Software Engineer Job Trends in Edinburgh

Software Engineer
Scotland > Edinburgh

The median Software Engineer salary in Edinburgh is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 22 February 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 22 11
Rank change year-on-year -2 -11 +8
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 117 119 167
As % of all permanent jobs in Edinburgh 9.91% 11.12% 14.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.67% 11.85% 14.78%
Number of salaries quoted 78 78 113
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £47,750
25th Percentile £52,750 £47,923 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,750 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% -6.07% +2.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £85,253 £91,934
90th Percentile £100,000 £93,778 £100,000
Scotland median annual salary £65,000 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +13.04% -4.17% -7.69%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Edinburgh

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in Edinburgh. 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 Edinburgh with a recognized job title 1,097 1,004 1,130
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.89% 93.83% 95.68%
Number of salaries quoted 572 409 893
10th Percentile £26,500 £33,750 £28,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% - -0.08%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £72,433
90th Percentile £90,000 £98,474 £91,934
Scotland median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Edinburgh

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

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in Edinburgh

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in Edinburgh

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in Edinburgh.

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in Edinburgh

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in Edinburgh

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in Edinburgh over the 6 months to 22 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in Edinburgh

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

For the 6 months to 22 February 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 across the Edinburgh region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 117 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 25 (21.37%) C
3 20 (17.09%) C++
4 17 (14.53%) Java
5 16 (13.68%) Agile
6 14 (11.97%) Linux
7 12 (10.26%) Embedded Linux
8 11 (9.40%) Cybersecurity
8 11 (9.40%) Embedded Software Development
8 11 (9.40%) Firmware
8 11 (9.40%) Functional Safety
8 11 (9.40%) IEC 61508
8 11 (9.40%) MISRA
8 11 (9.40%) MISRA C
8 11 (9.40%) Safety Engineering
8 11 (9.40%) SDLC
9 9 (7.69%) Azure
9 9 (7.69%) Kotlin
10 8 (6.84%) .NET
10 8 (6.84%) Android
10 8 (6.84%) JavaScript
10 8 (6.84%) React
11 7 (5.98%) Bluetooth
11 7 (5.98%) E-Commerce
11 7 (5.98%) RS-232
11 7 (5.98%) SaaS
11 7 (5.98%) Wireless
12 6 (5.13%) AWS
12 6 (5.13%) Collaborative Culture
12 6 (5.13%) Microservices

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Edinburgh 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:

Cloud Services
1 9 (7.69%) Azure
2 7 (5.98%) SaaS
3 6 (5.13%) AWS
4 4 (3.42%) GCP
5 2 (1.71%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 7 (5.98%) Bluetooth
1 7 (5.98%) RS-232
1 7 (5.98%) Wireless
2 1 (0.85%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (3.42%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.56%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (0.85%) MySQL
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.85%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.85%) Appium
1 1 (0.85%) Git
1 1 (0.85%) Postman
1 1 (0.85%) Subversion
General
1 10 (8.55%) Games
2 7 (5.98%) Electronics
2 7 (5.98%) Finance
3 5 (4.27%) Tech for Good
4 1 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
4 1 (0.85%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (6.84%) .NET
1 8 (6.84%) React
2 3 (2.56%) .NET Core
2 3 (2.56%) .NET Framework
2 3 (2.56%) AngularJS
2 3 (2.56%) CSS
2 3 (2.56%) HTML
2 3 (2.56%) Kafka
2 3 (2.56%) React Native
2 3 (2.56%) RESTful
3 2 (1.71%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.71%) ASP.NET MVC
3 2 (1.71%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.71%) Spring Boot
3 2 (1.71%) Vue
4 1 (0.85%) ASP.NET Web API
4 1 (0.85%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.40%) CAN bus
1 11 (9.40%) Embedded Systems
2 4 (3.42%) Renewable Energy
3 3 (2.56%) Legacy Code
4 2 (1.71%) Mobile App
5 1 (0.85%) Cloud Native
5 1 (0.85%) Replication
5 1 (0.85%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 14 (11.97%) Linux
2 12 (10.26%) Embedded Linux
3 8 (6.84%) Android
4 1 (0.85%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 16 (13.68%) Agile
3 11 (9.40%) Cybersecurity
3 11 (9.40%) Embedded Software Development
3 11 (9.40%) Safety Engineering
3 11 (9.40%) SDLC
4 7 (5.98%) E-Commerce
5 6 (5.13%) Collaborative Culture
5 6 (5.13%) Microservices
6 5 (4.27%) CI/CD
6 5 (4.27%) Mentoring
7 4 (3.42%) DevOps
7 4 (3.42%) TDD
8 3 (2.56%) Continuous Improvement
8 3 (2.56%) Full-Stack Development
8 3 (2.56%) MVC
9 2 (1.71%) API Integration
9 2 (1.71%) Front End Development
9 2 (1.71%) Platform Engineering
9 2 (1.71%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 25 (21.37%) C
2 20 (17.09%) C++
3 17 (14.53%) Java
4 9 (7.69%) Kotlin
5 8 (6.84%) JavaScript
6 5 (4.27%) C#
7 4 (3.42%) Embedded C
8 3 (2.56%) TypeScript
9 2 (1.71%) SQL
10 1 (0.85%) Perl
10 1 (0.85%) Python
10 1 (0.85%) Swift
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (9.40%) IEC 61508
1 11 (9.40%) MISRA
1 11 (9.40%) MISRA C
2 1 (0.85%) QA
System Software
1 11 (9.40%) Firmware
2 2 (1.71%) Docker
2 2 (1.71%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 11 (9.40%) Functional Safety
2 3 (2.56%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 3 (2.56%) Microsoft
2 1 (0.85%) Oracle
2 1 (0.85%) Siemens