Software Engineering Job Trends in Scotland

Software Engineering
UK > Scotland

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in Scotland requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 6 4
Rank change year-on-year -15 -2 +1
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 237 352 1,890
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 7.75% 15.79% 40.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.88% 16.83% 43.62%
Number of salaries quoted 140 245 395
10th Percentile £37,817 £40,000 £38,750
25th Percentile £53,250 £46,306 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £91,934
UK median annual salary £70,000 £71,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -2.10% +10.00% -7.14%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Scotland

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Scotland.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,398 2,091 4,333
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Scotland 78.42% 93.81% 93.20%
Number of salaries quoted 1,252 929 2,117
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -9.78%
75th Percentile £67,500 £73,886 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £95,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,350 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.86% +9.73% -12.00%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Scotland

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Scotland.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Scotland

Software Engineering
Salary Trend in Scotland

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing Software Engineering.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Salary Histogram in Scotland

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Scotland over the 6 months to 6 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineering in Scotland

Software Engineering
Job Locations in Scotland

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineering within the Scotland region over the 6 months to 6 March 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
Edinburgh -5 178 £65,000 - 46
West Lothian -6 17 £65,000 +44.44% 13
Glasgow -34 10 £61,499 -18.00% 8
Aberdeen -3 9 £65,000 +10.64%
Banffshire - 8 £30,000 -
South Ayrshire +4 4 £55,498 -4.37%
Fife +4 2 - - 9
North Lanarkshire -9 2 £80,000 +39.13% 1
South Lanarkshire - 2 - - 1
Midlothian - 1 - - 30
Dundee - 1 £80,000 -
Stirling - 1 - - 6
Scottish Borders - 1 £39,594 - 5
Software Engineering
UK

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland 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 6 (2.53%) Smallworld
2 1 (0.42%) ArcGIS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 36 (15.19%) Azure
2 18 (7.59%) Azure DevOps
3 11 (4.64%) Azure Key Vault
3 11 (4.64%) dbt
3 11 (4.64%) Snowflake
4 9 (3.80%) AWS
5 8 (3.38%) SaaS
6 7 (2.95%) Azure Data Factory
6 7 (2.95%) GitHub
6 7 (2.95%) GitHub Copilot
6 7 (2.95%) Power Automate
6 7 (2.95%) Power Platform
6 7 (2.95%) Serverless
7 5 (2.11%) GCP
8 2 (0.84%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.42%) Amazon ECS
9 1 (0.42%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.42%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.42%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.42%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.75%) RS-232
2 9 (3.80%) Ethernet
3 8 (3.38%) Broadband
4 7 (2.95%) Bluetooth
4 7 (2.95%) Wireless
5 1 (0.42%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.95%) Power BI
2 6 (2.53%) GIS
3 5 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (1.69%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.84%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.42%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.42%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.42%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.42%) MySQL
6 1 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.42%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (2.53%) Storybook
2 4 (1.69%) JIRA
3 2 (0.84%) Git
3 2 (0.84%) Rational DOORS
3 2 (0.84%) Rational Rhapsody
3 2 (0.84%) Rational Statemate
4 1 (0.42%) Appium
4 1 (0.42%) Postman
4 1 (0.42%) Subversion
General
1 34 (14.35%) Finance
2 16 (6.75%) Games
3 15 (6.33%) Social Skills
4 8 (3.38%) Legal
5 7 (2.95%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (2.95%) Electronics
5 7 (2.95%) Telecoms
6 6 (2.53%) Marketing
7 5 (2.11%) Military
7 5 (2.11%) Tech for Good
8 4 (1.69%) Avionics
9 3 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.42%) Banking
10 1 (0.42%) Police
10 1 (0.42%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.42%) Retail
Job Titles
1 171 (72.15%) Software Engineer
2 97 (40.93%) Senior
3 78 (32.91%) Senior Software Engineer
4 70 (29.54%) Embedded Engineer
4 70 (29.54%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 43 (18.14%) Senior Embedded Engineer
5 43 (18.14%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
6 22 (9.28%) Lead
7 15 (6.33%) Principal Engineer
8 14 (5.91%) Engineering Manager
8 14 (5.91%) Lead Software Engineer
8 14 (5.91%) Linux Engineer
8 14 (5.91%) Senior Linux Engineer
9 13 (5.49%) Principal Software Engineer
10 12 (5.06%) Applications Engineer
10 12 (5.06%) Embedded Linux Engineer
10 12 (5.06%) Embedded Linux Software Engineer
11 11 (4.64%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (3.38%) Software Engineering Manager
12 8 (3.38%) Software Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (8.86%) React
2 13 (5.49%) .NET
3 11 (4.64%) GraphQL
3 11 (4.64%) OAuth
3 11 (4.64%) OpenAPI
3 11 (4.64%) Swagger
4 9 (3.80%) Yocto
5 7 (2.95%) Next.js
5 7 (2.95%) Spring Boot
6 6 (2.53%) JSON
6 6 (2.53%) JSON-LD
7 5 (2.11%) AngularJS
8 3 (1.27%) .NET Core
8 3 (1.27%) .NET Framework
8 3 (1.27%) CSS
8 3 (1.27%) Kafka
8 3 (1.27%) Node.js
8 3 (1.27%) React Native
8 3 (1.27%) RESTful
8 3 (1.27%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 11 (4.64%) CAN bus
1 11 (4.64%) Embedded Systems
2 9 (3.80%) Device Driver
3 8 (3.38%) Cloud Native
4 7 (2.95%) Low-Code
4 7 (2.95%) NHS
4 7 (2.95%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (2.53%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.69%) Legacy Code
6 4 (1.69%) Renewable Energy
7 3 (1.27%) Mobile App
8 2 (0.84%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (0.42%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.42%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.42%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.42%) Product Ownership
9 1 (0.42%) Replication
9 1 (0.42%) SCADA
9 1 (0.42%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 23 (9.70%) Linux
2 21 (8.86%) Embedded Linux
3 8 (3.38%) Android
4 1 (0.42%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (26.16%) Agile
2 35 (14.77%) Coaching
3 30 (12.66%) CI/CD
4 24 (10.13%) Asset Management
4 24 (10.13%) DevOps
4 24 (10.13%) Problem-Solving
5 18 (7.59%) Mentoring
5 18 (7.59%) OO
6 16 (6.75%) Roadmaps
6 16 (6.75%) SDLC
6 16 (6.75%) Test Automation
7 14 (5.91%) Data Integration
8 13 (5.49%) Line Management
9 12 (5.06%) Continuous Improvement
9 12 (5.06%) Infrastructure as Code
10 11 (4.64%) Cybersecurity
10 11 (4.64%) Embedded Software Development
10 11 (4.64%) Safety Engineering
11 10 (4.22%) Scrum
12 9 (3.80%) AI
Programming Languages
1 41 (17.30%) C
2 33 (13.92%) Java
3 31 (13.08%) C++
4 26 (10.97%) C#
5 23 (9.70%) SQL
6 15 (6.33%) Embedded C
7 12 (5.06%) Python
8 11 (4.64%) PowerShell
8 11 (4.64%) TypeScript
9 10 (4.22%) Kotlin
10 9 (3.80%) JavaScript
11 5 (2.11%) Ada
12 1 (0.42%) Bicep
12 1 (0.42%) Magik
12 1 (0.42%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.42%) Perl
12 1 (0.42%) Ruby
12 1 (0.42%) Scala
12 1 (0.42%) Swift
Qualifications
1 6 (2.53%) Degree
2 5 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
3 1 (0.42%) Master's Degree
3 1 (0.42%) SC Cleared
3 1 (0.42%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.64%) IEC 61508
1 11 (4.64%) MISRA
1 11 (4.64%) MISRA C
2 6 (2.53%) Accessibility
2 6 (2.53%) WCAG
3 4 (1.69%) NCSC
3 4 (1.69%) NIST
4 2 (0.84%) QA
5 1 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.42%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (6.75%) Firmware
2 6 (2.53%) Embedded Firmware
3 3 (1.27%) Docker
4 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (5.06%) Terraform
2 11 (4.64%) Functional Safety
3 5 (2.11%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 15 (6.33%) Microsoft
2 3 (1.27%) Oracle
3 2 (0.84%) Green Hills
4 1 (0.42%) ESRI
4 1 (0.42%) Remedy
4 1 (0.42%) Salesforce
4 1 (0.42%) Siemens