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 29 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 6 3
Rank change year-on-year -12 -3 +2
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 254 314 2,722
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 8.06% 16.13% 46.31%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.56% 17.49% 49.78%
Number of salaries quoted 140 236 496
10th Percentile £33,725 £40,000 £38,750
25th Percentile £54,639 £45,979 £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 £82,751 £69,813
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £91,934
UK median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year -3.45% +16.00% -10.71%

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 2,405 1,795 5,468
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Scotland 76.30% 92.19% 93.02%
Number of salaries quoted 1,276 917 2,337
10th Percentile £28,250 £27,500 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £40,000 £39,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -10.74%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £94,267 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%

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 29 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 29 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 -1 189 £67,500 +1.50% 37
West Lothian -5 21 £65,000 +30.00% 4
Aberdeen -9 9 £65,000 +13.04%
Glasgow -47 8 £47,749 -29.26% 17
Banffshire - 8 £30,000 -
South Ayrshire +1 4 £55,498 -4.37%
South Lanarkshire - 3 £55,000 - 2
Fife -5 2 - - 2
North Lanarkshire -13 2 £80,000 +39.13% 1
Stirling - 2 - -
Dundee -9 1 £80,000 -
Lanarkshire -9 1 £34,000 -54.67% 8
Midlothian - 1 - - 21
Scottish Borders - 1 £39,594 -
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 (2.36%) Smallworld
2 1 (0.39%) Apache
2 1 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
2 1 (0.39%) ArcGIS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.39%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 37 (14.57%) Azure
2 18 (7.09%) Azure DevOps
3 11 (4.33%) Azure Key Vault
3 11 (4.33%) dbt
3 11 (4.33%) Snowflake
4 9 (3.54%) AWS
5 8 (3.15%) Serverless
6 7 (2.76%) Azure Data Factory
6 7 (2.76%) GitHub
6 7 (2.76%) GitHub Copilot
6 7 (2.76%) Power Automate
6 7 (2.76%) Power Platform
6 7 (2.76%) SaaS
7 3 (1.18%) Azure AI
7 3 (1.18%) Azure Machine Learning
7 3 (1.18%) GCP
7 3 (1.18%) Vertex AI
8 2 (0.79%) Amazon ECS
8 2 (0.79%) AWS CloudFormation
8 2 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.30%) RS-232
2 11 (4.33%) Broadband
2 11 (4.33%) Ethernet
3 5 (1.97%) Bluetooth
3 5 (1.97%) Wireless
4 1 (0.39%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.76%) Power BI
2 6 (2.36%) GIS
3 4 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.18%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.39%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.39%) MySQL
5 1 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.39%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (2.36%) Storybook
2 4 (1.57%) JIRA
3 3 (1.18%) Git
4 2 (0.79%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (0.79%) Rational Rhapsody
4 2 (0.79%) Rational Statemate
5 1 (0.39%) Appium
5 1 (0.39%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.39%) MLflow
5 1 (0.39%) Postman
5 1 (0.39%) Subversion
General
1 34 (13.39%) Finance
2 19 (7.48%) Social Skills
3 16 (6.30%) Games
4 8 (3.15%) Legal
5 7 (2.76%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (2.76%) Telecoms
6 6 (2.36%) Electronics
6 6 (2.36%) Marketing
7 5 (1.97%) Military
8 4 (1.57%) Avionics
8 4 (1.57%) Tech for Good
9 3 (1.18%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.79%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.39%) Banking
11 1 (0.39%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.39%) Police
11 1 (0.39%) Retail
Job Titles
1 184 (72.44%) Software Engineer
2 107 (42.13%) Senior
3 86 (33.86%) Senior Software Engineer
4 71 (27.95%) Embedded Engineer
4 71 (27.95%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 46 (18.11%) Senior Embedded Engineer
5 46 (18.11%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
6 23 (9.06%) Lead
7 18 (7.09%) Principal Engineer
8 16 (6.30%) Principal Software Engineer
9 15 (5.91%) Engineering Manager
10 14 (5.51%) Lead Software Engineer
10 14 (5.51%) Linux Engineer
10 14 (5.51%) Senior Linux Engineer
11 13 (5.12%) Applications Engineer
12 12 (4.72%) Embedded Linux Engineer
12 12 (4.72%) Embedded Linux Software Engineer
13 11 (4.33%) Azure Engineer
14 9 (3.54%) Developer
15 8 (3.15%) Software Engineering Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (6.69%) React
2 12 (4.72%) .NET
2 12 (4.72%) OAuth
3 11 (4.33%) GraphQL
3 11 (4.33%) OpenAPI
3 11 (4.33%) Swagger
3 11 (4.33%) Yocto
4 7 (2.76%) Next.js
5 6 (2.36%) JSON
5 6 (2.36%) JSON-LD
6 4 (1.57%) Spring Boot
7 3 (1.18%) .NET Framework
7 3 (1.18%) AngularJS
7 3 (1.18%) AWS CDK
7 3 (1.18%) LangChain
7 3 (1.18%) Node.js
7 3 (1.18%) React Native
7 3 (1.18%) RESTful
7 3 (1.18%) Semantic Kernel
7 3 (1.18%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 13 (5.12%) Cloud Native
2 11 (4.33%) CAN bus
2 11 (4.33%) Device Driver
2 11 (4.33%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (2.76%) Low-Code
3 7 (2.76%) NHS
3 7 (2.76%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (2.36%) Onboarding
5 5 (1.97%) Legacy Code
5 5 (1.97%) Mobile App
6 4 (1.57%) Renewable Energy
7 3 (1.18%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.79%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (0.79%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (0.39%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.39%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.39%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.39%) Product Ownership
9 1 (0.39%) Replication
9 1 (0.39%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 25 (9.84%) Linux
2 23 (9.06%) Embedded Linux
3 8 (3.15%) Android
4 1 (0.39%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (27.17%) Agile
2 35 (13.78%) Coaching
3 32 (12.60%) CI/CD
4 25 (9.84%) DevOps
4 25 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (9.45%) Asset Management
6 22 (8.66%) Mentoring
7 19 (7.48%) OO
8 17 (6.69%) Test Automation
9 16 (6.30%) SDLC
10 15 (5.91%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (5.91%) Roadmaps
11 14 (5.51%) Cybersecurity
11 14 (5.51%) Data Integration
11 14 (5.51%) Infrastructure as Code
12 13 (5.12%) AI
12 13 (5.12%) Line Management
12 13 (5.12%) Scrum
13 12 (4.72%) Microservices
14 11 (4.33%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 41 (16.14%) C
2 33 (12.99%) Java
3 31 (12.20%) C++
4 25 (9.84%) C#
5 24 (9.45%) SQL
6 17 (6.69%) Embedded C
6 17 (6.69%) Python
7 11 (4.33%) PowerShell
7 11 (4.33%) TypeScript
8 10 (3.94%) Kotlin
9 8 (3.15%) JavaScript
10 5 (1.97%) Ada
11 1 (0.39%) Bicep
11 1 (0.39%) Magik
11 1 (0.39%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.39%) Perl
11 1 (0.39%) Ruby
11 1 (0.39%) Scala
11 1 (0.39%) Swift
Qualifications
1 7 (2.76%) Degree
2 5 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
3 1 (0.39%) HND
3 1 (0.39%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.33%) IEC 61508
1 11 (4.33%) MISRA
1 11 (4.33%) MISRA C
2 7 (2.76%) Accessibility
3 6 (2.36%) WCAG
4 3 (1.18%) NCSC
4 3 (1.18%) NIST
5 2 (0.79%) QA
6 1 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.39%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (5.91%) Firmware
2 5 (1.97%) Embedded Firmware
3 3 (1.18%) Docker
4 1 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (5.12%) Terraform
2 11 (4.33%) Functional Safety
3 5 (1.97%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.39%) Grafana
Vendors
1 14 (5.51%) Microsoft
2 3 (1.18%) Foundry
2 3 (1.18%) Google
2 3 (1.18%) Oracle
3 2 (0.79%) Green Hills
4 1 (0.39%) ESRI
4 1 (0.39%) Remedy
4 1 (0.39%) Salesforce
4 1 (0.39%) Siemens