"Compensation is the topic that I get asked about most in relation to executives – multiple times a day.”
That was Michelle Coventry, VP of Talent at Creandum during our breakfast panel event with Erevena on the topic of executive compensation.
It’s never been easy to benchmark executive pay.
Behind the headline-grabbing nine-figure packages that dominate the news there’s the actual, recurring question of what a competitive offer actually looks like for the executive you're trying to hire or retain right now in your specific company – which usually isn’t a listed, FTSE500, mega-cap company that can compare to those headlines.
So we set out to answer the question properly.
Together with Erevena, we surveyed over 1,000 executives across European tech to understand what competitive pay genuinely looks like, and how it shifts by revenue, function, and location.
Here's what the data shows.
Overall, the base salary for top executives in European tech ranges from around £199,560 to £282,500 – depending on function (Ravio Executive Salary Survey 2026).
This represents the 75th percentile of the market (or P75) i.e. only 25% of companies pay higher than this for their executives, with no other filters.
Role | P75 base salary |
|---|---|
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | £282,500 |
Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) | £263,690 |
Chief Finance Officer (CFO) | £250,000 |
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | £218,140 |
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) | £199,560 |
However, this overall picture hides important nuances.
Comparing under $10 million ARR to $250 million-$1 billion ARR, P75 base salary increases by:
CTO pay is the clear outlier – scaling far less than any other function, which suggests engineering leadership scope is less tightly linked to revenue than commercial or financial leadership.
Here’s the full picture by revenue stage:
Annual revenue | CEO | CRO/CCO | CFO | CMO | CTO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
All | £282,500 | £263,690 | £250,000 | £218,140 | £199,560 |
Under $10m | £200,000 | £191,200 | £185,000 | Limited data | £179,700 |
$10-50m | £300,000 | £220,000 | £225,610 | £172,500 | £180,240 |
$50-250m | £331,000 | £273,750 | £246,760 | £199,410 | £261,000 |
$250m-$1bn | £411,000 | £333,430 | £318,290 | £310,000 | Limited data |
Over $1bn | Limited data | £373,360 | Limited data | Limited data | Limited data |
This is also often where executive hiring goes wrong.
Here’s how Marie Josife, Partner at Erevena, put it during the launch panel for our Executive Salary Survey 2026 report. "Too many companie think about the business they're going to become in the long-distant future when they're hiring for their leadership teams,” she explains, “instead of the business that’s actually in front of them for the next chapter.”
If you benchmark your CEO’s salary against that future-state scope rather than current revenue stage, the pay package looks very different.
The same level of variance applies when you look at top executive pay by location.
In Europe, UK executives earn significantly more than their rest-of-Europe counterparts – overall, P75 CEO base salary sits at £300,000 in the UK against £264,370 for the rest of Europe (Ravio Executive Salary Survey 2026).
The size of that gap also shifts, of course, with revenue stage as companies scale:
Annual revenue | P75 CEO base pay – UK | P75 CEO base pay – Rest of Europe |
|---|---|---|
All | £300,000 | £264,370 |
Under $10m | £225,000 | £151,800 |
$10-50m | £312,500 | £243,000 |
$50-250m | £362,500 | £300,000 |
$250m-$1bn | £495,690 | £348,580 |
As you can see, the gap isn't constant.
It's widest at the earliest stage – UK CEOs earn 48% more than the rest of Europe under $10 million ARR – then narrows through the mid-range, before widening again to 42% at $250 million-$1 billion ARR.
This is likely because early-stage CEO hires tend to be local, so UK packages at under $10m reflect the UK's higher labour market overall.
Then, as UK companies start hiring Europe-wide in the mid-stages, there’s closer parity, with the market for executives anywhere in Europe relatively similar.
But as UK companies hit $250 million-plus annual revenue, they increasingly compete with US firms for CEO talent, where Erevena's placement experience shows salaries typically run 30-50% higher again, sparking this increased difference between top executive pay in Europe and UK.
Top executive pay in European tech isn't the eight-figure story making headlines – but it is a range that shifts significantly by function, revenue, and location.
Revenue stage is arguably the most important view – a CEO at a $300 million ARR company and a CEO at a $5 million ARR company are being paid very differently, because they’re doing fundamentally different jobs.
Which is really the point: executive pay is bespoke.
"Use executive compensation data as a compass, not a GPS," says Michelle Coventry, VP of Talent at Creandum.
The benchmarks in this report tell you what's competitive in a given market – they don't replace the work of defining the role you actually need for your unique company, the profile you’re hiring for, and the talent pool you're competing in.
For the full breakdown by function, level, revenue stage, and region download the European Executive Salary Survey 2026.
For deeper cuts on executive pay in your specific hiring context, get in touch with Ravio.
Executive pay is the base salary paid to C-level and senior leadership roles. It typically increases with company revenue rather than seniority alone – Ravio's 2026 data shows P75 CEO base salary in European tech ranges from £200,000 at companies under $10 million ARR to £411,000 at $250 million-$1 billion ARR.
But salary is only one part of a competitive executive package. According to Ravio and Erevena's 2026 survey, 69% of executives also receive a bonus, and 75% receive equity.
It all depends on talent market context. Headline figures for the highest-paid CEOs at large listed companies can run into eight or nine figures, but this reflects a small number of mega-cap outliers rather than the typical European tech market. Ravio’s data shows P75 CEO base salary in European tech ranges from £200,000 at companies under $10 million ARR to £411,000 at $250 million-$1 billion ARR.
UK CEO base salary sits at £300,000 at the 75th percentile (P75) overall, according to Ravio's 2026 Executive Salary Survey – rising from £225,000 at companies under $10 million ARR to £495,690 at $250 million-$1 billion ARR.
UK executives are paid more than their rest-of-Europe counterparts at every revenue stage, though the size of that premium varies – from 48% higher at the earliest stage to 42% higher at $250 million-$1 billion ARR.
Competitive executive pay helps attract and retain the leadership needed to scale a business, particularly for hard-to-fill roles at high-growth companies. But over-indexing on pay – or on a single "hero hire" – carries risk. As Maria, Erevena, puts it: "You definitely don't need 12 Ronaldos in your business" – a balanced leadership team, not one single highest-paid candidate, tends to deliver better outcomes.
Ravio's 2026 European Executive Salary Survey, produced in partnership with Erevena, provides P75 benchmarks for salary, bonus, and equity across CEO, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Finance leadership roles, cut by revenue stage and region. Ravio's compensation benchmarking platform also provides ongoing executive benchmarking data across a wider role catalogue.
A competitive executive package combines base salary, bonus, and equity in a mix that reflects the specific role, company stage, and business priorities – rather than benchmarking on base salary alone. Ravio's data shows equity vehicles and vesting structures shift significantly by stage, and bonus weighting varies considerably by function, so a truly competitive package needs role-specific and stage-specific benchmarks, not a single target number.
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