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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 6 4
Rank change year-on-year -22 -2 +1
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 165 402 899
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 6.04% 15.24% 29.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 7.53% 16.46% 31.12%
Number of salaries quoted 92 243 283
10th Percentile £32,575 £39,000 £38,000
25th Percentile £48,000 £47,365 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year - -4.00% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £100,000 £95,731
UK median annual salary £72,500 £70,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +3.57% - -

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 2,192 2,442 2,889
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Scotland 80.18% 92.61% 94.47%
Number of salaries quoted 1,069 1,028 1,789
10th Percentile £26,250 £32,025 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £41,250 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -23.64% +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £69,800
90th Percentile £82,292 £88,750 £84,056
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 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 6 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 -19 109 £60,000 - 67
Glasgow -22 15 £67,500 -10.00% 14
West Lothian -3 13 £65,000 +62.50% 7
Aberdeen -7 6 £62,500 +31.58% 30
Banffshire - 6 £30,000 -
South Ayrshire +8 5 £55,498 -4.37%
Fife +8 2 - - 7
North Lanarkshire -11 2 £80,000 +39.13% 5
South Lanarkshire - 2 - - 3
Midlothian - 1 - - 49
Dundee - 1 £80,000 -
Stirling - 1 - -
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 6 (3.64%) Smallworld
2 1 (0.61%) ArcGIS
2 1 (0.61%) WinCC
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 38 (23.03%) Azure
2 20 (12.12%) Azure DevOps
3 13 (7.88%) GitHub
4 12 (7.27%) AWS
5 11 (6.67%) Azure Key Vault
5 11 (6.67%) dbt
5 11 (6.67%) Snowflake
6 8 (4.85%) GitHub Copilot
6 8 (4.85%) Serverless
7 7 (4.24%) Azure Data Factory
7 7 (4.24%) Power Automate
7 7 (4.24%) Power Platform
8 6 (3.64%) SaaS
9 4 (2.42%) GCP
10 2 (1.21%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.21%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.61%) Azure AI
11 1 (0.61%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 1 (0.61%) ChatGPT
11 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 15 (9.09%) RS-232
2 12 (7.27%) Bluetooth
2 12 (7.27%) Wireless
3 7 (4.24%) Broadband
4 3 (1.82%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.24%) Power BI
2 6 (3.64%) GIS
3 4 (2.42%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (1.21%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (1.21%) MongoDB
5 2 (1.21%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.61%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.61%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 6 (3.64%) Storybook
2 4 (2.42%) JIRA
3 3 (1.82%) Git
4 2 (1.21%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (1.21%) Rational Rhapsody
4 2 (1.21%) Rational Statemate
4 2 (1.21%) Visual Studio
General
1 33 (20.00%) Finance
2 20 (12.12%) Social Skills
3 16 (9.70%) Games
4 12 (7.27%) Electronics
5 7 (4.24%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.24%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.64%) Marketing
7 5 (3.03%) Military
8 4 (2.42%) Avionics
8 4 (2.42%) Tech for Good
9 3 (1.82%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.61%) Banking
11 1 (0.61%) Legal
11 1 (0.61%) Police
11 1 (0.61%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.61%) Retail
Job Titles
1 107 (64.85%) Software Engineer
2 60 (36.36%) Senior
3 47 (28.48%) Senior Software Engineer
4 45 (27.27%) Embedded Engineer
4 45 (27.27%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 27 (16.36%) Senior Embedded Engineer
5 27 (16.36%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
6 16 (9.70%) Lead
7 12 (7.27%) Developer
8 11 (6.67%) Azure Engineer
9 10 (6.06%) Applications Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Embedded Linux Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Embedded Linux Software Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Linux Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Principal Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Senior Linux Engineer
11 8 (4.85%) Principal Software Engineer
12 7 (4.24%) Java Engineer
12 7 (4.24%) Lead Software Engineer
13 6 (3.64%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (14.55%) React
2 14 (8.48%) .NET
3 11 (6.67%) GraphQL
3 11 (6.67%) OAuth
3 11 (6.67%) OpenAPI
3 11 (6.67%) Swagger
4 8 (4.85%) RESTful
5 7 (4.24%) AngularJS
5 7 (4.24%) Next.js
6 6 (3.64%) JSON
6 6 (3.64%) JSON-LD
6 6 (3.64%) Spring Boot
7 4 (2.42%) .NET Core
7 4 (2.42%) .NET Framework
7 4 (2.42%) Spring
8 3 (1.82%) HTML
8 3 (1.82%) Kafka
8 3 (1.82%) React Native
8 3 (1.82%) Vue
8 3 (1.82%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.45%) Cloud Native
2 8 (4.85%) CAN bus
2 8 (4.85%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (4.24%) Low-Code
3 7 (4.24%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (1.82%) Device Driver
4 3 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (1.82%) Renewable Energy
5 2 (1.21%) Distributed Architecture
5 2 (1.21%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.61%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.61%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.61%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.61%) NHS
6 1 (0.61%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 12 (7.27%) Embedded Linux
1 12 (7.27%) Linux
2 5 (3.03%) Android
3 1 (0.61%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (30.91%) Agile
2 37 (22.42%) CI/CD
3 26 (15.76%) Coaching
3 26 (15.76%) DevOps
4 24 (14.55%) Asset Management
5 23 (13.94%) Problem-Solving
6 22 (13.33%) OO
7 20 (12.12%) Mentoring
8 15 (9.09%) Test Automation
9 13 (7.88%) Data Integration
10 12 (7.27%) SDLC
11 11 (6.67%) AI
11 11 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
11 11 (6.67%) Infrastructure as Code
11 11 (6.67%) Microservices
11 11 (6.67%) Roadmaps
12 9 (5.45%) Full-Stack Development
12 9 (5.45%) Pair Programming
12 9 (5.45%) Technology Roadmap
13 8 (4.85%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 29 (17.58%) C#
2 28 (16.97%) C
2 28 (16.97%) Java
3 26 (15.76%) C++
4 25 (15.15%) SQL
5 12 (7.27%) Python
6 11 (6.67%) PowerShell
7 10 (6.06%) TypeScript
8 7 (4.24%) JavaScript
9 6 (3.64%) Ada
9 6 (3.64%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.82%) Embedded C
11 1 (0.61%) Ada 95
11 1 (0.61%) Go
11 1 (0.61%) Magik
11 1 (0.61%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.61%) PHP
11 1 (0.61%) Ruby
11 1 (0.61%) Scala
11 1 (0.61%) Swift
Qualifications
1 10 (6.06%) Degree
2 6 (3.64%) BPSS Clearance
3 3 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.61%) Chartered Engineer
4 1 (0.61%) Master's Degree
4 1 (0.61%) SC Cleared
4 1 (0.61%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.85%) IEC 61508
1 8 (4.85%) MISRA
1 8 (4.85%) MISRA C
2 6 (3.64%) Accessibility
2 6 (3.64%) WCAG
3 3 (1.82%) NCSC
3 3 (1.82%) NIST
3 3 (1.82%) QA
4 1 (0.61%) IEC 61131
4 1 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 17 (10.30%) Firmware
2 6 (3.64%) Docker
3 5 (3.03%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (7.27%) Terraform
2 8 (4.85%) Functional Safety
3 7 (4.24%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 13 (7.88%) Microsoft
2 3 (1.82%) Oracle
3 2 (1.21%) Green Hills
4 1 (0.61%) ESRI
4 1 (0.61%) Remedy
4 1 (0.61%) Rockwell
4 1 (0.61%) Salesforce
4 1 (0.61%) Siemens