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 1 March 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 40 50
Rank change year-on-year -16 +10 +7
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 408 444 577
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 3.49% 5.83% 4.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.75% 6.66% 4.71%
Number of salaries quoted 297 183 458
10th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £36,850
25th Percentile £52,145 £49,375 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £96,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year -3.45% +16.00% -7.75%

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 10,885 6,663 12,262
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.10% 87.50% 93.89%
Number of salaries quoted 7,078 3,629 9,380
10th Percentile £28,500 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -10.57%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 +10 206 £62,500 +4.17% 143
Hampshire +14 125 £65,000 - 75
Oxfordshire +28 109 £70,000 +3.70% 34
Buckinghamshire +22 63 £45,000 -25.00% 29
Surrey -23 39 £80,000 +23.08% 43
Berkshire -46 34 £60,000 - 80
East Sussex +12 14 £82,500 - 16
Kent -63 14 £50,000 -24.53% 26
West Sussex -25 7 £65,000 +116.67% 19
Isle of Wight -7 3 £75,900 +16.77% 14
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 March 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.

1 401 (98.28%) Software Engineering
2 95 (23.28%) C++
3 81 (19.85%) .NET
4 74 (18.14%) Degree
5 72 (17.65%) C#
6 57 (13.97%) Computer Science
7 51 (12.50%) Python
8 46 (11.27%) Azure
9 45 (11.03%) Computer Science Degree
9 45 (11.03%) Full-Stack Development
10 43 (10.54%) Agile
11 42 (10.29%) SQL
12 39 (9.56%) DevOps
13 34 (8.33%) Problem-Solving
14 33 (8.09%) SaaS
15 29 (7.11%) Security Cleared
15 29 (7.11%) SQL Server
16 28 (6.86%) CI/CD
17 27 (6.62%) C
17 27 (6.62%) JavaScript
18 24 (5.88%) SC Cleared
19 23 (5.64%) AI
19 23 (5.64%) Continuous Improvement
20 22 (5.39%) AWS
21 21 (5.15%) Azure DevOps
21 21 (5.15%) Java
21 21 (5.15%) Linux
22 17 (4.17%) React
23 16 (3.92%) Energy Management
23 16 (3.92%) Machine Learning

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 (2.94%) IIS
2 1 (0.25%) CMS
2 1 (0.25%) Kinematics
Applications
1 1 (0.25%) AutoCAD
1 1 (0.25%) EPLAN
1 1 (0.25%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 1 (0.25%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 46 (11.27%) Azure
2 33 (8.09%) SaaS
3 22 (5.39%) AWS
4 21 (5.15%) Azure DevOps
5 15 (3.68%) GCP
6 8 (1.96%) Stripe
7 5 (1.23%) GitHub
8 3 (0.74%) Serverless
9 2 (0.49%) Amazon EKS
9 2 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.49%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (0.25%) Amazon ECS
10 1 (0.25%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.25%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.25%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.25%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 16 (3.92%) Wireless
2 3 (0.74%) ATM
3 2 (0.49%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.49%) SpaceWire
4 1 (0.25%) HTTP
4 1 (0.25%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (7.11%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.94%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 3 (0.74%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.25%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.25%) GIS
5 1 (0.25%) Pinecone
5 1 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.25%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.25%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 14 (3.43%) Git
2 7 (1.72%) Visual Studio
3 5 (1.23%) GitLab
4 3 (0.74%) Visual Studio Code
5 2 (0.49%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.49%) JIRA
6 1 (0.25%) Appium
6 1 (0.25%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.25%) JUnit
6 1 (0.25%) Katalon Studio
6 1 (0.25%) NUnit
6 1 (0.25%) REST Assured
6 1 (0.25%) Selenium
6 1 (0.25%) TestRail
General
1 26 (6.37%) Social Skills
2 17 (4.17%) Electronics
3 11 (2.70%) Finance
4 8 (1.96%) Manufacturing
5 7 (1.72%) Aerospace
6 5 (1.23%) Military
6 5 (1.23%) Tech for Good
7 4 (0.98%) Games
7 4 (0.98%) Public Sector
8 3 (0.74%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (0.74%) Aviation
8 3 (0.74%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.49%) Law
10 1 (0.25%) Automotive
10 1 (0.25%) Health Technology
10 1 (0.25%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.25%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (19.85%) .NET
2 17 (4.17%) React
3 15 (3.68%) .NET Framework
3 15 (3.68%) WinForms
4 12 (2.94%) ASP.NET
4 12 (2.94%) Entity Framework
5 10 (2.45%) Unreal Engine
6 8 (1.96%) Laravel
7 7 (1.72%) AngularJS
7 7 (1.72%) Middleware
7 7 (1.72%) Qt
8 6 (1.47%) .NET Core
8 6 (1.47%) DirectX
8 6 (1.47%) OpenGL
8 6 (1.47%) OpenGL ES
8 6 (1.47%) Vulkan
9 5 (1.23%) REST
10 4 (0.98%) Blazor
10 4 (0.98%) Ruby on Rails
11 3 (0.74%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 16 (3.92%) IoT
1 16 (3.92%) Smart Energy
2 14 (3.43%) Algorithms
3 12 (2.94%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (2.94%) Embedded Systems
4 11 (2.70%) Client/Server
5 10 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (0.98%) Robotics
6 4 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (0.74%) AI Agents
7 3 (0.74%) Cloud Native
7 3 (0.74%) CUDA
8 2 (0.49%) 3D Graphics
8 2 (0.49%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (0.49%) N-Tier
8 2 (0.49%) PMI
9 1 (0.25%) e-Learning
9 1 (0.25%) EPoS
9 1 (0.25%) FPGA
9 1 (0.25%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 21 (5.15%) Linux
2 14 (3.43%) Android
2 14 (3.43%) Windows
3 2 (0.49%) Unix
3 2 (0.49%) VxWorks
4 1 (0.25%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 401 (98.28%) Software Engineering
2 57 (13.97%) Computer Science
3 45 (11.03%) Full-Stack Development
4 43 (10.54%) Agile
5 39 (9.56%) DevOps
6 34 (8.33%) Problem-Solving
7 28 (6.86%) CI/CD
8 23 (5.64%) AI
8 23 (5.64%) Continuous Improvement
9 16 (3.92%) Energy Management
9 16 (3.92%) Machine Learning
9 16 (3.92%) SDLC
9 16 (3.92%) Storage Management
10 15 (3.68%) Mathematics
10 15 (3.68%) Software Testing
11 14 (3.43%) Code Quality
11 14 (3.43%) Test Automation
12 12 (2.94%) Containerisation
12 12 (2.94%) Scrum
12 12 (2.94%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 95 (23.28%) C++
2 72 (17.65%) C#
3 51 (12.50%) Python
4 42 (10.29%) SQL
5 27 (6.62%) C
5 27 (6.62%) JavaScript
6 21 (5.15%) Java
7 16 (3.92%) Rust
8 12 (2.94%) T-SQL
9 11 (2.70%) TypeScript
10 10 (2.45%) PHP
11 6 (1.47%) Ruby
12 5 (1.23%) Delphi
13 3 (0.74%) Bash
13 3 (0.74%) Go
13 3 (0.74%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.74%) Uniface
14 2 (0.49%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.49%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.49%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 74 (18.14%) Degree
2 45 (11.03%) Computer Science Degree
3 29 (7.11%) Security Cleared
4 24 (5.88%) SC Cleared
5 14 (3.43%) Master's Degree
6 7 (1.72%) PhD
7 3 (0.74%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.49%) Chartered Engineer
8 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.49%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.25%) HNC
9 1 (0.25%) HND
9 1 (0.25%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (3.92%) QA
2 4 (0.98%) ECSS
2 4 (0.98%) ISO 9001
3 2 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 1 (0.25%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.25%) GDPR
System Software
1 15 (3.68%) Docker
2 12 (2.94%) Firmware
3 9 (2.21%) Hyper-V
3 9 (2.21%) KVM
3 9 (2.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 11 (2.70%) Kubernetes
2 4 (0.98%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (3.68%) Microsoft
2 12 (2.94%) Sage
2 12 (2.94%) Xamarin
3 9 (2.21%) VMware
4 8 (1.96%) HubSpot
5 5 (1.23%) Google
5 5 (1.23%) Zoho
6 4 (0.98%) Oracle
7 2 (0.49%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.25%) Allen-Bradley
8 1 (0.25%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.25%) Siemens
8 1 (0.25%) Wonderware