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

1. What tech roles pay in Spain (€)

Pay is in euros and on the lower side for Western Europe, offset by low costs. A senior software engineer:

• Spanish companies: roughly €55,000 to €75,000.
• US offices (Google, Amazon, Meta): €80,000 to €140,000+ in total pay, Google Madrid seniors clear €140,000.

The base numbers look low, but low living costs and the Beckham Law (a flat, reduced tax rate for qualifying new arrivals) change the real take-home a lot. Compare net pay against local costs.

2. Job security and notice periods in Spain

Moderate. Recent labour reforms pushed companies toward permanent contracts, and dismissal carries a real severance cost, but it's less rigid than France or Germany. Short notice periods keep the market fluid.

Spain has the shortest notice in Western Europe, usually 15 days to one month. That makes it the quickest market to move in.

• You can often start a new role within a month, so the whole search is faster.
• Most senior searches wrap up in six to ten weeks from first call to offer.
• The short notice cuts both ways, so there's less of a long-commitment feel than further north.

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 Spain

More relaxed in pace than the US or northern Europe, with a later daily schedule (lunch and dinner run late) and a strong social life outside work. Remote and hybrid setups are common, and the lifestyle is a genuine part of the pitch.

Moderate. The labour reform improved stability, but the fast, short-notice market still allows plenty of movement, especially among the international offices and startups.

4. What's different about interviewing in Spain

Spanish interviews are practical and less intense than the FAANG bar. International firms run in English; the scene in Barcelona and Madrid has grown fast.

• Practical exercises over heavy algorithm puzzles at most local firms.
• English is the working language at international companies and most scale-ups.
• A strong remote and hybrid culture, which widens your options.

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

• Barcelona: Glovo, Typeform, TravelPerk, plus many US offices. The bigger startup hub.
• Madrid: Cabify and a growing scene, plus Google, Amazon and Meta offices that pay top bands.

6. AI and the 2026 market in Spain

Spain isn't a primary AI research hub, but it's benefiting from the shift to remote and nearshore work, and AI roles are growing at the international offices in Barcelona and Madrid. With low costs and the tax breaks, it's an increasingly popular base for AI and platform engineers who work for companies elsewhere.

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

7. Language and the international scene in Spain

International firms and most Barcelona and Madrid startups work in English, so you can be hired without Spanish. Spanish helps a lot for local firms, daily life, and settling in.

Increasingly international, especially in Barcelona, and unusually welcoming to remote and relocating workers thanks to the digital-nomad visa and the Beckham Law tax break. English-friendly at international companies.

8. Working in Spain: visas and right to work

EU and EEA citizens work freely. For others, Spain has become unusually welcoming: a digital nomad visa and the Beckham Law tax regime are aimed squarely at attracting remote and relocating tech workers, which makes it one of the easier non-EU moves.

9. How to prepare for a Spain interview

Interviewing in Spain leans warmer and more relationship-led than the US or UK, and first-name informality comes quickly once you are in the room. Expect an early HR call that raises salary openly, so have a gross-annual number ready. English is the working language at multinational and cloud teams in Madrid and Barcelona, but Spanish still helps at homegrown scaleups and for day-to-day rapport. Loops run at a relaxed pace over several weeks, weigh cultural fit and values heavily, and often ask why Spain and about your relocation and long-term plans if you are coming from abroad.

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

• Amadeus: Travel-tech giant headquartered near Madrid. Recruiter screen, then an online coding test in Java, Python or SQL, followed by technical interviews with senior engineers on projects, OOP, design patterns and system design. Competency-based behavioural rounds and an HR values check round it out, often ending in an on-site day at the Madrid HQ with a business case.
• Glovo: Barcelona delivery scaleup running a FAANG-style loop. Recruiter screen touches basic data structures and complexity, then a coding interview on clean, efficient solutions, a whiteboard system and application design round, and a behavioural interview mapped to their values of ambition, care, positivity and ownership. They share a prep guide and give feedback after each stage.
• Typeform: Barcelona SaaS. Recruiter intro, then a practical technical round where you build a small app in about 90 minutes in an online IDE that mirrors their product rather than testing memorised LeetCode, followed by behavioural rounds with leadership and with product on motivation and collaboration.
• Factorial: Barcelona HR-software unicorn. Starts with an HR call covering experience, role expectations and salary, then a hiring-manager technical conversation. The core technical round gives a deliberately open prompt where you design and start building a system with heavy emphasis on communicating your reasoning, and closes with a call with the CTO on engineering strategy and product.

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 Spain:

• Why do you want to work in Spain, and what are your relocation and long-term plans here?
• What is your gross annual salary expectation in euros?
• Tell us about a time you handled conflict or a hard trade-off inside a team.
• Walk us through designing this system, thinking out loud as you go.
• Which of our company values resonates most with you and why?

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

• Software Engineer Salary in Spain 2026 — Madrid/Barcelona bands and the Beckham Law.
• Hiring engineers in Spain — short 15-day to one-month notice, employment rules, and fast time-to-hire.
• Amadeus careers, how we hire — official competency-based hiring stages.
• Glovo tech candidate journey — coding, system design and values rounds.
• Taro, Typeform Barcelona SWE interview — the practical build task plus behavioural rounds.
• Manfred, trimodal tech salaries in Spain — salary bands and open pay expectations.

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.