Software Engineer Job Trends in the South East

Software Engineer
England > South East

The median Software Engineer salary in the South East is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 May 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 103 36
Rank change year-on-year +81 -67 +34
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 796 210 889
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 5.48% 2.75% 5.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.76% 3.25% 5.73%
Number of salaries quoted 600 163 693
10th Percentile £45,000 £35,500 £35,500
25th Percentile £52,500 £48,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +18.18% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £90,000 £87,500 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £75,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -6.67% +25.00% -14.29%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 13,815 6,454 15,515
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.10% 84.48% 93.91%
Number of salaries quoted 9,472 3,401 11,300
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,000 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £53,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +6.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,457 £57,560 £53,250
% change year-on-year -3.65% +8.09% -12.42%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Software Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the South East

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 23 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the South East

Software Engineer
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 23 May 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
Thames Valley +77 345 £65,000 +8.33% 42
Hampshire +52 288 £65,000 - 64
Oxfordshire +31 186 £65,000 - 20
Surrey +24 101 £80,000 +23.08% 13
Buckinghamshire +50 88 £80,000 +33.33% 9
Berkshire +48 71 £55,000 +5.77% 13
East Sussex +8 30 £65,000 - 3
Kent -34 23 £45,000 -28.00% 6
West Sussex -24 7 £65,000 +116.67% 6
Isle of Wight -9 2 £75,900 +16.77%
Software Engineer
England

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 23 May 2026, Software Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the South East region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 782 (98.24%) Software Engineering
2 207 (26.01%) C++
3 159 (19.97%) C#
4 156 (19.60%) Degree
5 143 (17.96%) Python
6 126 (15.83%) .NET
7 104 (13.07%) Agile
8 84 (10.55%) AWS
9 82 (10.30%) Computer Science Degree
9 82 (10.30%) Full-Stack Development
10 77 (9.67%) Computer Science
11 70 (8.79%) SaaS
12 66 (8.29%) Linux
13 63 (7.91%) Azure
13 63 (7.91%) C
14 59 (7.41%) Security Cleared
15 58 (7.29%) CI/CD
16 56 (7.04%) DevOps
17 50 (6.28%) JavaScript
18 49 (6.16%) Continuous Improvement
19 45 (5.65%) Git
19 45 (5.65%) Test Automation
20 44 (5.53%) AI
20 44 (5.53%) Problem-Solving
20 44 (5.53%) SC Cleared
20 44 (5.53%) SQL
21 41 (5.15%) Docker
22 40 (5.03%) Containerisation
23 38 (4.77%) Master's Degree
23 38 (4.77%) TypeScript

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 2 (0.25%) Apache
1 2 (0.25%) Confluence
2 1 (0.13%) ArchestrA
2 1 (0.13%) Kinematics
Applications
1 2 (0.25%) AutoCAD
1 2 (0.25%) EPLAN
2 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.13%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 84 (10.55%) AWS
2 70 (8.79%) SaaS
3 63 (7.91%) Azure
4 26 (3.27%) GCP
5 11 (1.38%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (1.26%) Serverless
7 8 (1.01%) GitHub
8 7 (0.88%) Stripe
9 5 (0.63%) Figma
9 5 (0.63%) PaaS
10 4 (0.50%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (0.38%) Azure Functions
11 3 (0.38%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (0.25%) Amazon S3
12 2 (0.25%) Anthropic Claude
12 2 (0.25%) Cloud Run
12 2 (0.25%) Firebase
12 2 (0.25%) GitHub Copilot
13 1 (0.13%) Adobe Analytics
13 1 (0.13%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.14%) Wireless
2 6 (0.75%) TCP/IP
3 4 (0.50%) Software-Defined Radio
4 3 (0.38%) MQTT
5 2 (0.25%) Wireshark
6 1 (0.13%) Broadband
6 1 (0.13%) Internet
6 1 (0.13%) Modbus
6 1 (0.13%) Multicast
6 1 (0.13%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.13%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (4.27%) SQL Server
2 8 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.38%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.38%) Pinecone
4 2 (0.25%) MySQL
5 1 (0.13%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.13%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.13%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 45 (5.65%) Git
2 19 (2.39%) GitLab
2 19 (2.39%) Visual Studio Code
3 7 (0.88%) Visual Studio
4 6 (0.75%) Yeoman
5 3 (0.38%) JIRA
5 3 (0.38%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (0.25%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.25%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.25%) Postman
6 2 (0.25%) SpecFlow
7 1 (0.13%) CMake
7 1 (0.13%) JUnit
7 1 (0.13%) NUnit
7 1 (0.13%) Toad
7 1 (0.13%) utPLSQL
General
1 55 (6.91%) Social Skills
2 45 (5.65%) Electronics
3 38 (4.77%) Manufacturing
4 21 (2.64%) Aerospace
5 19 (2.39%) Aviation
5 19 (2.39%) Finance
6 11 (1.38%) Military
6 11 (1.38%) Pharmaceutical
7 10 (1.26%) Games
8 8 (1.01%) Analytical Skills
8 8 (1.01%) Public Sector
8 8 (1.01%) Telecoms
9 4 (0.50%) Automotive
10 3 (0.38%) Tech for Good
11 2 (0.25%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.13%) Health Technology
12 1 (0.13%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.13%) Marketing
12 1 (0.13%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (15.83%) .NET
2 32 (4.02%) React
3 19 (2.39%) HTML
4 18 (2.26%) CSS
5 17 (2.14%) Vue
6 16 (2.01%) AngularJS
7 15 (1.88%) REST
7 15 (1.88%) Unreal Engine
7 15 (1.88%) WPF
8 11 (1.38%) Django
9 9 (1.13%) .NET Core
9 9 (1.13%) WebSockets
10 8 (1.01%) ASP.NET
10 8 (1.01%) Node.js
11 7 (0.88%) JSON
11 7 (0.88%) Laravel
11 7 (0.88%) Middleware
12 6 (0.75%) OpenGL
12 6 (0.75%) OpenGL ES
12 6 (0.75%) Vulkan
Miscellaneous
1 47 (5.90%) Algorithms
2 29 (3.64%) Embedded Systems
3 22 (2.76%) IoT
4 20 (2.51%) Client/Server
5 19 (2.39%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (2.26%) Product Ownership
7 15 (1.88%) Smart Energy
8 14 (1.76%) Distributed Computing
8 14 (1.76%) Robotics
9 12 (1.51%) Cloud Native
10 10 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (1.01%) Data Structures
11 8 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (0.63%) AI Agents
12 5 (0.63%) Video Conferencing
13 4 (0.50%) Driving Licence
13 4 (0.50%) Management Information System
13 4 (0.50%) SCADA
14 3 (0.38%) CUDA
14 3 (0.38%) Smart Home
Operating Systems
1 66 (8.29%) Linux
2 12 (1.51%) Windows
3 10 (1.26%) Android
4 5 (0.63%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.13%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.13%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 782 (98.24%) Software Engineering
2 104 (13.07%) Agile
3 82 (10.30%) Full-Stack Development
4 77 (9.67%) Computer Science
5 58 (7.29%) CI/CD
6 56 (7.04%) DevOps
7 49 (6.16%) Continuous Improvement
8 45 (5.65%) Test Automation
9 44 (5.53%) AI
9 44 (5.53%) Problem-Solving
10 40 (5.03%) Containerisation
11 37 (4.65%) Mentoring
12 35 (4.40%) SDLC
13 33 (4.15%) Code Quality
13 33 (4.15%) Machine Learning
14 31 (3.89%) Software Architecture
15 30 (3.77%) Embedded Software Development
16 27 (3.39%) Microservices
17 26 (3.27%) Software Testing
18 23 (2.89%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 207 (26.01%) C++
2 159 (19.97%) C#
3 143 (17.96%) Python
4 63 (7.91%) C
5 50 (6.28%) JavaScript
6 44 (5.53%) SQL
7 38 (4.77%) TypeScript
8 27 (3.39%) Rust
9 26 (3.27%) Java
10 10 (1.26%) PHP
11 9 (1.13%) Go
12 6 (0.75%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.75%) Ruby
13 4 (0.50%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.50%) MATLAB
14 3 (0.38%) Julia
14 3 (0.38%) Uniface
15 2 (0.25%) Ada
15 2 (0.25%) Ada 95
15 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 156 (19.60%) Degree
2 82 (10.30%) Computer Science Degree
3 59 (7.41%) Security Cleared
4 44 (5.53%) SC Cleared
5 38 (4.77%) Master's Degree
6 19 (2.39%) PhD
7 7 (0.88%) Azure Certification
7 7 (0.88%) DV Cleared
8 5 (0.63%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (0.38%) HNC
9 3 (0.38%) HND
10 2 (0.25%) Chartered Engineer
10 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.25%) NVQ Level 3
10 2 (0.25%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.52%) QA
2 4 (0.50%) ISO 9001
3 3 (0.38%) DO-178B
4 2 (0.25%) GDPR
4 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 1 (0.13%) ECSS
System Software
1 41 (5.15%) Docker
2 37 (4.65%) Firmware
3 14 (1.76%) Hyper-V
3 14 (1.76%) KVM
3 14 (1.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.13%) Embedded Firmware
5 6 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 23 (2.89%) Kubernetes
2 8 (1.01%) Terraform
3 3 (0.38%) Ansible
4 1 (0.13%) Podman
4 1 (0.13%) Puppet
Vendors
1 14 (1.76%) VMware
2 11 (1.38%) Oracle
3 10 (1.26%) Microsoft
4 8 (1.01%) Salesforce
5 7 (0.88%) HubSpot
6 3 (0.38%) Allen-Bradley
6 3 (0.38%) Siemens
6 3 (0.38%) Wonderware
7 2 (0.25%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.13%) Adobe
8 1 (0.13%) Google
8 1 (0.13%) Typelevel