Software Engineer Job Trends

Software Engineer
UK

The median Software Engineer salary in the UK is £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 8 June 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 45 21
Rank change year-on-year +16 -24 +44
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 4,203 2,388 8,087
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 4.54% 5.39% 7.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.84% 6.02% 8.10%
Number of salaries quoted 3,279 1,301 4,839
10th Percentile £47,500 £47,231 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £56,250 £47,231
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £75,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +25.00% -14.29%
75th Percentile £87,500 £110,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £132,500 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +18.18% -8.33%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 86,875 39,687 99,829
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.88% 89.56% 94.86%
Number of salaries quoted 58,739 22,427 72,303
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,750 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,055 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.11% +0.11% -6.54%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Software Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer over the 6 months to 8 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the UK

Software Engineer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 8 June 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +21 3,818 £70,000 -9.39% 960
UK excluding London +22 3,042 £65,000 - 758
Work from Home -7 1,044 £70,000 -10.26% 396
London +1 1,022 £95,000 -9.52% 252
South East +81 835 £65,000 - 217
North of England +12 818 £65,000 -3.70% 180
South West +26 520 £65,000 +1.96% 150
North West +4 466 £69,305 -7.28% 114
East of England +49 319 £70,000 +5.73% 129
Midlands +26 286 £65,000 - 61
Yorkshire +50 239 £65,000 -5.11% 32
Scotland -12 174 £65,000 +4.00% 15
West Midlands +28 159 £70,000 +16.67% 36
East Midlands +5 127 £55,000 -15.38% 25
North East -1 113 £70,000 +27.27% 34
Wales +5 75 £42,500 -37.50% 6
Northern Ireland -19 16 £90,000 +80.00% 14

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 June 2026, Software Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 4,134 (98.36%) Software Engineering
2 676 (16.08%) AWS
3 666 (15.85%) Python
4 617 (14.68%) C++
5 571 (13.59%) C#
6 565 (13.44%) Java
7 538 (12.80%) Agile
8 515 (12.25%) Full-Stack Development
9 423 (10.06%) .NET
10 422 (10.04%) CI/CD
11 372 (8.85%) Azure
12 357 (8.49%) TypeScript
13 355 (8.45%) JavaScript
14 333 (7.92%) Security Cleared
15 332 (7.90%) React
16 330 (7.85%) AI
17 325 (7.73%) DevOps
18 323 (7.68%) Microservices
19 306 (7.28%) Degree
20 286 (6.80%) Mentoring
21 268 (6.38%) Test Automation
22 251 (5.97%) SQL
23 241 (5.73%) C
23 241 (5.73%) Continuous Improvement
24 235 (5.59%) Computer Science
24 235 (5.59%) GCP
25 234 (5.57%) Linux
25 234 (5.57%) Problem-Solving
26 223 (5.31%) SaaS
27 216 (5.14%) Node.js

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 21 (0.50%) Apache
2 16 (0.38%) SharePoint Server
3 13 (0.31%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
5 5 (0.12%) CMS
5 5 (0.12%) Confluence
6 4 (0.095%) Apache Solr
6 4 (0.095%) GeoServer
7 3 (0.071%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.071%) WinCC
7 3 (0.071%) WordPress
8 2 (0.048%) ArchestrA
8 2 (0.048%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.024%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.024%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.024%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.024%) Moodle
9 1 (0.024%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.024%) Umbraco
Applications
1 4 (0.095%) EngageOne
2 3 (0.071%) Blender
2 3 (0.071%) CANalyzer
2 3 (0.071%) EPLAN
2 3 (0.071%) Maya
3 2 (0.048%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.024%) Lightworks
4 1 (0.024%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.024%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.024%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.24%) Magento
2 2 (0.048%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.024%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 676 (16.08%) AWS
2 372 (8.85%) Azure
3 235 (5.59%) GCP
4 223 (5.31%) SaaS
5 83 (1.97%) Serverless
6 69 (1.64%) GitHub
7 61 (1.45%) Amazon EKS
8 39 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
9 34 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
10 33 (0.79%) Anthropic Claude
11 25 (0.59%) Amazon S3
12 24 (0.57%) Azure AKS
13 21 (0.50%) GitHub Copilot
14 19 (0.45%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 18 (0.43%) AWS CloudFormation
16 14 (0.33%) GitHub Actions
17 11 (0.26%) Amazon SQS
18 10 (0.24%) Firebase
19 9 (0.21%) Figma
19 9 (0.21%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 45 (1.07%) Wireless
2 35 (0.83%) Broadband
3 32 (0.76%) Ethernet
4 30 (0.71%) HTTP
5 23 (0.55%) RS-232
6 20 (0.48%) Bluetooth
7 18 (0.43%) Modbus
7 18 (0.43%) Multicast
8 11 (0.26%) Profibus
8 11 (0.26%) ZigBee
9 10 (0.24%) LTE
9 10 (0.24%) TCP/IP
10 9 (0.21%) MQTT
10 9 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
11 8 (0.19%) Network Security
11 8 (0.19%) RS-485
12 7 (0.17%) AMQP
13 4 (0.095%) Software-Defined Radio
13 4 (0.095%) Wireshark
14 3 (0.071%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
2 79 (1.88%) NoSQL
3 70 (1.67%) SQL Server
4 57 (1.36%) MongoDB
5 49 (1.17%) MySQL
6 31 (0.74%) Elasticsearch
7 25 (0.59%) Big Data
8 21 (0.50%) Relational Database
9 19 (0.45%) DynamoDB
10 15 (0.36%) Redis
11 12 (0.29%) BigQuery
11 12 (0.29%) Geospatial Data
11 12 (0.29%) Neo4j
12 11 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
13 10 (0.24%) GIS
14 7 (0.17%) Hadoop
15 6 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
16 5 (0.12%) Cloudera CDH
16 5 (0.12%) FileMaker
17 4 (0.095%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 142 (3.38%) Git
2 55 (1.31%) TeamCity
3 39 (0.93%) JIRA
4 38 (0.90%) GitLab
5 34 (0.81%) Jenkins
6 32 (0.76%) Claude Code
7 21 (0.50%) Visual Studio Code
8 12 (0.29%) Visual Studio
9 10 (0.24%) Cucumber
10 9 (0.21%) SonarQube
11 8 (0.19%) CircleCI
12 7 (0.17%) Cypress.io
12 7 (0.17%) Moq
12 7 (0.17%) Subversion
13 6 (0.14%) Bitbucket
13 6 (0.14%) GDB
13 6 (0.14%) JUnit
13 6 (0.14%) Postman
13 6 (0.14%) Storybook
13 6 (0.14%) Yeoman
General
1 447 (10.64%) Finance
2 202 (4.81%) Social Skills
3 166 (3.95%) Manufacturing
4 144 (3.43%) Banking
5 137 (3.26%) Electronics
6 93 (2.21%) Public Sector
7 88 (2.09%) Aerospace
8 80 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 79 (1.88%) Automotive
10 70 (1.67%) Retail
11 64 (1.52%) Analytical Skills
12 62 (1.48%) Front Office
13 54 (1.28%) Law
14 42 (1.00%) Financial Institution
15 38 (0.90%) Games
16 37 (0.88%) Back Office
17 33 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
18 28 (0.67%) Aviation
19 25 (0.59%) Tech for Good
20 15 (0.36%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 423 (10.06%) .NET
2 332 (7.90%) React
3 216 (5.14%) Node.js
4 126 (3.00%) REST
5 104 (2.47%) Vue
6 96 (2.28%) Spring
7 95 (2.26%) AngularJS
8 91 (2.17%) RESTful
9 83 (1.97%) Spring Boot
10 64 (1.52%) Kafka
11 62 (1.48%) CSS
12 60 (1.43%) WPF
13 56 (1.33%) HTML
14 50 (1.19%) Django
15 49 (1.17%) .NET Core
16 48 (1.14%) Redux
17 46 (1.09%) GraphQL
18 45 (1.07%) React Native
19 43 (1.02%) .NET Framework
20 34 (0.81%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 225 (5.35%) Cloud Native
2 141 (3.35%) Algorithms
3 128 (3.05%) Product Ownership
4 119 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
5 107 (2.55%) Embedded Systems
6 71 (1.69%) Robotics
7 70 (1.67%) IoT
8 67 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
9 65 (1.55%) Fixed Income
10 48 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
11 41 (0.98%) Data Structures
11 41 (0.98%) Distributed Architecture
12 36 (0.86%) AI Agents
12 36 (0.86%) Public Cloud
13 34 (0.81%) Derivative
14 33 (0.79%) Equities
15 31 (0.74%) Hedge funds
16 28 (0.67%) Mobile App
17 26 (0.62%) Client/Server
18 25 (0.59%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 234 (5.57%) Linux
2 48 (1.14%) Windows
3 46 (1.09%) Embedded Linux
4 38 (0.90%) Android
5 22 (0.52%) FreeRTOS
6 7 (0.17%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.12%) CentOS
7 5 (0.12%) Debian
7 5 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.12%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.12%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.095%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.048%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.048%) SafeRTOS
9 2 (0.048%) Unix
9 2 (0.048%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.048%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.048%) zOS
10 1 (0.024%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.024%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,134 (98.36%) Software Engineering
2 538 (12.80%) Agile
3 515 (12.25%) Full-Stack Development
4 422 (10.04%) CI/CD
5 330 (7.85%) AI
6 325 (7.73%) DevOps
7 323 (7.68%) Microservices
8 286 (6.80%) Mentoring
9 268 (6.38%) Test Automation
10 241 (5.73%) Continuous Improvement
11 235 (5.59%) Computer Science
12 234 (5.57%) Problem-Solving
13 190 (4.52%) SDLC
14 185 (4.40%) Technical Leadership
15 182 (4.33%) Fintech
16 177 (4.21%) Containerisation
17 152 (3.62%) Clean Code
17 152 (3.62%) TDD
18 128 (3.05%) Scrum
19 127 (3.02%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 666 (15.85%) Python
2 617 (14.68%) C++
3 571 (13.59%) C#
4 565 (13.44%) Java
5 357 (8.49%) TypeScript
6 355 (8.45%) JavaScript
7 251 (5.97%) SQL
8 241 (5.73%) C
9 147 (3.50%) Go
10 137 (3.26%) Rust
11 64 (1.52%) PHP
12 53 (1.26%) Embedded C
13 46 (1.09%) Scala
14 33 (0.79%) Ruby
15 30 (0.71%) Kotlin
16 18 (0.43%) Bash
16 18 (0.43%) MATLAB
17 17 (0.40%) COBOL
18 16 (0.38%) Embedded C++
19 13 (0.31%) Julia
Qualifications
1 333 (7.92%) Security Cleared
2 306 (7.28%) Degree
3 207 (4.93%) SC Cleared
4 156 (3.71%) Computer Science Degree
5 117 (2.78%) DV Cleared
6 64 (1.52%) Master's Degree
7 32 (0.76%) PhD
8 15 (0.36%) DBS Check
9 10 (0.24%) HND
10 9 (0.21%) ISTQB
11 8 (0.19%) Azure Certification
12 6 (0.14%) HNC
13 5 (0.12%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.12%) BPSS Clearance
13 5 (0.12%) CEH
13 5 (0.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 5 (0.12%) OSCP
14 2 (0.048%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.048%) NVQ Level 3
14 2 (0.048%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (2.40%) QA
2 34 (0.81%) Accessibility
3 16 (0.38%) IEC 61508
4 15 (0.36%) MISRA
4 15 (0.36%) MISRA C
5 10 (0.24%) GDPR
6 8 (0.19%) IEC 61131
7 4 (0.095%) DO-178B
7 4 (0.095%) ISO 9001
7 4 (0.095%) JTAG
8 1 (0.024%) DO-254
8 1 (0.024%) ECSS
8 1 (0.024%) HAZOP
8 1 (0.024%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.024%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.024%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.024%) WCAG
System Software
1 195 (4.64%) Docker
2 155 (3.69%) Firmware
3 48 (1.14%) Embedded Firmware
4 14 (0.33%) Hyper-V
4 14 (0.33%) KVM
4 14 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.071%) QEMU
7 2 (0.048%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 213 (5.07%) Kubernetes
2 155 (3.69%) Terraform
3 60 (1.43%) Grafana
4 23 (0.55%) Ansible
5 12 (0.29%) Functional Safety
6 8 (0.19%) Prometheus
7 6 (0.14%) Kibana
7 6 (0.14%) logstash
7 6 (0.14%) Podman
7 6 (0.14%) Puppet
8 3 (0.071%) Argo
8 3 (0.071%) Plesk
8 3 (0.071%) SCCM
8 3 (0.071%) SCOM
8 3 (0.071%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.048%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.048%) Packer
9 2 (0.048%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 38 (0.90%) Google
2 36 (0.86%) Microsoft
3 28 (0.67%) Siemens
4 18 (0.43%) Rockwell
5 17 (0.40%) Oracle
6 16 (0.38%) Salesforce
6 16 (0.38%) VMware
7 15 (0.36%) Typelevel
8 11 (0.26%) Adobe
9 9 (0.21%) Allen-Bradley
10 8 (0.19%) Atlassian
10 8 (0.19%) OpenAI
11 7 (0.17%) Palantir
12 6 (0.14%) HubSpot
12 6 (0.14%) Xamarin
13 5 (0.12%) Red Hat
13 5 (0.12%) SaltStack
14 4 (0.095%) Atmel
14 4 (0.095%) Peregrine
15 3 (0.071%) ESRI