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 25 May 2026.

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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 31 5
Rank change year-on-year +23 -26 +14
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 134 67 248
As % of all permanent jobs in Edinburgh 12.12% 7.67% 18.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 12.47% 8.71% 19.75%
Number of salaries quoted 75 50 198
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £45,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +8.33% -11.29%
75th Percentile £75,000 £93,778 £91,934
90th Percentile £100,000 £108,750 £100,000
Scotland median annual salary £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +4.00% +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 1,075 769 1,256
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 97.20% 88.09% 95.66%
Number of salaries quoted 640 337 1,009
10th Percentile £28,250 £26,929 £32,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £69,063 £80,000 £71,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £98,474 £91,934
Scotland median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -6.25%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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.

1 134 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 20 (14.93%) C
3 19 (14.18%) C++
4 11 (8.21%) Cybersecurity
4 11 (8.21%) Embedded Software Development
4 11 (8.21%) Functional Safety
4 11 (8.21%) IEC 61508
4 11 (8.21%) Linux
4 11 (8.21%) MISRA
4 11 (8.21%) MISRA C
4 11 (8.21%) Safety Engineering
4 11 (8.21%) SDLC
5 9 (6.72%) Agile
5 9 (6.72%) Embedded Linux
6 8 (5.97%) Firmware
7 7 (5.22%) .NET
7 7 (5.22%) Kotlin
7 7 (5.22%) SaaS
8 6 (4.48%) Android
8 6 (4.48%) Azure
8 6 (4.48%) Collaborative Culture
8 6 (4.48%) Embedded C
9 5 (3.73%) Java
10 4 (2.99%) C#
11 3 (2.24%) .NET Framework
11 3 (2.24%) Full-Stack Development
11 3 (2.24%) JavaScript
11 3 (2.24%) Microservices
11 3 (2.24%) Microsoft
11 3 (2.24%) React

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 7 (5.22%) SaaS
2 6 (4.48%) Azure
3 1 (0.75%) AWS
3 1 (0.75%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.75%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.24%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.75%) MySQL
2 1 (0.75%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.75%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.75%) Appium
1 1 (0.75%) Git
1 1 (0.75%) Postman
1 1 (0.75%) Subversion
General
1 1 (0.75%) Games
1 1 (0.75%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (5.22%) .NET
2 3 (2.24%) .NET Framework
2 3 (2.24%) React
3 2 (1.49%) .NET Core
3 2 (1.49%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.49%) ASP.NET
3 2 (1.49%) ASP.NET MVC
3 2 (1.49%) Entity Framework
3 2 (1.49%) Vue
4 1 (0.75%) Node.js
4 1 (0.75%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 13 (9.70%) Embedded Systems
2 11 (8.21%) CAN bus
3 5 (3.73%) Legacy Code
3 5 (3.73%) Mobile App
4 4 (2.99%) Renewable Energy
5 1 (0.75%) Cloud Native
5 1 (0.75%) Replication
5 1 (0.75%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 11 (8.21%) Linux
2 9 (6.72%) Embedded Linux
3 6 (4.48%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 11 (8.21%) Cybersecurity
2 11 (8.21%) Embedded Software Development
2 11 (8.21%) Safety Engineering
2 11 (8.21%) SDLC
3 9 (6.72%) Agile
4 6 (4.48%) Collaborative Culture
5 3 (2.24%) Full-Stack Development
5 3 (2.24%) Microservices
6 2 (1.49%) Continuous Improvement
6 2 (1.49%) DevOps
6 2 (1.49%) MVC
6 2 (1.49%) Software Testing
7 1 (0.75%) B2B
7 1 (0.75%) Data Integration
7 1 (0.75%) Data Modelling
7 1 (0.75%) Database Tuning
7 1 (0.75%) Software Architecture
7 1 (0.75%) Test Automation
7 1 (0.75%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 20 (14.93%) C
2 19 (14.18%) C++
3 7 (5.22%) Kotlin
4 6 (4.48%) Embedded C
5 5 (3.73%) Java
6 4 (2.99%) C#
7 3 (2.24%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.49%) SQL
9 1 (0.75%) Perl
9 1 (0.75%) Python
9 1 (0.75%) TypeScript
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (8.21%) IEC 61508
1 11 (8.21%) MISRA
1 11 (8.21%) MISRA C
System Software
1 8 (5.97%) Firmware
2 1 (0.75%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 11 (8.21%) Functional Safety
2 1 (0.75%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 3 (2.24%) Microsoft
2 1 (0.75%) Oracle
2 1 (0.75%) Siemens