Know you want a career in technology but don’t yet know where to base yourself?
In our list of the best cities for tech jobs, we take you on a quick tour around the world to highlight the obvious IT towns and the rising stars.
While the coronavirus crisis has upended just about every industry in every location, the tech hubs below are certain to survive and thrive if and when we return to normal.
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But first—
What Makes a GREAT Tech City?
From Bengaluru to Beijing to Bogotá to the Bay Area and beyond, there’s no specific metric that makes these choices the “best cities for tech jobs.”
So, how did we decide?
Well, our top tech cities have multiple things going for them:
- They may be international cities with the most tech jobs;
- These IT towns offer an environment conducive to jobs in technology;
- They span the entire tech spectrum, from dev to cyber security to QA and more;
- Prestigious universities; particularly with top-tier IT programs, call it home;
- Great public transportation options and share services;
- World-renowned brands, startups, and agencies are already based there;
To help validate our picks, we also list each city’s Savills Tech Cities Tier, a ranking which groups the best technology cities into three tiers:
- Tech Megacities – “Global connectivity, complementary industries and a deep talent pool make Tech Megacities highly attractive to both scaling and established companies.”
- Tech Lifestyle Cities – “Tech Lifestyle Cities offer city living on a smaller footprint. This means shorter journeys for work and play, without sacrificing the buzz of a larger urban center.”
- Rising Global Tech Contenders – “Rising Global Tech Contenders are the tech cities to watch. Economic growth in these cities is being fuelled by burgeoning tech sectors.”
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Okay, enough explaining!
Here they are, the best cities for tech jobs around the world:
The Best Cities for Tech Jobs
1. San Francisco / Silicon Valley, US
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Megacity
It feels like old news to keep adding San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Silicon Valley in general to a list of the best tech cities. But, as you probably know, there’s a reason it’s on every list, and usually at the #1 spot.
Some of the largest tech companies call this area home, and I’m talking HQ home: Facebook, Apple, Google, Tesla, Intel, EA, Netflix, Robinhood, Airbnb, Uber, and dozens of others—and those are just the tech unicorns. If you count every company related to tech in every industry (e.g., aerospace, communications, biotechnology), the list would be nearly endless.
On top of the limitless choices for tech workers, the San Francisco Bay Area is home to some of the world’s foremost tech universities, including Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, and University of California San Francisco.
2. New York City, US
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Megacity
New York City has been #2 according to most surveys ranking the best cities for IT jobs in the world, but many see it as #1. In 2019, NYC, often nicknamed “Silicon Alley,” surpassed San Francisco on the Savills index, and KPMG’s annual Global Technology Industry Innovation Survey shows NYC to be most likely the top tech hub by 2023.
There are a bunch of reasons why New York is one of the best places to work in the tech industry. For one, thanks to the powerful VC ecosystem, plenty of startups get the funding they need to grow. According to Startup Genome, “New York City boasts the highest number of AI and machine learning positions in a single metro area.” It’s also the best city for tech jobs in the life sciences, “New York City has nine academic medical centers, 50+ hospitals, and 100+ research foundations.”
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3. London, UK
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Megacity
If you have an interest in fintech jobs, you really can’t beat London. With Revolut, Transferwise, Starling, Monzo, and others based in the UK capital, London has secured the title of the best city for fintech jobs.
But, financial technology is not all the tech this grand city has to offer, of course. The startup scene in London rivals that of New York City, tying for second place in many rankings just behind Silicon Valley. Edtech is another large industry in London, with over 500 such companies in the metropolitan area. And, with 40 higher education institutions and more than 400,000 university students, London looks only to have brighter days ahead.
4. Tel Aviv, IL
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Lifestyle City
After Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv has the most startups in the world per capita. Some big names founded in and around the Israel’s finance and tech hub include Monday.com, Wix, Appsflyer, and Arbe Robotics. It’s a great place to be for a career in artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, analytics, and cybersecurity, and it was even the first country in the world to offer a PhD in cybersecurity!
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5. Melbourne, AU
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Lifestyle City
Melbourne might not be the largest city in Australia (that’s Sydney) nor its capital (Canberra), but it can definitely claim to be the tech hub of Australia. As the seat of the state of Victoria, Melbourne’s LaunchVic gives local businesses an edge by providing a dedicated startup entity to provide companies with support, access to investors, and talent. While it’s a great city for jobs in technology across the IT spectrum, those seeking a career in the life sciences sector have a significant benefit, as “it is only one of three cities in the world to have two top 20 universities in the global biomedical rankings,” according to Startup Genome.
6. Beijing, CN
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Megacity
Though it surely has plenty of competition both at home and abroad, Beijing may just be the best city in the world for technology careers. For one, it has the two highest-ranked universities in the Asia Pacific region, Tsinghua University and Peking University, and a whopping 91 universities within the city limits altogether. As the capital of China with over 21 million people, it has it all, from infrastructure to transportation to culture—a perfect mix for supporting the wants and needs of young tech workers (just ask any of its 200,000 annual college graduates!). With homegrown names like Baidu, DiDi, Xiaomi, and JD, it definitely has technological success in its DNA.
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7. Tallinn, EE
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Rising Global Tech Contender
For those who want a quieter pace of life than the bustling cities above, Estonia’s capital city Tallinn makes a great place to work for cybersecurity professionals and IT experts. In all of Europe, no other city boasts more startups per capita than this city, which also happens to be the home of the European Union’s IT agency. And, with its ambitious, futuristic initiatives such as E-Residency, Tallinn punches well above its weight.
8. Berlin, DE
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Lifestyle City
Germany’s capital city Berlin is a perfect place for students and young professionals in any field, with its culture, relatively low costs, transportation, nightlife, and infrastructure, but especially for those in information technology jobs. You can find fintech jobs (e.g., N26, SumUp), media technology (e.g., SoundCloud), software (e.g., SAP), and even food startups (e.g., HelloFresh). Nico Gramenz, CEO of Factory Berlin, says, “Berlin has organically grown into the European hub for IoT and Blockchain, where tech talent and industry giants jointly solve problems to drive technological and economic growth.”
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9. Bengaluru, IN
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Tech Megacity
Bengaluru (Bangalore) is a city in southern India with the population of London. And, like London, it also is a hotbed of tech activity. This city is a great place for jobs in IT, especially at world-renowned companies; Bengaluru is home to such names as Infosys, Mindtree, Tata Elxsi,
Wipro, and plenty of others.
10. Cape Town, ZA
Savills Tech Cities Tier: Rising Global Tech Contender
Rounding out our top 10 cities for tech jobs is Cape Town, South Africa’s legislative capital and its second largest city. No other place in Africa has the mixture of tech talent, startups, universities, and infrastructure, and Cape Town is home to tech companies both homegrown and multinational, including Amazon, Vodacom, Deloitte, KPMG, Media24, and PwC.
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Well, that’s our list of the best cities for tech jobs and careers in IT for now, and we hope it gives you some ideas for where you’d like to be based (or at least some travel options!). Got any questions, feedback, or other great tech cities to add to our list? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!