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 2 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 21 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -17 +3 -1
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 236 513 375
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 8.54% 16.37% 15.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.20% 18.63% 16.28%
Number of salaries quoted 88 327 251
10th Percentile £36,763 £38,750 £35,000
25th Percentile £48,000 £45,000 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £64,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.50% - -2.37%
75th Percentile £80,313 £75,000 £77,715
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £91,934
UK median annual salary £75,000 £67,500 £70,000
% change year-on-year +11.11% -3.57% -

All Process and 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 2,313 2,754 2,304
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Scotland 83.74% 87.90% 95.72%
Number of salaries quoted 1,149 1,268 1,757
10th Percentile £26,250 £31,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,750 £40,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -27.27% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £69,800
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,121 £82,878
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

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 2 December 2025.

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 2 December 2025. 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
Glasgow +4 110 £67,500 +2.27% 23
Edinburgh -22 98 £63,750 -1.92% 51
West Lothian -8 10 £65,000 +44.44% 8
South Ayrshire +10 5 £55,498 -4.37% 1
Aberdeen -12 3 £60,000 +20.00% 11
Banffshire - 3 £30,000 - 2
North Lanarkshire -8 2 £80,000 +39.13% 5
South Lanarkshire - 2 - -
Dundee -2 1 £65,000 - 2
Scottish Borders - 1 £39,594 - 1
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 12 (5.08%) Apache Spark
2 6 (2.54%) Apache
2 6 (2.54%) Smallworld
3 4 (1.69%) Camunda
3 4 (1.69%) Oracle Workflow
4 2 (0.85%) Cloud Foundry
4 2 (0.85%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.42%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.42%) WinCC
Cloud Services
1 63 (26.69%) AWS
2 50 (21.19%) Azure
3 20 (8.47%) Azure DevOps
4 19 (8.05%) GitHub
5 14 (5.93%) GCP
6 13 (5.51%) Serverless
7 10 (4.24%) Snowflake
8 9 (3.81%) GitHub Copilot
9 8 (3.39%) Amazon S3
9 8 (3.39%) Azure Key Vault
9 8 (3.39%) dbt
9 8 (3.39%) SaaS
10 7 (2.97%) Azure Data Factory
10 7 (2.97%) Power Automate
10 7 (2.97%) Power Platform
11 6 (2.54%) AWS Lambda
12 5 (2.12%) Amazon ECS
12 5 (2.12%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (1.69%) OpenShift
14 3 (1.27%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.78%) RS-232
2 14 (5.93%) Bluetooth
3 13 (5.51%) Wireless
4 4 (1.69%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.42%) Internet
5 1 (0.42%) LoRaWAN
5 1 (0.42%) Modbus
5 1 (0.42%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (5.51%) NoSQL
2 12 (5.08%) Big Data
3 8 (3.39%) Amazon Athena
3 8 (3.39%) Apache Cassandra
3 8 (3.39%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (3.39%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.97%) MongoDB
4 7 (2.97%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (2.97%) Power BI
5 6 (2.54%) GIS
5 6 (2.54%) KDB
5 6 (2.54%) Kdb+
5 6 (2.54%) SQL Server
6 5 (2.12%) Amazon Redshift
6 5 (2.12%) Apache Hive
6 5 (2.12%) Oracle Database
7 4 (1.69%) Apache Iceberg
7 4 (1.69%) Hadoop
7 4 (1.69%) RDBMS
8 3 (1.27%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 12 (5.08%) Git
2 10 (4.24%) Jenkins
3 8 (3.39%) Maven
4 7 (2.97%) JIRA
4 7 (2.97%) JUnit
5 6 (2.54%) Storybook
6 4 (1.69%) webpack
7 3 (1.27%) Cypress.io
7 3 (1.27%) Gradle
7 3 (1.27%) Vite
8 2 (0.85%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.85%) Rational Rhapsody
8 2 (0.85%) Rational Statemate
8 2 (0.85%) Subversion
8 2 (0.85%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.42%) Ant
9 1 (0.42%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.42%) Jasmine
9 1 (0.42%) Karma Test Runner
9 1 (0.42%) Protractor
General
1 129 (54.66%) Finance
2 92 (38.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 92 (38.98%) Law
3 50 (21.19%) Banking
4 46 (19.49%) Marketing
5 31 (13.14%) Social Skills
6 19 (8.05%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (5.93%) Electronics
8 10 (4.24%) Games
9 9 (3.81%) Legal
10 8 (3.39%) Investment Banking
11 6 (2.54%) Tech for Good
12 5 (2.12%) Military
12 5 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (1.69%) Avionics
13 4 (1.69%) Private Banking
14 2 (0.85%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.85%) Front Office
14 2 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.85%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 180 (76.27%) Software Engineer
2 59 (25.00%) Java Engineer
3 58 (24.58%) Java Software Engineer
4 51 (21.61%) Senior
5 44 (18.64%) Lead
6 42 (17.80%) Senior Software Engineer
7 35 (14.83%) Lead Software Engineer
8 30 (12.71%) Embedded Engineer
8 30 (12.71%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 29 (12.29%) Full-Stack Engineer
10 28 (11.86%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
11 22 (9.32%) Developer
12 17 (7.20%) Python Engineer
12 17 (7.20%) Python Software Engineer
13 15 (6.36%) Lead Java Engineer
14 12 (5.08%) Senior Embedded Engineer
14 12 (5.08%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
15 10 (4.24%) Applications Engineer
15 10 (4.24%) AWS Software Engineer
15 10 (4.24%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (25.00%) React
2 53 (22.46%) Spring
3 35 (14.83%) Kafka
3 35 (14.83%) Spring Boot
4 24 (10.17%) AngularJS
5 21 (8.90%) RESTful
6 16 (6.78%) .NET
7 14 (5.93%) REST
8 12 (5.08%) OpenAPI
8 12 (5.08%) Swagger
9 11 (4.66%) OAuth
10 9 (3.81%) HTML
11 8 (3.39%) CSS
11 8 (3.39%) GraphQL
11 8 (3.39%) Hibernate
11 8 (3.39%) Next.js
11 8 (3.39%) PySpark
12 7 (2.97%) .NET Core
12 7 (2.97%) JSON
12 7 (2.97%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 37 (15.68%) Algorithms
2 36 (15.25%) Cloud Native
3 9 (3.81%) Distributed Systems
4 7 (2.97%) Low-Code
4 7 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.12%) Public Cloud
5 5 (2.12%) Reference Data
6 4 (1.69%) Derivative
6 4 (1.69%) Fixed Income
7 3 (1.27%) Device Driver
7 3 (1.27%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (0.85%) Credit Risk
8 2 (0.85%) Data Structures
8 2 (0.85%) Distributed Applications
8 2 (0.85%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (0.85%) Equities
8 2 (0.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (0.85%) Onboarding
8 2 (0.85%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (3.81%) Linux
2 6 (2.54%) Embedded Linux
3 3 (1.27%) Android
3 3 (1.27%) Unix
4 2 (0.85%) Apple iOS
4 2 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.85%) Ubuntu
4 2 (0.85%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (57.20%) Agile
2 105 (44.49%) CI/CD
3 83 (35.17%) SDLC
4 75 (31.78%) Operational Stability
5 66 (27.97%) AI
6 55 (23.31%) Machine Learning
7 51 (21.61%) Community of Practice
8 45 (19.07%) Continuous Improvement
8 45 (19.07%) Problem-Solving
8 45 (19.07%) Visualisation
9 37 (15.68%) Full-Stack Development
10 34 (14.41%) DevOps
11 26 (11.02%) Decision-Making
12 25 (10.59%) Asset Management
12 25 (10.59%) Microservices
12 25 (10.59%) Test Automation
13 24 (10.17%) Coaching
14 23 (9.75%) Mentoring
14 23 (9.75%) OO
15 16 (6.78%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 101 (42.80%) Java
2 54 (22.88%) SQL
3 43 (18.22%) Python
4 31 (13.14%) C#
5 23 (9.75%) C
5 23 (9.75%) TypeScript
6 22 (9.32%) C++
7 20 (8.47%) JavaScript
8 10 (4.24%) PowerShell
9 6 (2.54%) Ada
10 5 (2.12%) Go
11 4 (1.69%) Kotlin
11 4 (1.69%) PL/SQL
12 3 (1.27%) Embedded C
12 3 (1.27%) Scala
13 2 (0.85%) Swift
13 2 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.42%) Ada 95
14 1 (0.42%) Bicep
14 1 (0.42%) PHP
Qualifications
1 13 (5.51%) Degree
2 6 (2.54%) BPSS Clearance
2 6 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (0.85%) Azure Certification
4 1 (0.42%) Chartered Engineer
4 1 (0.42%) Master's Degree
4 1 (0.42%) SC Cleared
4 1 (0.42%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (2.54%) Accessibility
1 6 (2.54%) WCAG
2 4 (1.69%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.27%) NCSC
3 3 (1.27%) NIST
4 2 (0.85%) ISO 20022
4 2 (0.85%) QA
4 2 (0.85%) SEPA
5 1 (0.42%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 1 (0.42%) JTAG
System Software
1 18 (7.63%) Docker
2 17 (7.20%) Firmware
3 4 (1.69%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (1.27%) HDFS
5 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 38 (16.10%) Kubernetes
2 19 (8.05%) Terraform
3 7 (2.97%) Grafana
4 2 (0.85%) Ansible
4 2 (0.85%) ITRS Geneos
4 2 (0.85%) Netcool
4 2 (0.85%) Netcool/OMNIbus
4 2 (0.85%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.85%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 24 (10.17%) Oracle
2 12 (5.08%) Microsoft
3 11 (4.66%) Splunk
4 9 (3.81%) Dynatrace
5 7 (2.97%) Databricks
6 4 (1.69%) Google
6 4 (1.69%) ServiceNow
7 3 (1.27%) Cloudera
7 3 (1.27%) Facebook
8 2 (0.85%) Avaloq
8 2 (0.85%) Green Hills
8 2 (0.85%) IBM
8 2 (0.85%) Red Hat
9 1 (0.42%) ESRI
9 1 (0.42%) Murex
9 1 (0.42%) NVIDIA
9 1 (0.42%) Remedy
9 1 (0.42%) Rockwell
9 1 (0.42%) SAP
9 1 (0.42%) Siemens