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 4 January 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 36 68
Rank change year-on-year -39 +32 -17
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 280 560 291
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 2.72% 6.12% 3.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.96% 6.71% 3.82%
Number of salaries quoted 198 242 218
10th Percentile £40,015 £40,000 £40,875
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,813 £46,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £87,250 £80,375
England median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £69,447
% change year-on-year - +0.80% -

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 9,448 8,341 7,616
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.78% 91.22% 94.60%
Number of salaries quoted 5,849 4,466 5,521
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,750 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £66,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.78%

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 4 January 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 4 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
Thames Valley -28 119 £60,000 - 248
Hampshire +10 97 £65,000 +8.33% 96
Oxfordshire +8 52 £67,500 - 62
Buckinghamshire -4 45 £47,500 -20.83% 59
Surrey -25 40 £80,000 +33.33% 61
Berkshire -64 22 £60,000 -14.29% 127
East Sussex +19 9 £82,500 +65.00% 22
Isle of Wight -9 8 £75,900 +26.50% 20
West Sussex -12 4 - - 24
Kent -70 3 £50,000 -31.03% 45
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 January 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.

1 279 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 66 (23.57%) Agile
3 63 (22.50%) C++
4 55 (19.64%) C#
5 54 (19.29%) .NET
6 49 (17.50%) Degree
7 42 (15.00%) DevOps
8 38 (13.57%) Computer Science
9 33 (11.79%) Azure
9 33 (11.79%) Security Cleared
10 32 (11.43%) Full-Stack Development
11 30 (10.71%) SC Cleared
11 30 (10.71%) SQL
12 28 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
13 27 (9.64%) C
13 27 (9.64%) Computer Science Degree
13 27 (9.64%) Python
14 25 (8.93%) Mentoring
15 24 (8.57%) CI/CD
16 23 (8.21%) AI
16 23 (8.21%) JavaScript
16 23 (8.21%) Linux
17 22 (7.86%) Wireless
18 21 (7.50%) Azure DevOps
18 21 (7.50%) Coaching
19 18 (6.43%) SQL Server
20 16 (5.71%) Machine Learning
21 15 (5.36%) Microsoft
21 15 (5.36%) Windows
21 15 (5.36%) WinForms

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 12 (4.29%) IIS
2 1 (0.36%) ArchestrA
2 1 (0.36%) CMS
2 1 (0.36%) FactoryTalk
2 1 (0.36%) Kinematics
2 1 (0.36%) WinCC
Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 33 (11.79%) Azure
2 21 (7.50%) Azure DevOps
3 13 (4.64%) SaaS
4 9 (3.21%) AWS
5 7 (2.50%) GitHub
5 7 (2.50%) Stripe
6 5 (1.79%) GCP
7 4 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (1.07%) Serverless
9 2 (0.71%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (0.71%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (0.36%) Amazon ECS
10 1 (0.36%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (0.36%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.36%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.36%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.36%) Cloudflare
10 1 (0.36%) Heroku
Communications & Networking
1 22 (7.86%) Wireless
2 12 (4.29%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (1.07%) ATM
4 2 (0.71%) Modbus
5 1 (0.36%) DNS
5 1 (0.36%) Firewall
5 1 (0.36%) HTTP
5 1 (0.36%) Profibus
5 1 (0.36%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.43%) SQL Server
2 12 (4.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 4 (1.43%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (1.07%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.71%) GIS
5 2 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.71%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.36%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.36%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.36%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 11 (3.93%) Git
2 6 (2.14%) Visual Studio
3 3 (1.07%) JIRA
4 2 (0.71%) GitLab
4 2 (0.71%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.71%) TestRail
5 1 (0.36%) Appium
5 1 (0.36%) JUnit
5 1 (0.36%) Katalon Studio
5 1 (0.36%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.36%) Selenium
General
1 25 (8.93%) Social Skills
2 16 (5.71%) Manufacturing
3 15 (5.36%) Finance
4 7 (2.50%) Electronics
5 5 (1.79%) Automotive
6 4 (1.43%) Public Sector
6 4 (1.43%) Tech for Good
7 3 (1.07%) Aviation
8 2 (0.71%) Law
9 1 (0.36%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.36%) Analytical Skills
9 1 (0.36%) Games
9 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.36%) Military
9 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (19.29%) .NET
2 15 (5.36%) WinForms
3 14 (5.00%) .NET Framework
4 13 (4.64%) ASP.NET
5 12 (4.29%) Entity Framework
5 12 (4.29%) React
6 6 (2.14%) Laravel
7 5 (1.79%) .NET Core
7 5 (1.79%) Qt
7 5 (1.79%) Ruby on Rails
8 4 (1.43%) AngularJS
8 4 (1.43%) RESTful
8 4 (1.43%) WPF
9 3 (1.07%) Blazor
9 3 (1.07%) Next.js
9 3 (1.07%) REST
10 2 (0.71%) FastAPI
10 2 (0.71%) Middleware
10 2 (0.71%) Spring
11 1 (0.36%) OpenGL
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.86%) Embedded Systems
2 14 (5.00%) RISC-V
3 13 (4.64%) e-Learning
4 12 (4.29%) Manufacturing Execution System
4 12 (4.29%) MicroBlaze
5 11 (3.93%) IoT
5 11 (3.93%) Smart Energy
6 9 (3.21%) Algorithms
7 7 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.43%) 3D Graphics
9 3 (1.07%) Cloud Native
9 3 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
10 2 (0.71%) AI Agents
10 2 (0.71%) Data Structures
10 2 (0.71%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.71%) N-Tier
10 2 (0.71%) PMI
10 2 (0.71%) Product Ownership
10 2 (0.71%) Robotics
10 2 (0.71%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 23 (8.21%) Linux
2 15 (5.36%) Windows
3 12 (4.29%) Embedded Linux
4 7 (2.50%) Android
5 4 (1.43%) Unix
6 1 (0.36%) Robot Operating System
6 1 (0.36%) VxWorks
6 1 (0.36%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 279 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 66 (23.57%) Agile
3 42 (15.00%) DevOps
4 38 (13.57%) Computer Science
5 32 (11.43%) Full-Stack Development
6 28 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
7 25 (8.93%) Mentoring
8 24 (8.57%) CI/CD
9 23 (8.21%) AI
10 21 (7.50%) Coaching
11 16 (5.71%) Machine Learning
12 14 (5.00%) Signal Processing
13 13 (4.64%) Innovative Thinking
13 13 (4.64%) Mathematics
13 13 (4.64%) SDLC
14 12 (4.29%) Digital Signal Processing
15 11 (3.93%) Continuous Improvement
15 11 (3.93%) Energy Management
15 11 (3.93%) Storage Management
16 10 (3.57%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 63 (22.50%) C++
2 55 (19.64%) C#
3 30 (10.71%) SQL
4 27 (9.64%) C
4 27 (9.64%) Python
5 23 (8.21%) JavaScript
6 13 (4.64%) Java
7 12 (4.29%) T-SQL
8 7 (2.50%) Ada
8 7 (2.50%) Ada 95
8 7 (2.50%) PHP
8 7 (2.50%) Rust
8 7 (2.50%) TypeScript
9 6 (2.14%) Bash
9 6 (2.14%) Delphi
10 5 (1.79%) Ruby
11 4 (1.43%) Fortran
12 3 (1.07%) Go
12 3 (1.07%) Julia
13 2 (0.71%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 49 (17.50%) Degree
2 33 (11.79%) Security Cleared
3 30 (10.71%) SC Cleared
4 27 (9.64%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.93%) Master's Degree
5 11 (3.93%) PhD
6 7 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (2.50%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (0.71%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.71%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (0.71%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.36%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.50%) ISO/IEC 12207
2 6 (2.14%) QA
3 3 (1.07%) ECSS
4 2 (0.71%) ISO 9000
4 2 (0.71%) JTAG
5 1 (0.36%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.36%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.36%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 14 (5.00%) Firmware
2 12 (4.29%) Embedded Firmware
3 11 (3.93%) Docker
4 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (3.57%) Kubernetes
2 3 (1.07%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (5.36%) Microsoft
2 12 (4.29%) Sage
2 12 (4.29%) Xamarin
3 6 (2.14%) Guidewire
3 6 (2.14%) HubSpot
4 5 (1.79%) Google
4 5 (1.79%) Zoho
5 2 (0.71%) Databricks
6 1 (0.36%) NVIDIA
6 1 (0.36%) Rockwell
6 1 (0.36%) SendGrid
6 1 (0.36%) Siemens
6 1 (0.36%) VMware