140k is possible, it's probably an outlier though for a perm role. I worked at a SF based start up and that is around the salary they paid EMEA principal engineers. FAANG will pay more than that for a senior engineer (around 200k). As a contractor you can also hit this number pretty easily (it's around 600/day).

The GP said 140k was at or above the average, while the data suggests that it's an extreme outlier. But tbh I struggle to believe it even for senior roles at a SV start-up. Do you know what the reasoning was for paying so far above the market?

Freelancing is a different story.

I think you're right, this was in the UK (pre-brexit) so 140 was competitive with similar contracting roles. Elsewhere it is probably a lot lower.

UK? Exclusively London I would wager.

That site seems to exclude Ireland entirely, which would I think would come in ahead of Germany for salaries and is both a European and Eurozone country.

And by how much would you expect it to be ahead? Spoiler alert, I wouldn't set my hopes too high:

https://ie.talent.com/salary?job=software+developer https://de.talent.com/salary?job=software+developer

(this says Ireland is almost on par with Germany, which sounds about right)

It might be a contractor's invoice. So in most countries that would compare to an employee's salary around half of that probably.

Contracting for US-based companies.