Valencia is one of Spain's main tech hubs outside Madrid and Barcelona, with 68,500 people working in information and communication across the Comunitat Valenciana in 2025, according to Eurostat. The city produces engineers through the Universitat Politècnica de València and a startup ecosystem that is strong in AI and software. Salaries for the same level sit below Madrid and Barcelona. To hire developers in Valencia, define the exact profile, set the salary band before the first call, choose office, hybrid or remote, and search beyond job boards.
What the Valencia tech talent pool is
The Valencia tech talent pool is the set of software engineers, data specialists and technical leaders who live and work in the city of Valencia and the wider Comunitat Valenciana, the region on Spain's east coast made up of the provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón. For an employer, it is the pool a company can hire from with an office in Valencia or with engineers working remotely from the region.
The Valencia pool is smaller than Madrid's or Barcelona's but deep enough to staff senior roles in mainstream stacks. Companies usually consider it for three reasons: lower salaries than Madrid and Barcelona for the same level, a growing startup ecosystem, and the option to combine an office in the city with remote engineers elsewhere in the region.
How many people work in tech in Valencia
The Comunitat Valenciana had 68,500 people working in information and communication in 2025, 2.8% of its total employment, according to Eurostat's regional data on technology sectors. The category is broader than software engineering: it also includes telecoms, publishing and media, so it measures the size of the sector, not the number of developers.
The startup ecosystem gives a second view of Valencia's tech workforce. The Valencian Community had 1,689 startups in September 2025, an 11.34% increase on the same period of 2024, and those startups generated 21,462 jobs, according to the Valencian Region Startup Observatory promoted by Startup Valencia with the support of the Generalitat Valenciana. The same observatory places 89.58% of those startups in the province of Valencia.
Artificial intelligence is the most common technology in Valencian startups, with 28.75% of them dedicated to it, and software is the largest sector, with 14.14%, according to the same Startup Valencia observatory. For a hiring company, that means the local market already has engineers used to product work in AI and software startups.
Where Valencia's software engineers come from
Valencia's software engineers come mainly from the region's universities, from its startup ecosystem and from engineers who move to the city from the rest of Spain and Europe. The largest local source of computing graduates is the School of Computer Engineering (ETSINF) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).
The UPV's School of Computer Engineering had 507 graduates in the 2024/2025 academic year, 460 from bachelor's degrees and 47 from master's degrees, according to the school's management report for that year. Its degrees include computer engineering, data science, and industrial computing and robotics, and a bachelor's degree in artificial intelligence started in 2025/2026, according to the same report.
UPV computing graduates usually arrive with company experience: 83.9% of the school's bachelor's graduates in 2024/2025 had done external work placements, according to the UPV report. Kulturo's guide to the best universities for software engineering in Spain explains what a UPV degree means on a CV compared with other Spanish universities.
Senior engineers in Valencia in Kulturo's candidate database (2026)
In a September 2026 search for a company planning a 15-person technical hub, Kulturo's candidate database returned 1,148 matching senior profiles in Valencia for four roles. Valencia was the third-largest pool in all four roles, behind Madrid and Barcelona.
| Role | Senior profiles in Valencia (September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Lead engineer, Python and Django | 128 |
| Senior Ruby and React engineer (5+ years) | 151 |
| Senior Python and React engineer (5+ years) | 815 |
| Senior or lead IT business analyst | 54 |
| Total | 1,148 |
These are not market statistics. The counts come from Kulturo's own candidate database and search tools, filtered by skills and by location in Valencia and its metropolitan area, so they show where Kulturo finds these profiles, not how many exist in the Valencian market. They are raw volumes, not qualified shortlists.
The four rows show what kind of search Valencia supports. A mainstream stack such as Python and React returned hundreds of senior profiles in Valencia, while a niche role such as a senior IT business analyst returned a few dozen. The comparison with the other Spanish cities is in Kulturo's guide to where to hire software engineers in Spain.
Software engineer salaries in Valencia (2026)
Software engineer salaries in Valencia sit below Madrid and Barcelona for the same level. Location moves pay by 15–20% across Spain, and a mid-level engineer outside Madrid and Barcelona typically earns €40,000–48,000 gross a year in the product and startup segment, according to Kulturo's salary analysis. These ranges cover the cities outside Madrid and Barcelona, not Valencia alone.
Kulturo's own placements give a second reference for senior developers. In Kulturo's recent placements, a senior developer with five or more years of experience, B2 English or better and a hybrid schedule of two or three office days a week typically earns €45,000–60,000 gross a year in Spanish cities other than Madrid and Barcelona, against €50,000–70,000 in those two cities. The placements span all types of company, consultancies included, so this is Kulturo's data, not a market survey.
Gross salary is not the whole cost of an engineer in Spain: the employer pays social security contributions on top. Kulturo's guide to the cost of employing a software engineer in Spain breaks down the employer cost by seniority.
Office, hybrid or remote: ways to hire tech talent in Valencia compared (2026)
There are five ways to hire tech talent in Valencia: an office in the city, a hybrid team, remote engineers within the Comunitat Valenciana, remote engineers anywhere in Spain, and relocating engineers to Valencia. Each one changes the size of the pool, the salary reference and the steps the company has to take.
| Way to hire | Candidate pool | Salary reference | Extra steps for the employer | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office in Valencia | Engineers in Valencia and its metropolitan area | Band for cities outside Madrid and Barcelona | Office space | Teams that work best in person, juniors who need mentoring |
| Hybrid, two or three office days a week | Valencia plus commuting distance | Band for cities outside Madrid and Barcelona | Written remote-work agreement and expense policy | Senior engineers who expect flexibility |
| Remote within the Comunitat Valenciana | Valencia, Alicante and Castellón | Band for cities outside Madrid and Barcelona | Written remote-work agreement and expense policy | Senior roles in mainstream stacks |
| Remote anywhere in Spain | Every Spanish city, Madrid and Barcelona included | Band of the city where each engineer lives | Written remote-work agreement and expense policy | Niche stacks with few local profiles |
| Relocation to Valencia | Engineers from other Spanish cities, the EU or outside the EU | Negotiated case by case | Relocation support and, outside the EU, a work permit | Lead and staff roles the local pool cannot fill |
The comparison shows the trade-off a Valencia hire involves: the more the company widens the search, the larger the pool, but the closer pay gets to the Madrid and Barcelona level. Engineers from outside the EU need a work permit, explained in Kulturo's guide to the Spain work visa for tech hires.
Remote and hybrid rules when you hire in Valencia
A company that hires engineers in Valencia on a hybrid or remote basis has to follow Spain's remote-work law, Law 10/2021. Under that law, remote work is regular when it covers at least 30% of working time over a three-month reference period, and in that case the remote-work agreement must be in writing and signed before the remote work starts.
The same Law 10/2021 makes the company cover or compensate the expenses of remote work, so an engineer working from home in Valencia does not pay for the equipment and tools needed for the job. The amount can be set by collective agreement or in the company's own expense policy.
Fully remote teams in Spain can work across cities with a few in-person meetings a year. In the case of EvCharge, whose head office is in Reus, Kulturo ran a remote search for senior engineers willing to travel to team events a few times a year, and the company made five remote hires from 35 candidates.
How to hire developers in Valencia, step by step
To hire developers in Valencia, define the exact profile, set the salary band, choose the working model and search where Valencian engineers actually are. These six steps follow the order in which decisions affect the search:
- Define the exact profile. Write down the stack, seniority and domain, for example "senior Python and React engineer, five years, B2B SaaS". In Valencia, a mainstream stack supports a precise search; for a niche stack, decide in advance which adjacent experience you accept.
- Set the salary band before the first call. Use the band for cities outside Madrid and Barcelona as the reference for a Valencia-based engineer, and the Madrid or Barcelona band if you will also consider candidates from those cities.
- Choose office, hybrid or remote within the Comunitat Valenciana. The working model decides the size of the pool and the paperwork: a written remote-work agreement for anyone working remotely at least 30% of the time.
- Decide whether to recruit from Madrid or Barcelona. Engineers from the two largest hubs can relocate to Valencia or work remotely; budget for their city's band and for relocation support if they move.
- Search beyond job boards. Many senior engineers in Valencia are employed and not applying. Direct search, the UPV's links with companies through work placements and the Valencian startup community reach people who never see a job ad.
- Plan the timeline from kick-off to start date. Count the search, the interviews and the candidate's notice period, which starts only after the offer is signed.
Hiring developers in Valencia without a Spanish entity
A foreign company can hire developers in Valencia without opening a Spanish entity. The two usual routes are an employer of record (EOR), which employs the engineer in Spain on the company's behalf, and a genuine freelance contract, in which the engineer works as a self-employed professional and invoices the company directly.
An entity becomes worth it when the team in Spain grows and stays. Kulturo's guide on how to hire in Spain without an entity compares the EOR, the entity and the contractor route, with what each one costs and when to switch.
Kulturo runs the search and, when the client has no Spanish entity, employs the engineer through its employer of record partner Deel, which is the legal employer. Kulturo is a Barcelona tech recruitment agency with clients in more than 8 countries, and it hires both in Valencia and remotely across Spain.