I unfortunately don’t have much perspective on software development on Europe, but one of the differentiators I’ve observed in the US between high salary SWE jobs/regions and lower SWE jobs/regions is that engineered in the higher categories are considered a core part of the business and are deeply integrated across the business. The engineers sit closer to and interact more with the “money people” than in companies where there might be a layer of analysts or business program managers, etc... As a result, engineering and computing at permeated throughout the business.
This often makes these companies more agile (the cycle times for requirements and feedback are shorter) and seems to make the business more willing to pay for engineering talent generally (as the decision makers see the value or are former engineers themselves.)
This is easier in some industries than others - consumer internet and commercial software companies will tend to organize more like this then health care, for example.
So I guess my answer would be ensure your software engineers aren't just doing software, but helping define the businesses
This explanation does a great job of describing what I've seen in Australia. I moved here from San Francisco after working at several startups including a long stint at Airbnb. I've been consistently stunned by how peripheral software is to businesses here. In the bay area organizations are structured around how they build technology and see it as a key point of competition. Here it's viewed as a cost center and usually outsourced to consulting firms who integrate some semi-generalized third party solution.
This isn't universal, there are startups here that "get it". But it's ubiquitous in large companies that have money, and that drives the salary market.
It seems inevitable that this will change in time either by the old guard catching up or new companies displacing them. I think one of the key driving forces behind this could be the return home of people with experience from SV style companies. As they join companies or start their own they are likely to advocate for approaches that more strongly couple the organization to its technology.
In the Canadian startup circles I once inhabited this was a broadly accepted idea. Seeing people move to the US for high paying tech jobs was generally celebrated, because there was an expectation that many of them would eventually return and be a boost to the overall ecosystem.
I previously worked for a large consulting firm and in the Australian side the software arm was seen as 'just another billable unit' even though we built software primarily for internal engineers to use, this has some nasty side-effects
(wasted time/money on busywork, inability to do useful work without 'proving usefulness' first).
The London arm was much more of a 'startup' focus, billing time was second to doing good work and delighting clients (internal or not).
I'm now at a London startup that 'gets it' and when I inevitably move back to Australia I'll be taking these learnings back with me and hopefully be Senior enough to try and encourage change in whichever company I end up in (assuming it is needed).
This often makes these companies more agile (the cycle times for requirements and feedback are shorter) and seems to make the business more willing to pay for engineering talent generally (as the decision makers see the value or are former engineers themselves.)
This is easier in some industries than others - consumer internet and commercial software companies will tend to organize more like this then health care, for example.
So I guess my answer would be ensure your software engineers aren't just doing software, but helping define the businesses