Head of Software Engineering Job Trends in England

Head of Software Engineering
UK > England

The median Head of Software Engineering salary in England is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 644 655
Rank change year-on-year +57 +11 +282
Permanent jobs requiring a Head of Software Engineering 15 17 13
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.029% 0.034% 0.028%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.032% 0.037% 0.030%
Number of salaries quoted 8 12 12
10th Percentile £83,500 - -
25th Percentile £98,125 £87,500 £78,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £93,750 £90,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% +4.17% -25.00%
75th Percentile - £105,000 £120,000
90th Percentile £107,875 £114,750 £129,000
UK median annual salary £100,000 £96,250 £90,000
% change year-on-year +3.90% +6.94% -25.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in England. 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 England with a recognized job title 47,259 45,849 43,468
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.69% 92.93% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 29,657 24,316 34,123
10th Percentile £28,528 £33,200 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.78%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

Head of Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Head of Software Engineering job vacancy trend in England

Head of Software Engineering
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for Head of Software Engineering job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for Head of Software Engineering job vacancies in England

Head of Software Engineering
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Head of Software Engineering in England over the 6 months to 2 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Head of Software Engineering in England

Head of Software Engineering
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Head of Software Engineering within the England region over the 6 months to 2 January 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
South East +27 7 £100,000 +2.56% 3
North of England +24 6 £108,750 +14.47% 1
Yorkshire - 4 £108,750 - 1
North West +36 2 - -
South West +15 1 - -
Head of Software Engineering
UK

Head of Software Engineering Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 2 January 2026, Head of Software Engineering 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 England region featuring Head of Software Engineering in the job title.

1 15 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 4 (26.67%) EDI
2 4 (26.67%) QA
2 4 (26.67%) Roadmaps
3 3 (20.00%) AI
3 3 (20.00%) Azure
3 3 (20.00%) JavaScript
3 3 (20.00%) Node.js
3 3 (20.00%) SaaS
3 3 (20.00%) Software Delivery
4 2 (13.33%) Agile
4 2 (13.33%) AWS
4 2 (13.33%) Bootstrap
4 2 (13.33%) Chatbot
4 2 (13.33%) Client Onboarding
4 2 (13.33%) Conversational UI
4 2 (13.33%) Data Engineering
4 2 (13.33%) JIRA
4 2 (13.33%) PaaS
4 2 (13.33%) React
4 2 (13.33%) Redux
4 2 (13.33%) Sprint Planning
4 2 (13.33%) Test Management
4 2 (13.33%) TypeScript
5 1 (6.67%) .NET
5 1 (6.67%) .NET Core
5 1 (6.67%) Analytics
5 1 (6.67%) API Design
5 1 (6.67%) Application Security
5 1 (6.67%) Azure Data Factory

Head of Software Engineering Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 1 (6.67%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (13.33%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 3 (20.00%) Azure
1 3 (20.00%) SaaS
2 2 (13.33%) AWS
2 2 (13.33%) PaaS
3 1 (6.67%) Azure Data Factory
3 1 (6.67%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (6.67%) Azure Functions
3 1 (6.67%) Azure Logic Apps
3 1 (6.67%) GitHub
3 1 (6.67%) GitHub Actions
3 1 (6.67%) IaaS
3 1 (6.67%) Power Automate
3 1 (6.67%) Power Platform
3 1 (6.67%) PowerApps
3 1 (6.67%) Serverless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (6.67%) MariaDB
1 1 (6.67%) MySQL
1 1 (6.67%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (6.67%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (13.33%) JIRA
General
1 5 (33.33%) Public Sector
2 3 (20.00%) Law
3 1 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (6.67%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (26.67%) EDI
2 3 (20.00%) Node.js
3 2 (13.33%) Bootstrap
3 2 (13.33%) React
3 2 (13.33%) Redux
4 1 (6.67%) .NET
4 1 (6.67%) .NET Core
4 1 (6.67%) CSS
4 1 (6.67%) HTML
4 1 (6.67%) JSON
4 1 (6.67%) Middleware
4 1 (6.67%) REST
4 1 (6.67%) RESTful
4 1 (6.67%) Smarty
4 1 (6.67%) Symfony
Miscellaneous
1 1 (6.67%) AI Agents
1 1 (6.67%) Cloud Native
1 1 (6.67%) Distributed Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 4 (26.67%) Roadmaps
3 3 (20.00%) AI
3 3 (20.00%) Software Delivery
4 2 (13.33%) Agile
4 2 (13.33%) Client Onboarding
4 2 (13.33%) Conversational UI
4 2 (13.33%) Data Engineering
4 2 (13.33%) Sprint Planning
4 2 (13.33%) Test Management
5 1 (6.67%) Application Security
5 1 (6.67%) CI/CD
5 1 (6.67%) Decision-Making
5 1 (6.67%) Full-Stack Development
5 1 (6.67%) Infrastructure as Code
5 1 (6.67%) IT Strategy
5 1 (6.67%) Observability
5 1 (6.67%) Strategic Roadmap
5 1 (6.67%) Technology Roadmap
5 1 (6.67%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 3 (20.00%) JavaScript
2 2 (13.33%) TypeScript
3 1 (6.67%) C#
3 1 (6.67%) PHP
3 1 (6.67%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 1 (6.67%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (6.67%) Degree
1 1 (6.67%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (26.67%) QA
2 1 (6.67%) GDPR
2 1 (6.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
Vendors
1 1 (6.67%) Microsoft
1 1 (6.67%) Salesforce