How Tech Seniority Levels Compare Across Regions

The Five-Level Framework

We use a five-level seniority framework to normalize tech roles across geographies. This is not gospel; every company and market has its quirks. But for salary benchmarking, these five levels capture the compensation bands that matter across the global tech industry.

Title Mapping by Region

The table below shows how job titles map to our seniority levels in major tech markets. Where a title doesn’t exist in a market, we show the closest functional equivalent.

Regional Nuances

United Kingdom: "Head of" is the new "VP"

British companies strongly prefer "Head of Engineering" over "VP of Engineering." The VP title sounds too American and is mostly used by US-headquartered companies with UK offices. A "Head of Engineering" at a UK scale-up typically has the same scope and pay as a VP of Engineering at a comparable US company. We treat UK "Head of" titles as Level 2 equivalents when benchmarking.

Germany: Technischer Leiter vs IT-Leiter

German companies draw a line between Technischer Leiter (Technical Lead, more product/engineering) and IT-Leiter (IT Lead, more infrastructure/operations). Both are Level 3 in our framework, but pay can differ by 15-20% depending on the company. The Bereichsleiter (Division Head) at Level 2 is common in larger German enterprises and Mittelstand companies. "VP" titles are showing up more in German startups and international companies.

France: DSI, the French CIO

The DSI (Directeur des Systèmes d’Information) is the French equivalent of the CIO, covering IT strategy, infrastructure, and digital transformation. The Directeur Technique is closer to the CTO, with more hands-on technical oversight. The Responsable Technique sits at Level 3: a technical manager between development teams and senior leadership. French companies tend to have more formal hierarchies than Anglo-Saxon ones.

Israel: VP R&D is the standard

In Israeli tech, "VP R&D" is the standard title for what other markets call VP of Engineering. This reflects Israel’s deep R&D culture, where engineering leadership is expected to drive product innovation, not just execution. The VP R&D typically owns product engineering, research initiatives, and the technical roadmap. Many Israeli companies also use US titles when operating internationally, which creates dual-title situations.

India: AVP and the bank hierarchy

India’s tech industry has two distinct title systems. Product companies (Flipkart, Zomato, Razorpay) use US-style titles: Staff Engineer, Engineering Manager, Director. Banks and fintech use the AVP (Assistant Vice President) title at Level 3-4, which gets confusing when benchmarking against product companies. An AVP at a major Indian bank is roughly equivalent to a Director of Engineering at a product company. Pay at top product companies (Google India, Microsoft India) can be 3-5x the market average.

Nordics: Flat hierarchies, fewer VP titles

Scandinavian companies run with notably flat structures. VP titles are rare outside of companies with US parents. "Head of Engineering" is the standard senior leadership title, and many companies have only three real levels: Head/Director, Lead, and Engineer. This means Nordic Level 2 roles are broader than their US equivalents; a Nordic Head of Engineering often does the combined work of a US VP of Engineering and Director. Pay is high but so are taxes (45-55% marginal rates), so take-home comparisons need tax-adjusted analysis.

Middle East: Housing and tax-free packages

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have zero income tax, which makes gross-to-gross salary comparisons misleading. A CTO earning 750,000 AED (~$204,000) in Dubai takes home more than a CTO earning $300,000 in San Francisco after California state and federal taxes. On top of that, senior Gulf roles often include housing allowances (30-50% of base), schooling allowances, annual flights home, and end-of-service gratuity. None of that shows up in base salary figures. Our data shows the posted salary band, not the full package value.

Eastern Europe: Team Lead is the pivot point

In Poland, Czech Republic, and Romania, "Team Lead" replaces "Engineering Manager" as the main people management title at Level 4. Team Leads in Eastern Europe are expected to be 50-70% hands-on coding, which is different from the US EM role (typically 0-20% hands-on). Director-level roles exist at larger companies and outsourcing firms, but the jump from Team Lead to Director often skips the VP level entirely at local companies. Eastern European salaries run 50-70% below Western European levels, which is exactly why the region has become a major nearshore hub.

How We Use This Framework

When a job posting enters our database, we map it to a seniority level using title matching and heuristics. Titles like "CTO" and "VP Engineering" map directly. Localized titles (Technischer Leiter, DSI, Gerente de Engenharia) go through our title_mappings table, which currently covers 109 title patterns across English, German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

When a title is ambiguous ("Director" can mean Level 2 in some European markets and Level 3 in the US), we look at the job description, company size, and market context. A "Director" at a 50-person German startup is probably Level 2 (VP equivalent), while a "Director" at a 10,000-person US enterprise is Level 3.

This framework is imperfect on purpose. No five-level system captures the full complexity of global tech hierarchies. But it gives a consistent basis for salary comparison that works better than raw title matching and is more accessible than a 20-level FAANG ladder. We refine the mappings as we get more data from regional job markets.

← All salary guides