Does anyone know easy is it to get a visa for working in tech/engineering areas for Austria? Is something that's actually doable or is it more of a moon shot moving from the US?

The blue card [0] is one route into Europe that is easiest to get for most working in tech, especially if you have a degree. It is also a quick route to getting a permanent settlement or citizenship.

By the way, Berlin or Cologne has a great startup / hacker scene, and they are very friendly.

The beer and wurst is also excellent.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_(European_Union)

I can't speak about Austria/Vienna, but if it's anything like Germany, you can basically just show up, sign a contract, present a number of documents (necessarily: an original university diploma) to the authorities, and they will "consider" you, but you work under the assumption you'll be approved and a few weeks later you get a residence card in the mail.

it's much easier for you US citizens to get work visas (and a permanent residence permit is automatic after 5 years) than it is for us EU citizens (or for a matter of fact, just about everyone except canadians and mexicans) to get a work permit in the US, while a green card is a tough call.

not sure about austria, but germany and spain give you a residence permit even as a freelancer / entrepreneur, so these are good options to look into for folks working remotely or working for themselves (freelancers, consultants, startup founders, ...) and the process is pretty straightforward

might be good non-US destinations for these looking for something different

Austria is significantly more immigrant-hostile than Germany, in terms of the burocracy - how much paperwork you have to submit, how often you need to renew your visa, down to how long they make you wait for an appointment and how (un)pleasant the government workers who are handling immigration are.

I've lived for 8 years in Austria and a bit over 2 now in Germany. The feeling I get was that the Austrian officials were constantly looking for ways to make it as hard as possible for me to stay in the country and the Germans for ways to make it easier.

The only caveat about the freelancer/entrepreneur route is that you have to prove that you have a bunch of money in the bank at all times. For example, over 10K euros or something like this. Because as a freelancer, they want to ensure that you are not going to become unemployed and have to live off the system, presumably.

You also have the option to work in Germany at a real job, and thereafter apply for a freelancer visa. I have heard that this is a lot easier than going straight for the freelancer visa.

When I was applying for the freelancer visa in Austria the requirement was 100k, not 10k. Not sure if a typo or if stuff changed.

Just a FYI, but before I recently got a blue card for working at a startup in Berlin, I'd applied for my second free-lancers Visa. I sheepishly showed the officer that I had like 3k in the bank at the time, and she give me a bit of a scolding and told me that it wasn't enough, and then proceeded to give me a 2 year visa.

nah. it's 10k for germany. austria seems way more xenophobic and way more hostile

Worked in all 3, Austria, Germany, US. Germany is indeed the best, but only if you can work remote for a US company.

german developer salaries are crap. in europe, only UK, switzerland and norway pay better for developers (UK is pretty decent if you are a contractor), but COL is fairly high, too

My impression was that developer salaries were not much if any higher in the UK than in Germany (currency fluctuation may have changed that at the moment, but both seemed to be about 1/2 to 2/3 or US rates last I checked).