We use essential cookies only, for authentication and keeping you signed in. No tracking, no ads. Read our privacy policy
Dismiss cookie notice
Back to Blog
Back to all posts
2 June 2026Sponsor lists8 min read

Top 50 UK Tech Companies Sponsoring Skilled Worker Visas in 2026

50 well-known UK tech employers commonly understood to hold Skilled Worker sponsor licences, grouped by sector. Plus how to verify any specific employer.

If you're searching for a UK tech job that sponsors your Skilled Worker visa, the most useful filter you can apply is which companies actually do this. The answer is about 120,000 UK employers across every sector, refreshed daily on gov.uk. For the tech sector specifically, the list below is a curated starting point: 50 well-known UK tech employers that are commonly understood to hold Skilled Worker sponsor licences.

Always verify a specific employer on the gov.uk Register of Licensed Sponsors before applying. Sponsor status changes; an employer can lose its licence at any time. Lumina's "Visa sponsors only" filter does this check automatically for every job in your search.

How this list was curated

Three filters were applied:

  1. Currently on the register at the time of writing (May 2026). Companies in active revocation processes were excluded.
  2. Tech-led. Either a pure technology company, or a non-tech company where the engineering/data/product org is large enough that the company is treated as a tech employer in practice (e.g. fintech banks).
  3. Known to actively hire international talent. Companies that hold sponsor licences but rarely use them are less useful as a starting point.

The list deliberately mixes scales: from FAANG-sized employers down to UK-founded scale-ups that punch above their weight on visa sponsorship. If you're early-career, the scale-ups are often more accessible; if you're senior, the global tech and investment banking categories tend to offer the highest absolute salaries.

Global tech with major UK engineering offices

These ten run UK offices large enough to support visa hires across multiple disciplines (software, data, product, design, infrastructure).

  • Microsoft (UK HQ: London, Reading)
  • Google (London King's Cross)
  • Meta (London King's Cross)
  • Amazon (London, Edinburgh, Cambridge)
  • Apple (London Battersea)
  • Oracle (Reading)
  • IBM (London, Hursley)
  • Salesforce (London)
  • Adobe (London, Maidenhead)
  • Cisco (London, Reading)

Cloud and enterprise SaaS

International SaaS players that have built out UK engineering or customer-engineering teams.

  • ServiceNow
  • Workday
  • Snowflake
  • Atlassian
  • HubSpot

UK fintech

The UK fintech ecosystem is unusually visa-friendly, partly because of London's role as a financial centre and partly because the companies themselves are international in their hiring.

  • Revolut
  • Monzo
  • Wise
  • Starling Bank
  • OakNorth
  • Allica Bank
  • ClearBank
  • GoCardless
  • Cleo
  • Zilch

UK consumer tech and platforms

Direct-to-consumer tech companies headquartered or with major operations in the UK.

  • Octopus Energy
  • Deliveroo
  • Just Eat Takeaway
  • Trainline
  • Cinch
  • Bumble
  • Trustpilot
  • Skyscanner
  • Moonpig
  • Ocado Technology

Cybersecurity

  • Darktrace (Cambridge HQ)
  • Sophos (Abingdon)
  • NCC Group (Manchester)

AI and machine learning

UK has an outsized AI research footprint relative to its tech market size.

  • Google DeepMind (London)
  • Stability AI (London)
  • Quantexa (London)

Gaming

  • Rockstar Games (Edinburgh, Lincoln, Leeds)
  • Sumo Digital (Sheffield, Newcastle)
  • Splash Damage (Bromley)

Hardware and silicon

  • Arm (Cambridge)
  • Imagination Technologies (Kings Langley)
  • Graphcore (Bristol)

Tech consulting

The large IT services firms hire heavily for delivery roles, with the catch that work is often client-site rather than at a fixed office.

  • Accenture
  • Capgemini
  • Infosys

How to use this list

This list is a starting point for outreach and search, not a guarantee. Practical workflow:

  1. Cross-check each company's sponsor status on gov.uk before investing time in an application. The register downloads as a downloadable file from the page linked above.
  2. Look up open roles at each company's careers page. Sponsor status applies to the employer, not the role: not every job is open to sponsorship even at a sponsor-licensed company. Job postings will sometimes say "we will sponsor" or "must have right to work" explicitly; if not, ask.
  3. Confirm the SOC code and salary before applying. A sponsor-licensed company can still refuse to hire if the role's salary falls below the visa minimum (see our salary thresholds post).
  4. For everything not on this list, use Lumina's "Visa sponsors only" filter. It pulls from the same gov.uk register and checks every job in your search, including the 119,950 employers we did not name here.

What this list does not tell you

  • Whether the company is hiring right now. Sponsor licence is a static-ish attribute; open roles change weekly. Check careers pages.
  • Whether they will sponsor for your role. A bank may hold a Skilled Worker licence and use it heavily for software engineers, but refuse to sponsor a marketing role at the same firm. Each role decision is separate.
  • The licence's specific routes. Most of these hold Skilled Worker licences; some additionally hold Health and Care Worker, Global Business Mobility, or Scale-up route licences. The gov.uk register lists the specific routes per employer.
  • Whether they pay above the salary floor. Sponsor licence is necessary but not sufficient. The £41,700 general threshold (raised from £38,700 in July 2025; or the higher going rate per SOC code) still applies (see salary thresholds).

Mohammad Etminan is the founder of Lumina. He writes about the practical mechanics of the UK Skilled Worker visa job search and the data underneath it. This list reflects the gov.uk register at the time of writing; sponsor status changes daily and an employer can be removed without notice. Always verify before applying.

← All posts