Viennaruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
International organisations & diplomacy
UNOV/UNODC, IAEA, OPEC, OPEC Fund, OSCE, CTBTO, UNIDO
Vienna is one of four UN headquarters cities. Several thousand international civil servants work at the Vienna International Centre alone, on foreign-ministry Legitimationskarten rather than residence permits, and OPEC has been headquartered here since 1965.
Banking & Central-European finance
Erste Group, Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit Bank Austria, Vienna Insurance Group, OeNB
Vienna is the regional headquarters city for Central and Eastern European banking — Erste and RBI both run their CEE networks from here, which is why the job market wants Czech, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian speakers.
Life sciences & pharmaceuticals
Boehringer Ingelheim RCV, Takeda, Octapharma, Baxalta, IMBA/IMP at the Vienna BioCenter
Boehringer Ingelheim's biopharmaceutical plant in the 12th district is the largest single industrial investment in the city's history, and the Vienna BioCenter in the 3rd is one of Europe's denser basic-research clusters.
Energy, infrastructure & utilities
OMV, Verbund, Wien Energie, ÖBB, Wiener Netze
OMV is Austria's largest listed company and Vienna is a long-standing gas transit and trading hub; the city's own utility and transport operators are among the largest local employers.
Software & startups
Bitpanda, GoStudent, Dynatrace, Frequentis, TTTech, Wien Energie's digital arm
A real, mid-sized scene rather than a Berlin-scale one: fintech and edtech grew fastest, while Frequentis (air-traffic control) and TTTech (safety-critical systems) are the deep-tech end that quietly hires the most engineers.
Culture, music & tourism
Wiener Staatsoper, Wiener Philharmoniker, Musikverein, KHM and Belvedere museums
Not decorative — culture is an employment sector here, with the state opera alone among Europe's largest performing-arts employers and a music-education pipeline that draws students from across the world.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.