Ask HN: Engineering Work in EU?

Has anyone taken the plunge to work in engineering, or security engineering, in the EU or UK, and done it at an venture-backed place that is similar to what you'd find in the US?

Upfront: I get that the EU is not a monolith market, and I'm excluding asking about jobs that are pseudo-offshore eng shops for places in the US (Poland, UKR, etc). I'm interested in learning about the in bonafide startup scene and related jobs, or working for FAANG/Bank EU/UK.

- Generally, does one get out there on a venture-backed job, or is mostly taking a job at Google Zurich or a US bank in the UK (that sort of thing).

- What cities have the venture-backed scenes; do certain cities/countries differentiate b/t having more earlier or later round companies? How similar/dissimilar is the experience to working at Series B->D place in the US?

- How important is English, especially at non-Big Tech/Big Finance jobs?

- Pay, what's to be expected, and do the $150k+ equivalent eng jobs exist there? Why I specify security engineering is infosec roles in the EU/UK tend to seem really low comparative pay at initial pass. I get the "but the quality of life/social services" aspect of the pay there.

- How do visas work if you go to work at a startup. Are visas sponsored?