Tech interviews in Belgium: pay, notice periods, and what's different

1. What tech roles pay in Belgium (€)

A senior software engineer in Belgium typically earns from the mid five figures up to just under six figures gross per year, with wide variation by employer type and city.

• Local scale-ups and mid-size firms: levels.fyi puts senior software engineer pay at roughly 55,000 to 80,000 EUR gross, with Brussels clustering a little lower and Antwerp and Leuven higher at the top end.
• Big tech and EU-facing employers: The best-paying product companies and international employers push total comp higher; TechPays, now part of levels.fyi, reports a senior average near 98,000 EUR total comp.
• Consultancies and IT services: A similar base band, usually topped up with Belgian extras like meal vouchers, a company car and an end-of-year bonus, which soften the tax hit.

Belgium has one of Western Europe's largest gaps between gross and net pay. After social security and municipal surcharges, take-home often lands near 55 to 60 percent of gross, which is why benefits in kind are so common.

2. Job security and notice periods in Belgium

Employees gain real protection after six months of service: they can demand the reasons for a dismissal in writing and claim an indemnity of 3 to 17 weeks of pay for a manifestly unreasonable one. There is no US-style at-will employment.

Notice is statutory and scales with how long you have been with the employer. It starts at one week under three months of service and climbs steeply with tenure, reaching well over a year at the top before a 2026 reform capped newer indefinite contracts at 52 weeks.

• Employer notice starts at one week under three months of service and rises with seniority, historically past 60 weeks at 20-plus years; the 52-week cap applies to contracts starting from mid-2026.
• Employees who resign owe far less: notice is capped at 13 weeks once you pass eight years of service.
• Notice must be in writing by registered mail and starts the Monday after it is sent; an employer can also pay severance in lieu of working it out.

If you're looking while still employed, this matters even more. See how to interview while you're still employed.

3. Working culture and turnover in Belgium

Work-life balance is taken seriously, with consensus-driven teams and reasonable hours. Perks like meal vouchers, a company car and extra leave are common, partly to offset the high tax on salary.

Moderate. Long notice periods and strong protections make for stable tenures, though Brussels' international and EU-facing employers see more movement than local firms.

4. What's different about interviewing in Belgium

Loops are usually shorter than US big-tech gauntlets, often three to five stages over three to four weeks, mixing a recruiter screen, a practical technical test, and manager conversations.

• Expect a take-home or live coding test in the company's real stack rather than pure algorithm puzzles; Silverfin tests in Liquid, Collibra in React.
• Final rounds often include non-engineering voices: a product manager, a department head, or even the CEO at smaller firms.
• Timelines run about three to four weeks end to end, though banks and EU institutions can stretch to two months or more.

5. Who's hiring in Belgium, and what they pay

• Local scale-ups and product companies: Homegrown names like Odoo, Collibra, Silverfin, Deliverect, Aikido Security and the Ghent-based Team.blue group hire across Brussels, Ghent, Leuven and Wallonia.
• EU institutions and big tech: Brussels hosts the EU institutions, which recruit tech contract agents through EPSO and its CAST database, alongside international employers drawn by the EU-facing talent pool.
• Banks and consultancies: Belgian banks such as KBC and ING Belgium, plus the large IT-services and consultancy firms, run steady multi-stage hiring with HR screens, case interviews and manager rounds.

6. AI and the 2026 market in Belgium

AI is now the default: about two-thirds of the startups joining the Start it @KBC accelerator in 2026 are building AI products, and consultancies are acquiring AI specialists to close a widening skills gap.

For the shifts hitting every market this year, see what changed in tech interviews in 2026.

7. Language and the international scene in Belgium

Tech work splits by region: Dutch in Flanders, French in Wallonia, a small German-speaking community in the east, and both French and Dutch in Brussels. English is the working language at most international, EU-facing and startup employers, but public-sector and many local firms still expect the regional language.

Brussels draws an unusually international crowd thanks to the EU institutions, NATO and a deep expat community, while Ghent and Leuven anchor deeptech and life sciences. The ecosystem is compact but well funded, with a dozen-plus unicorns.

8. Working in Belgium: visas and right to work

Non-EU hires staying over 90 days need a single permit, which the employer applies for through the Working in Belgium platform as one combined work-and-residence request. Highly skilled roles with a degree above the regional salary threshold can use the EU Blue Card, which skips the labour-market test, and most senior IT salaries clear it.

9. How to prepare for a Belgium interview

The first thing to settle is language. In Flanders many teams work in Dutch, in Wallonia in French, and Brussels is officially bilingual, though international and EU-facing companies often run entirely in English. Ask early which language the role and the daily standups use. The tone leans modest and consensus-driven, so overt self-promotion can land badly, and interviewers reward clear reasoning and teamwork over bravado. If you are non-EU, expect early questions about your right to work and Blue Card eligibility.

How the loop actually runs shifts by employer. A few of Belgium's best-known names:

• Odoo: The open-source ERP company near Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia hires heavily in Python and JavaScript. Candidates report timed HackerRank coding rounds, a logic test and a personality questionnaire, then technical interviews covering data modelling, SQL and system design.
• Collibra: The Brussels-founded data-governance unicorn runs a recruiter screen, a live coding exercise in its real stack such as React, a deeper technical interview, then onsite conversations with a product manager and an engineering manager.
• Silverfin: The Ghent accounting-software firm uses an intensive but fast loop: an HR chat, a programming test in its Liquid templating language, then talks with a team lead, a specialist, the department manager and the CEO.
• Deliverect: The Ghent-based restaurant-integration scale-up screens first, then runs a technical interview with several team members, followed by calls with the VP of Engineering and the Head of Engineering.

These loops describe engineering hiring. Management and leadership candidates (Engineering Manager, Director, VP) meet a similar local process but a different bar, so pair this page with the leadership interview prep hub and your role guide.

Questions worth preparing for an interview in Belgium:

• Which languages do you speak, and are you comfortable working in Dutch or French as well as English?
• Are you an EU national, and if not, are you eligible for an EU Blue Card or a single permit?
• Why Belgium, and why this city in particular?
• Walk us through how you would model this domain with an ERD or UML.
• How do you approach code review and reaching consensus in a small team?

The role itself doesn't change at the border. A senior engineer is held to a senior engineer's bar wherever you are, so the substance of your prep comes from the role-by-role guides and the 2026 Tech Interview Report: the questions, the level, and the common mistakes for your exact role. This page is the local layer on top: pay in €, the right timeline, and a process that shifts with the company. It's also worth reading why strong candidates get rejected, since those mistakes travel everywhere. And wherever you interview, the prep that actually transfers is rehearsing out loud — run a mock interview before the real one.

Sources

• Levels.fyi, Senior Software Engineer, Belgium — senior SWE pay range in EUR gross plus the TechPays senior average.
• Notice period in Belgium, HR Legal — statutory employer and employee notice by seniority and the 2026 cap.
• Single permit, Belgian Immigration Office (IBZ) — official single-permit route for non-EU work; EU Blue Card thresholds.
• Glassdoor, Odoo interview questions in Belgium — HackerRank rounds, logic and personality tests, technical stages.
• Glassdoor, Collibra Software Engineer interview — recruiter screen, React live coding, technical and onsite PM/EM rounds.
• How we hire, Deliverect careers — official screen, technical interview and engineering-leadership calls.
• Glassdoor, working at Silverfin — the Liquid programming test and multi-stage loop through to the CEO.

Pay, notice, protection and visa details are sourced above. The notes on working culture, turnover and market trends reflect widely-reported conditions as of 2026, and are meant as a general read rather than precise figures.