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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 6 3
Rank change year-on-year -18 -3 +2
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 198 388 1,316
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 6.87% 15.55% 33.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.60% 16.55% 36.32%
Number of salaries quoted 113 235 351
10th Percentile £38,615 £40,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,365 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £63,419 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.70% - -7.34%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £89,000 £101,500 £91,934
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -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 2,302 2,344 3,623
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Scotland 79.85% 93.95% 93.55%
Number of salaries quoted 1,134 974 2,064
10th Percentile £26,750 £31,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,000 £41,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%
75th Percentile £65,000 £71,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,444
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.45% -8.09%

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 January 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 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
Edinburgh -13 139 £65,000 +4.00% 78
West Lothian -1 15 £65,000 +62.50% 14
Glasgow -25 14 £61,499 -18.00% 26
Aberdeen -3 8 £65,000 +36.84% 13
Banffshire - 6 £30,000 - 2
South Ayrshire +9 5 £55,498 -4.37%
Fife +7 2 - - 4
North Lanarkshire -13 2 £80,000 +39.13% 1
South Lanarkshire - 2 - -
Midlothian - 1 - - 47
Dundee - 1 £80,000 -
Stirling - 1 - - 6
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 (3.03%) Smallworld
2 1 (0.51%) ArcGIS
2 1 (0.51%) WinCC
Business Applications
1 1 (0.51%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 36 (18.18%) Azure
2 18 (9.09%) Azure DevOps
3 11 (5.56%) AWS
3 11 (5.56%) Azure Key Vault
3 11 (5.56%) dbt
3 11 (5.56%) Snowflake
4 10 (5.05%) GitHub
4 10 (5.05%) SaaS
5 7 (3.54%) Azure Data Factory
5 7 (3.54%) GitHub Copilot
5 7 (3.54%) Power Automate
5 7 (3.54%) Power Platform
5 7 (3.54%) Serverless
6 4 (2.02%) GCP
7 2 (1.01%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.51%) Amazon ECS
8 1 (0.51%) Amazon S3
8 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.51%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.51%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 15 (7.58%) RS-232
2 10 (5.05%) Bluetooth
2 10 (5.05%) Wireless
3 8 (4.04%) Broadband
4 5 (2.53%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.54%) Power BI
2 6 (3.03%) GIS
3 5 (2.53%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (2.53%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.01%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.51%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.51%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.51%) MySQL
5 1 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.51%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (3.03%) Storybook
2 4 (2.02%) Git
2 4 (2.02%) JIRA
3 2 (1.01%) Rational DOORS
3 2 (1.01%) Rational Rhapsody
3 2 (1.01%) Rational Statemate
3 2 (1.01%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.51%) Subversion
General
1 34 (17.17%) Finance
2 20 (10.10%) Social Skills
3 16 (8.08%) Games
4 10 (5.05%) Electronics
5 7 (3.54%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (3.54%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.03%) Legal
6 6 (3.03%) Marketing
7 5 (2.53%) Military
8 4 (2.02%) Avionics
8 4 (2.02%) Tech for Good
9 2 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.51%) Banking
10 1 (0.51%) Police
10 1 (0.51%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.51%) Retail
Job Titles
1 134 (67.68%) Software Engineer
2 78 (39.39%) Senior
3 61 (30.81%) Senior Software Engineer
4 56 (28.28%) Embedded Engineer
4 56 (28.28%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 35 (17.68%) Senior Embedded Engineer
5 35 (17.68%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
6 19 (9.60%) Lead
7 13 (6.57%) Developer
8 12 (6.06%) Embedded Linux Engineer
8 12 (6.06%) Embedded Linux Software Engineer
8 12 (6.06%) Linux Engineer
8 12 (6.06%) Principal Engineer
8 12 (6.06%) Senior Linux Engineer
9 11 (5.56%) Azure Engineer
9 11 (5.56%) Principal Software Engineer
10 10 (5.05%) Applications Engineer
11 9 (4.55%) Lead Software Engineer
12 7 (3.54%) Java Engineer
13 6 (3.03%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (10.61%) React
2 13 (6.57%) .NET
3 11 (5.56%) GraphQL
3 11 (5.56%) OAuth
3 11 (5.56%) OpenAPI
3 11 (5.56%) Swagger
4 7 (3.54%) Next.js
4 7 (3.54%) Spring Boot
5 6 (3.03%) JSON
5 6 (3.03%) JSON-LD
5 6 (3.03%) RESTful
6 5 (2.53%) Spring
6 5 (2.53%) Yocto
7 4 (2.02%) .NET Framework
7 4 (2.02%) AngularJS
8 3 (1.52%) CSS
8 3 (1.52%) Hibernate
8 3 (1.52%) HTML
8 3 (1.52%) Kafka
8 3 (1.52%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 11 (5.56%) CAN bus
1 11 (5.56%) Embedded Systems
2 7 (3.54%) Cloud Native
2 7 (3.54%) Low-Code
2 7 (3.54%) Self-Motivation
3 5 (2.53%) Device Driver
3 5 (2.53%) NHS
3 5 (2.53%) Renewable Energy
4 4 (2.02%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.01%) SCADA
6 1 (0.51%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (0.51%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.51%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.51%) Distributed Architecture
6 1 (0.51%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (0.51%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.51%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.51%) Replication
6 1 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 17 (8.59%) Embedded Linux
1 17 (8.59%) Linux
2 8 (4.04%) Android
3 1 (0.51%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (28.79%) Agile
2 35 (17.68%) CI/CD
3 32 (16.16%) Coaching
4 27 (13.64%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (12.12%) Asset Management
6 23 (11.62%) DevOps
7 21 (10.61%) OO
8 19 (9.60%) Mentoring
9 16 (8.08%) Roadmaps
10 15 (7.58%) SDLC
10 15 (7.58%) Test Automation
11 14 (7.07%) Data Integration
12 13 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
13 11 (5.56%) Cybersecurity
13 11 (5.56%) Embedded Software Development
13 11 (5.56%) Infrastructure as Code
13 11 (5.56%) Line Management
13 11 (5.56%) Safety Engineering
14 9 (4.55%) Full-Stack Development
14 9 (4.55%) Technology Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 33 (16.67%) C
2 31 (15.66%) C++
3 29 (14.65%) Java
4 28 (14.14%) C#
5 25 (12.63%) SQL
6 11 (5.56%) PowerShell
6 11 (5.56%) Python
7 10 (5.05%) TypeScript
8 9 (4.55%) Kotlin
9 7 (3.54%) JavaScript
10 6 (3.03%) Ada
10 6 (3.03%) Embedded C
11 1 (0.51%) Ada 95
11 1 (0.51%) Bicep
11 1 (0.51%) Magik
11 1 (0.51%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.51%) Perl
11 1 (0.51%) Ruby
11 1 (0.51%) Scala
11 1 (0.51%) Swift
Qualifications
1 10 (5.05%) Degree
2 6 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
3 3 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.51%) Chartered Engineer
4 1 (0.51%) Master's Degree
4 1 (0.51%) SC Cleared
4 1 (0.51%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.56%) IEC 61508
1 11 (5.56%) MISRA
1 11 (5.56%) MISRA C
2 6 (3.03%) Accessibility
2 6 (3.03%) WCAG
3 4 (2.02%) NCSC
3 4 (2.02%) NIST
4 3 (1.52%) QA
5 1 (0.51%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.51%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (8.59%) Firmware
2 7 (3.54%) Embedded Firmware
3 3 (1.52%) Docker
4 1 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (6.06%) Terraform
2 11 (5.56%) Functional Safety
3 4 (2.02%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 13 (6.57%) Microsoft
2 5 (2.53%) Oracle
3 2 (1.01%) Green Hills
3 2 (1.01%) Siemens
4 1 (0.51%) ESRI
4 1 (0.51%) Remedy
4 1 (0.51%) Rockwell
4 1 (0.51%) Salesforce