Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Denmark (data center), Sweden (data center)
Relocation package: Lump sum payment, services of a moving company, car/home rental assistance, flight coverage, temporary housing, health insurance, networking events
Most common projects: Facebook core, WhatsApp, Instagram, AR/VR (Oculus, Portal)
Working on online products used by 3 billion people worldwide sounds like a notable career advancement for everyone. But for Facebook employees, it's the everyday reality. The company is constantly hiring tech talent to develop and maintain all the Facebook.com features, as well as other world-famous projects like WhatsApp, Instagram, or Portal (the smart video calling app). In addition to top-notch projects, Facebook employees also point out the smooth onboarding process, rewarding compensations, ability to switch between teams or projects quite easily, and friendly atmosphere in the company.
Facebook is always welcoming Android and iOS engineers, AI/ML engineers, network engineers, and Python/C++ developers (for AR/VR projects). Moreover, Facebook's technology stack also includes PHP, Ruby, C#, and Java. If any of these skills are present in your resume, you may certainly become a new member of the Facebook team!
Eager to learn more about tech jobs at Facebook? Follow this link.
Countries: Germany, the UK, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Poland, Romania, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden
Relocation package: One-time payment or relocation package (travel costs coverage, home and car rental for a couple of months, a small cash bonus)
Most common projects: Amazon marketplace, AWS, Alexa
What started as a book and music selling marketplace in 1994, became one of the world's top tech employers in 2021. With around 1M+ employees in its offices worldwide, Amazon offers plenty of jobs in Europe for software engineers, machine learning professionals, and cloud experts, as well as embedded engineers and data scientists. Judging from multiple reviews, among the things Amazonians truly value are the challenging projects, being surrounded by smart and driven people, competitive compensations, and unlimited room for growth. Hence, it's no wonder that Amazon took the 2nd position in Forbes' annual list of the world's best employers in 2020.
Does this sound like a dream spot for you? Discover more about Amazon tech jobs in Europe in this article.
Countries: Ireland, Germany, the UK, Spain, Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Czechia, Sweden
Relocation package: Lump sum payment + moving assistance
Most common projects: Siri, Hardware, iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV
Apple's working policy is probably the most secretive among all the FAANG companies. It is prohibited for most employees to discuss work-related stuff, even with their families! However, that doesn't make Apple less popular with hardware and software engineers who are looking for new opportunities. On the contrary, the company is highly valued by its employees, thanks to excellent internal communication, decent base pay, amazing benefits & friendly co-workers.
If you have extensive knowledge of Python (both for Machine Learning and Backend Development), Java, JavaScript (Angular, Node, Express), C/C++ (mostly for hardware-related applications), and/or Objective-C, the chances are high that you will find a suitable job at Apple. Head this way to read more about tech jobs at Apple's European offices.
Countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, France
Although Netflix has its offices in the 5 above-mentioned European countries, for some reason, there are no available tech jobs at the company's European offices right now. Hopefully, they will appear soon since Netflix is known for its upbeat and creative working environment, plenty of opportunities for learning, and open communication. So, if you're committed to building your career at one of the FAANG companies, browsing jobs at Netflix from time to time might be rewarding, especially if working at a large-scale company with a startup atmosphere is something you're looking for.
Countries: Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Czechia, Romania, Greece, Hungary
Relocation package: Lump sum payment or relocation package (travel and moving expenses coverage, temporary housing, car rental, visa assistance, pet relocation, the assistance of a moving company)
Most common projects: Google Search App, Google Cloud, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Chrome, YouTube Technology Services, Google Meet
Among all the FAANG companies, Google is present in the biggest number of European countries; therefore, the variety of projects it offers to Europe-based teams is impressive. Add to this multiple perks that can hardly be found elsewhere (such as high-quality educational programs, healthcare coverage, and free lunches), and you will get a top-notch employer that is annually listed on the top positions of Glassdoor’s and Fortune’s ratings of the best places to work.
You might be one step from becoming a Googler if you're a passionate Java, C++, Python, or Go engineer, data scientist, or machine learning engineer with expert knowledge of NLP and/or Speech/Audio/Video processing. However, Google also offers technology-agnostic positions. This guide will help you find a vacancy at Google Europe that is fit for you.
Hopefully, this article was helpful, and you managed to choose some jobs at FAANG companies to apply to. Good luck with applying and the relocation process!
By the way, if you feel like you need some preparation before getting a resume done, passing an interview, or negotiating a relocation package, the tips and tricks in this knowledge base might come in handy.
Kate is a seasoned content writer with an IT background and a passion for all things Data Science. Since 2018, she’s crafted more than a dozen data-driven and research-based articles on tech job search-related topics, many of which reached the top position on Reddit, Hacker News, and Towards Data Science.
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