in the UK, junior is £20-40k, mid-level is around £40-60k, lead can be around £60-100k. Very rough numbers, and adjust upwards slightly for London. The big money is in contracting in the UK, which would be our accessible FAANG-equivalent.
Either contracting, or alternatively, consulting. Companies like Cambridge Consulting and et al (please correct me if I'm wrong, I only know this through word of mouth) earn more in line with our US counterparts supposedly.
Additionally, our country is much more focused on financial services. You can make 2-3x the average engineer salary there. The rest of the market seem content paying far below, and also content having an eternal manpower shortage as a result it seems. The vast majority of engineers I graduated with have ended up in sales engineer roles to be honest, where they can earn commission more in line with the salary they deserve at the cost of doing something they don't necessarily enjoy.
It baffles me that companies are quite content to pay a half decent tech recruiter 70-80k, but continue to offer jobs to the engineers they are trying to hire at nearly half that.
I wouldn't say more in line necessarily, unless you work at the big banks in a profit center. Contractors can make anywhere from £300 to about £750 a day unless they land on an extremely profitable niche, which is great money for the UK but not the kind of insane rates SV engineers can get. Of course, cost of living is lower too, especially up north where I am.
typically niches are found or created, rather than listed on job searches. If you're already a contract software engineer, the most accessible 'niche' would be contract/interim CTO positions. Beyond that, specific expertise or contacts in specific industries would be the way forwards; at this point it's not a matter of applying for jobs, but creating opportunities.
[edit] forgot to mention contract (cloud) architects and project managers. They can make a lot, too.
"The rest of the market seem content paying far below, and also content having an eternal manpower shortage as a result it seems"
And also nobody hears about them outside M25. Outside M25 and it looks like salaries in Poland or Estonia seem to be identical. Never really understood it..
