Dublin Tech Salary Report: H2 2026

Dublin's H2 2026 senior salaries moved up modestly from the Q2 2026 baseline. SaaS, fintech and medtech employers remain the most active sourcers, and Cork and Galway are increasingly used as lower-cost regional hubs for the same roles rather than as a separate, lower-paying market. The Critical Skills Employment Permit remains the primary sponsorship route for non-EEA hires, and housing availability in Dublin continues to be the main practical obstacle for relocating candidates rather than salary itself.

Growth from Q2 2026 to H2 2026 has been in the single digits across most roles, consistent with a market that is firm but not overheated. A Senior Software Engineer (Full Stack) in Dublin moved from a Q2 2026 senior range of roughly €85,000–€105,000 to an H2 2026 range of €85,000–€108,000. Cybersecurity Architect and Head of Data / AI have grown somewhat faster, reflecting continued scarcity of those skill sets.

Ireland's Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP) carries two salary thresholds in 2026: €40,904 for roles on the Critical Skills Occupations List where the applicant holds a relevant degree or equivalent qualification, and €68,911 for eligible roles where no relevant degree is held. Only base salary counts toward the threshold; bonus, equity and RSUs are excluded, which is the most common reason otherwise well-paid offers still fail to qualify. Processing volumes through H2 2026 remain concentrated in SaaS, fintech and medtech roles based in and around Dublin.

For relocating and sponsored candidates, yes. Dublin's rental market remains tight relative to the volume of incoming sponsored and relocating hires, and candidates weighing a Dublin offer against a comparable UK or continental European package increasingly factor housing availability into the decision alongside the headline salary figure. Employers who help with relocation logistics or temporary accommodation report smoother offer acceptance than those who leave candidates to navigate the rental market alone.

Retention risk in H2 2026 is concentrated in three niches: AI, platform engineering and cybersecurity, where a competing offer can arrive with little warning. The most effective response is proactive, not reactive: benchmarking pay against current market data (not last year's figures) before a resignation letter appears, and being explicit with employees about career progression and scope rather than relying on counter-offers after the fact. Return-to-office policy is a comparatively lower-heat retention factor in Ireland than in the UK, but employers pushing hardest on in-office attendance still see it show up in attrition among senior engineers.

Increasingly, no. Employers are moving away from applying an automatic regional discount to Cork and Galway roles, particularly for platform, security and senior engineering positions that can be run remotely from either city. The two cities are being treated as genuine engineering hubs benchmarked against the same Dublin salary bands rather than as lower-paying satellites, a shift that has accelerated through H2 2026.

EU AI Act compliance work. Dublin hosts the EU headquarters of a large share of the US tech multinationals subject to the Act's phased 2026-2027 obligations, and those entities need people who can pair model development experience with governance, technical documentation and conformity-assessment capability. That combination is scarce, which is pulling Head of Data / AI compensation up faster than any other role in this report.

Yes, those three sectors remain the most active sourcers through H2 2026 and account for the bulk of Critical Skills Employment Permit sponsorship volume. SaaS and fintech drive the broadest permanent hiring, while medtech's growth is concentrated in senior and specialist roles tied to regulated product development.