Choosing location over career and money

especially now that I have kids. I believe the UK offers them a better education and overall quality of life.

Does the quality of life for your children include how much money you leave for them later? If the answer is a firm yes, then I'd try to maximize my income (and therefore my savings).

But if the answer is no or yes-and-no, then I'd prioritize their quality of life in childhood and teenage—and the opportunities that'd create for them down the line.

This said, you do need to make sure that you earn enough to raise your family and retire yourself with dignity regardless of where you choose to live. It's also a good idea to be close to aging parents when they need you. But IMO that alone shouldn't be the deciding factor, esp. when you have a commitment to your next generation as well.

Given that it was not easy to find this new opportunity in the UK despite having strong referrals, then it is not going to be easy to find a better opportunity unless something changes. If you were to take this opportunity and go to the UK, I believe that you will be in a much better position to network and find a better opportunity.

If there are no restrictions on switching jobs/companies I would go for the UK opportunity and try to network and find a better opportunity. This is assuming the UK offer will allow you to cover your family expenses without any issues.

If the current offer you have is valid for 6 months+. I would try to look for a better opportunity and save up for a while. If in a few months you do not find something else then you can take it.

You mentioned "moved back to India from the UK for personal and family reasons" -- are those reasons still an important part of your life?

What are the likely next jobs if you take the UK jobs? It sounds like you're viewing that as more of a stepping stone, so I'd research what the people who used to work there are doing now.

I really like Shine's answers to think about the future for your kids? Do you think they'll have more success in India or the UK? I'm not sure the answer to this question, to be clear, but there are various dimensions to think about:

• Economic opportunity: not clear which is better. The US is probably the best in the world here.
• Family/friend connection: I'm guessing India is much better here
• Infrastructure: Probably better in the UK? (I'm thinking about things like traffic.)
• Environment/pollution: obviously the UK is much better here.

Do you think you can get a better offer in the UK with a little bit more time? Looks like you're doing well on your current job, with some more time and networking don't you think you could get a job at a Big Tech, for example?

Anyways, I wasn't born or raised in India but I can relate to the feeling, as an immigrant myself. I came to North America but have thought about living in Europe. For now I'm settled in North America, and I'll probably just stay around, but even here you can choose from many different cities and lifestyles. A few points that helped me think:

1. Money is important - it doesn't matter what people say. There's a lot of benefit from having financial stability and independence.
2. Opportunities also matter. The pandemic did make things more remote-friendly, but we're slowing going back to where we were with more companies with RTO.
3. Lifestyle and quality of life also matter. Do you mind having to commute every day or do you prefer WFH? Do you prefer having a car or taking good public transport?
4. What do you like to do on your weekends? Are you an outdoorsy person? Do you mind living somewhere cold and dark for most part of the year?

These are the questions I asked myself when deciding if I should move somewhere or not, and some of my own answers actually surprised me. When thinking about opportunities, for example, my home city São Paulo actually has a lot more job postings in LinkedIn as opposed to big cities in Canada like Toronto and Vancouver. Some friends even managed to get paid in USD working remotely to US companies, which is a great lifestyle upgrade. But some other factors like safety and public infrastructure made Canada / North America more attractive to me.

There's no easy answer to your question - you have to make a decision matrix and weight what's more important to you. And once a decision is made, it will also have good and bad consequences that you'll have to live with.

Last month i cracked 3 offers from the UK sitting in Madrid, Spain as an Indian passport holder, all of them sponsoring a skilled worker visa to the UK. The offer that I accepted (from Intuit) is 2.5x the package I currently have in my Amazon job in Spain (with perceivably better WLB). Factoring the high taxes and cost of living of London, it will still save much more for me to enjoy, and be at a promoted position obviously. I understand it's tough in this market but not impossible to get a better job in the UK, given that you are already in a good position in India.

I had the same dilemma to wait for something better (maybe better work, better work life balance, better brand, something else?) or just take some offer from the three for the sake of moving because i was uncomfortable of the language issues i have in Spain and the sheer lack of Indian or Muslim community which i like to be connected with (which is very abundant in the UK). So i was in a time constraint, specially because at this time in career I should move to promoted position either within my company or externally. Externally seemed faster to me.

My hack to get interviews- Have a catchy linkedin profile, make yourself available to work immediately there, put your location as London (because it has most tech jobs), respond to messages of all recruiters in your inbox even if you have gotten their message years ago. This is to hack the Linkedin algorithm to rank you higher for more recruiters to message you. Once a recruiter reaches out to you for a UK based opportunity, ask if they sponsor visa as you are willing to relocate. Those who do, talk to them and convince how great you are to be considered. Give interviews and choose between offers. This hack helps to understand who are actively hiring in the location who are also interested in your profile. In best case, you get a chance to talk to an actual human instead of an algorithm throwing your resume to trash. In worst case, they inform they don't sponsor visa and you just say "No problem, thanks!". Just make sure to be transparent about your status of being in India in the initial message itself/in your resume.

Fact number 1- It is MUCH easier to switch jobs while on a worker visa WHILE you are in the UK and MUCH tougher to get to the UK on a visa sponsored job. So the suggestion I got from everyone i spoke in the UK is to take whatever job you get in the UK just for the sake of coming and then switch as possible.
Caveat- Some employers have a condition to payback the huge amount they are spending on your visa if you resign within a year, or maybe just payback NHS surcharge if you leave within 4 years etc. I faced this kind of commitment clause hence I took sometime to accept the offer. In this case, please understand that in our industry it is possible to convince a new employer to help repay such commitments in order for the new employer to have you join them. So this shouldn't deter you from accepting the offer.

Fact number 2- London tech scene is vast and there are still jobs I see. Which means that even if your current offer pays you less, you can take a chance to come and have another employer notice you easily within the UK because just switching employer on a skilled worker visa is much easier than applying for one initially.
Given this fact, if the visa offered to you is not tier 2 skilled worker visa, then I wouldn't take the job (assuming you are not in a time constraint) and only take one which offers such a visa as others can transfer it while you are in the UK and you don't have to come back to India and find a job from scratch. I am not sure how the visa you are offered currently works for your residency criteria for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK, that would be an important consideration since you won't want to struggle finding visa sponsored jobs after a few years of staying in the UK.

As for personal decision making, if you are working a remote job and staying in tier 2 or tier 3 city in India, then for closeness to nature or social values, it might be good, but for kids education and exposure, UK would be highly valuable in front of that. This is my personal opinion, I would have chosen the UK in that case. Rahul gave some important points about the UK too. However much i would earn in India more than UK, I cannot buy good weather, non polluted environment, better infrastructure as the UK for me (maybe even discrimination or cultural ideologies issues). So my choice is pretty clear personally.
Lastly, if a job would have given me the ability to just survive with family, without saving much (or maybe just enough to payback any commitment while changing jobs), I wouldn't bother and just accept that job because you said, you are anyways living without much savings even in India at the moment.

Final tip: Since you don't have much savings, make sure to negotiate for a relocation bonus.

TL;DR
Put yourself in London on Linkedin, keep messaging/responding to recruiters for visa sponsored jobs, take only skilled worker visa job, reach UK then switch to something better as possible.

It sounds like you're in a challenging situation, balancing career, location, and family priorities. From my experience, these decisions are always tough and highly personal.

IMO, If your primary motivation for moving back to the UK is a better quality of life for your kids and education, that's a valid reason. However, since you currently have a secure role with strong career growth prospects (potential promotion to Principal Engineer), you might want to leverage that stability to build more financial savings while continuing to explore opportunities in the UK. Sometimes, it’s about positioning yourself for the right opportunity rather than rushing into one that doesn’t meet all your needs. Given that you’ve already moved once for personal reasons, taking a remote role might allow you to bridge the gap between your career aspirations and family needs without compromising too much financially. It could also give you the flexibility to be patient until the right UK-based role comes along, one that aligns better with your experience and financial goals.

Ultimately, waiting a bit longer might be wise, especially if you’re on the path to a promotion and can accumulate savings. This way, you’ll be in a stronger position to make the transition when the ideal opportunity presents itself.