How to find English-speaking jobs abroad

Many companies in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and beyond run their teams in English. Engineering, data, product, and plenty of sales and support roles are posted in English because the team is international. The skill is telling an English-speaking team apart from an English posting for a job that needs the local language every day.

Where English-language hiring is common

• Ireland is English-speaking, and many international companies run their European offices from Dublin. See Software Engineer jobs in Ireland.
• The Netherlands, especially Amsterdam, has a large international workforce and many teams that work in English. See Software Engineer jobs in the Netherlands.
• Germany, especially Berlin, has many tech companies and startups that work in English. Munich and Hamburg are more mixed. See Software Engineer jobs in Germany.
• Spain and Portugal host international hubs in Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon, often for tech and multilingual customer support. See Spain and Portugal.
• Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania have large engineering and shared-service centers where English is the working language. See Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania.
• Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland have high English use in international companies. See Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland.
• Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates use English widely in business. See Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.

How to read the posting

• A posting written in English that never mentions another language usually means the team works in English.
• Read the requirements line by line. Fluent German or C1 Dutch is a requirement. Dutch is a plus is not.
• Customer-facing roles usually need the local language, because the customers speak it. The exception is a role that covers English-speaking markets, and the posting will say so.
• Multilingual support hubs hire for specific languages. If the posting asks for native-level French, it is a French role in a Lisbon office.
• Working language and daily life are different. You may not need German at work in Berlin and still want it for everything else.

Roles that most often run in English

Software engineering, data, machine learning, product, design, and research are the safest bets. Sales and support roles that cover several markets are common too. A few lists to start from: Backend Engineer jobs in Germany, Data Engineer jobs in the Netherlands, Product Manager jobs in Germany, Account Executive jobs in Germany, and Customer Support Representative jobs in Portugal.

Check the legal side early

EU citizens can generally work anywhere in the EU. Most other people need a work permit, which usually means an employer willing to support it. Read how to find jobs that sponsor visas before you build a long list, and check that a remote role is actually open to people in your country. Remote often still means one country.

A search setup that works

1. Pick two or three countries, not ten.
2. Pick your title and open the list for each country from jobs by title.
3. Skim the first paragraph and the requirements of each posting for a language line before you read the rest.
4. Skip postings written in the local language unless you speak it. The posting language is usually the working language.
5. Apply on the company's own career page, and keep each application specific to that country and team.