Lisbon business district, used for senior recruitment in Portugal.

- Recruitment | Lisbon -

Senior recruitment in
Lisbon

Senior leadership search across all six disciplines in Lisbon and the wider Portugal Lisbon commuter belt. Local sourcing, written Lisbon comp benchmarks and a calibrated longlist in two to three weeks.

- Why this city -

Why hire senior leaders in Lisbon

Lisbon is the primary hub for senior international hiring in Portugal and one of the fastest-growing nearshore technology and shared-services destinations in Europe. The city anchors the country's SaaS, fintech, gaming and customer-experience leadership, supported by strong English proficiency, a large multilingual talent pool and a lower cost base than Western Europe. Avenidas Novas and Saldanha carry corporate, finance and consulting leadership; Parque das Nacoes and Marvila concentrate scale-up and product teams; and the Web Summit ecosystem keeps a dense network of founders, operators and international senior talent close to the city.

A typical Go Ahead HiRe Lisbon brief is a US or UK SaaS scale-up landing its first Country Manager or building a Lisbon engineering, product or customer-experience hub, a Portuguese scale-up appointing senior commercial leadership, or an established European group consolidating Iberian leadership across Spain and Portugal. Indicative senior gross annual salaries in EUR run roughly 90,000 to 150,000 for a Country Manager or VP commercial, 70,000 to 110,000 for a Director, 55,000 to 85,000 for a Senior Manager, and 90,000 to 140,000 for VP Engineering or CFO and senior finance leadership. Portuguese senior comp generally sits below Germany, France and the Netherlands, with equity and bonus more common in scale-ups.

Lisbon senior search runs on a steady cadence. Permanent contracts (contrato de trabalho sem termo) are the norm for senior hires; notice periods commonly run 30 to 60 days and longer for executive contracts; and termination is regulated under the Portuguese Labour Code, with senior exits usually handled through negotiated settlement. International scale-up environments often operate in English, while domestic corporate and client-facing leadership is conducted in Portuguese, and Go Ahead HiRe maintains native Portuguese sourcing capacity for both. Most senior VP, Country Manager and Director searches close within 7 to 11 weeks of kickoff, with a calibrated longlist within 2 to 3 weeks.

- Transit and footprint -

Transit, business districts and office footprint in Lisbon

Lisbon is served by Santa Apolonia and Oriente for intercity and international rail; the Metro and the suburban Comboios de Portugal lines cover the core neighbourhoods and the Cascais and Sintra commuter belts. Humberto Delgado Airport sits inside the city and serves direct routes across Europe, the Americas and Africa. Senior candidates typically live across Avenidas Novas, Parque das Nacoes, Cascais, Oeiras and the western Linha de Cascais, and expect a two to three day office pattern.

  • Avenidas Novas and Saldanha
  • Parque das Nacoes
  • Marvila and Beato
  • Chiado and Baixa
  • Oeiras and the Linha de Cascais

- Disciplines -

Senior recruitment disciplines in Lisbon

- Visa and relocation -

Visa, sponsorship and relocation in Lisbon

EU and EEA nationals work freely in Lisbon. Non-EU senior hires use Portugal's residence and work visa routes, including the Tech Visa programme for qualified technology roles and the D-series visas. Lisbon scale-ups and shared-services employers have mature relocation playbooks, and the city's lower cost base relative to Western Europe is a frequent closing factor for relocating senior candidates.

- Other cities -

Other senior hiring hubs in Portugal

Brief us on a senior role in Lisbon

Typical reply within one business day with a written proposal, a calibrated longlist plan and a comp benchmark. Read more about hiring in Portugal.

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