FOR EMPLOYERS
Hiring international software engineers
Almost every technical role in a normal engineering org sits on the Critical Skills Occupations List, which makes tech hiring the most straightforward sponsorship case in the whole permit system.
Roles on the Critical Skills list
Any of these, offered at €40,904 or more with a relevant degree, qualifies for a Critical Skills Employment Permit: no Labour Market Needs Test, and a faster path to Stamp 4 at 21 months rather than 5 years.
What actually slows tech hires down
Since the CSOL route skips the labour market test entirely, the bottleneck for a tech hire is almost always DETE's own processing queue, not anything on your side. Check current Critical Skills processing times before setting a start date; they move independently of General Employment queue times and are usually the shorter of the two.
See live processing times →Job titles vary more than the underlying role
A title like “Full Stack Engineer” or “Platform Engineer” doesn't appear verbatim on the government list, but the underlying work almost always maps to Software Developer/Engineer or DevOps Engineer. What matters for eligibility is the actual duties in the job description, not the exact title you use internally.
Ready to write the offer?
See the full decision framework for CSEP vs General Employment, or the cost breakdown before you commit to a number.