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 11 March 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 39 49
Rank change year-on-year -7 +10 +14
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 451 417 645
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 3.74% 5.80% 4.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.00% 6.70% 4.86%
Number of salaries quoted 324 191 507
10th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £50,938 £48,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £90,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year - +12.00% -8.78%

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 11,271 6,221 13,274
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.45% 86.60% 93.78%
Number of salaries quoted 7,434 3,616 10,111
10th Percentile £28,750 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,000 £35,500
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% -9.69%

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 11 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 11 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 +14 229 £65,000 +8.33% 55
Hampshire +17 141 £65,000 - 58
Oxfordshire +26 116 £65,000 - 23
Buckinghamshire +24 71 £45,000 -25.00% 17
Berkshire -31 42 £60,000 +4.35% 15
Surrey -21 41 £86,250 +32.69% 23
Kent -65 15 £50,000 -20.00% 11
East Sussex +5 14 £82,500 - 2
West Sussex -25 8 £65,000 +116.67% 5
Isle of Wight -7 3 £75,900 +16.77% 1
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 444 (98.45%) Software Engineering
2 102 (22.62%) C++
3 81 (17.96%) .NET
4 79 (17.52%) Degree
5 73 (16.19%) C#
6 60 (13.30%) Python
7 57 (12.64%) Computer Science
8 51 (11.31%) Full-Stack Development
9 49 (10.86%) Agile
10 48 (10.64%) Azure
10 48 (10.64%) Computer Science Degree
11 44 (9.76%) SQL
12 39 (8.65%) DevOps
12 39 (8.65%) SaaS
13 37 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
14 31 (6.87%) Security Cleared
14 31 (6.87%) SQL Server
15 30 (6.65%) C
16 28 (6.21%) AWS
16 28 (6.21%) JavaScript
17 27 (5.99%) CI/CD
18 26 (5.76%) Continuous Improvement
18 26 (5.76%) SC Cleared
19 25 (5.54%) Linux
20 24 (5.32%) AI
21 23 (5.10%) Java
22 22 (4.88%) Test Automation
23 20 (4.43%) Azure DevOps
23 20 (4.43%) QA
24 19 (4.21%) Code Quality

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 (2.66%) IIS
2 1 (0.22%) CMS
2 1 (0.22%) Kinematics
Applications
1 2 (0.44%) AutoCAD
1 2 (0.44%) EPLAN
2 1 (0.22%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 48 (10.64%) Azure
2 39 (8.65%) SaaS
3 28 (6.21%) AWS
4 20 (4.43%) Azure DevOps
5 19 (4.21%) GCP
6 8 (1.77%) Stripe
7 7 (1.55%) GitHub
8 4 (0.89%) Serverless
9 3 (0.67%) Figma
10 2 (0.44%) Amazon EKS
10 2 (0.44%) AWS Lambda
10 2 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.44%) GitHub Copilot
11 1 (0.22%) Amazon ECS
11 1 (0.22%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.22%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 16 (3.55%) Wireless
2 3 (0.67%) ATM
3 2 (0.44%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.44%) SpaceWire
4 1 (0.22%) HTTP
4 1 (0.22%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (6.87%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 3 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.22%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.22%) GIS
5 1 (0.22%) Pinecone
5 1 (0.22%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.22%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.22%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 16 (3.55%) Git
2 7 (1.55%) Visual Studio
3 5 (1.11%) GitLab
4 3 (0.67%) Visual Studio Code
5 2 (0.44%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.44%) JIRA
6 1 (0.22%) Appium
6 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.22%) JUnit
6 1 (0.22%) Katalon Studio
6 1 (0.22%) NUnit
6 1 (0.22%) Postman
6 1 (0.22%) REST Assured
6 1 (0.22%) Selenium
6 1 (0.22%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.22%) TestRail
6 1 (0.22%) Yeoman
General
1 30 (6.65%) Social Skills
2 17 (3.77%) Electronics
3 11 (2.44%) Finance
4 8 (1.77%) Aerospace
4 8 (1.77%) Manufacturing
5 5 (1.11%) Games
5 5 (1.11%) Military
5 5 (1.11%) Tech for Good
6 4 (0.89%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
6 4 (0.89%) Public Sector
7 3 (0.67%) Aviation
7 3 (0.67%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.44%) Law
9 1 (0.22%) Automotive
9 1 (0.22%) Health Technology
9 1 (0.22%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (17.96%) .NET
2 18 (3.99%) React
3 16 (3.55%) .NET Framework
4 13 (2.88%) WinForms
5 12 (2.66%) Entity Framework
5 12 (2.66%) Unreal Engine
6 11 (2.44%) ASP.NET
7 8 (1.77%) AngularJS
7 8 (1.77%) Laravel
8 7 (1.55%) Middleware
8 7 (1.55%) Qt
9 6 (1.33%) .NET Core
9 6 (1.33%) DirectX
9 6 (1.33%) OpenGL
9 6 (1.33%) OpenGL ES
9 6 (1.33%) REST
9 6 (1.33%) Vulkan
10 5 (1.11%) Django
11 4 (0.89%) Ruby on Rails
12 3 (0.67%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 18 (3.99%) IoT
1 18 (3.99%) Smart Energy
2 14 (3.10%) Algorithms
2 14 (3.10%) Distributed Systems
3 13 (2.88%) Client/Server
4 12 (2.66%) Embedded Systems
5 10 (2.22%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.11%) Cloud Native
6 5 (1.11%) Robotics
6 5 (1.11%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (0.67%) AI Agents
7 3 (0.67%) CUDA
7 3 (0.67%) Product Ownership
7 3 (0.67%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (0.44%) Driving Licence
8 2 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (0.44%) N-Tier
8 2 (0.44%) PMI
8 2 (0.44%) SCADA
8 2 (0.44%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 25 (5.54%) Linux
2 14 (3.10%) Android
2 14 (3.10%) Windows
3 2 (0.44%) Unix
3 2 (0.44%) VxWorks
4 1 (0.22%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 444 (98.45%) Software Engineering
2 57 (12.64%) Computer Science
3 51 (11.31%) Full-Stack Development
4 49 (10.86%) Agile
5 39 (8.65%) DevOps
6 37 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
7 27 (5.99%) CI/CD
8 26 (5.76%) Continuous Improvement
9 24 (5.32%) AI
10 22 (4.88%) Test Automation
11 19 (4.21%) Code Quality
12 18 (3.99%) Containerisation
12 18 (3.99%) Energy Management
12 18 (3.99%) Storage Management
13 16 (3.55%) SDLC
13 16 (3.55%) Software Testing
14 15 (3.33%) Machine Learning
15 14 (3.10%) User Experience
16 13 (2.88%) TDD
17 12 (2.66%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 102 (22.62%) C++
2 73 (16.19%) C#
3 60 (13.30%) Python
4 44 (9.76%) SQL
5 30 (6.65%) C
6 28 (6.21%) JavaScript
7 23 (5.10%) Java
8 18 (3.99%) Rust
9 12 (2.66%) T-SQL
9 12 (2.66%) TypeScript
10 10 (2.22%) PHP
11 7 (1.55%) Ruby
12 5 (1.11%) Delphi
12 5 (1.11%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.67%) Apex Code
13 3 (0.67%) Bash
13 3 (0.67%) Go
13 3 (0.67%) Uniface
14 2 (0.44%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.44%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 79 (17.52%) Degree
2 48 (10.64%) Computer Science Degree
3 31 (6.87%) Security Cleared
4 26 (5.76%) SC Cleared
5 17 (3.77%) Master's Degree
6 9 (2.00%) PhD
7 3 (0.67%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.44%) Chartered Engineer
8 2 (0.44%) HNC
8 2 (0.44%) HND
8 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.44%) NVQ Level 3
8 2 (0.44%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (4.43%) QA
2 4 (0.89%) ECSS
2 4 (0.89%) ISO 9001
3 2 (0.44%) GDPR
3 2 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 1 (0.22%) Data Quality
System Software
1 16 (3.55%) Docker
2 15 (3.33%) Firmware
3 11 (2.44%) Hyper-V
3 11 (2.44%) KVM
3 11 (2.44%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (2.88%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.44%) Terraform
Vendors
1 14 (3.10%) Microsoft
2 12 (2.66%) Sage
2 12 (2.66%) Xamarin
3 11 (2.44%) VMware
4 8 (1.77%) HubSpot
5 6 (1.33%) Oracle
6 5 (1.11%) Google
6 5 (1.11%) Zoho
7 3 (0.67%) Salesforce
8 2 (0.44%) Allen-Bradley
8 2 (0.44%) Siemens
8 2 (0.44%) Wonderware
9 1 (0.22%) NVIDIA