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 20 September 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 116 24
Rank change year-on-year +94 -92 +40
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,021 222 918
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 5.45% 2.49% 7.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.79% 2.78% 7.39%
Number of salaries quoted 729 132 629
10th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £52,500 £60,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £70,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +27.27% -8.33%
75th Percentile £83,750 £80,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £82,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -15.15% +26.92% -7.14%

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 17,640 7,996 12,423
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.23% 89.53% 95.95%
Number of salaries quoted 12,509 4,430 7,300
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,250 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £81,250
England median annual salary £59,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +8.18% - -8.33%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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
Hampshire +36 436 £65,000 - 89
Thames Valley +126 388 £65,000 - 149
Oxfordshire +29 192 £62,500 -10.71% 85
Berkshire +92 122 £72,500 +13.73% 49
Surrey +5 104 £80,000 -5.88% 19
Buckinghamshire +53 74 £81,250 +132.14% 15
Kent -2 34 £35,000 -44.00% 4
West Sussex +7 28 £75,000 +7.14% 23
East Sussex +11 26 £65,000 -27.78% 7
Sussex - 5 £85,000 - 1
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 20 September 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 1,014 (99.31%) Software Engineering
2 262 (25.66%) C++
3 217 (21.25%) C#
4 205 (20.08%) Python
5 156 (15.28%) Degree
6 122 (11.95%) Security Cleared
7 116 (11.36%) .NET
8 111 (10.87%) Agile
8 111 (10.87%) AWS
9 110 (10.77%) AI
10 98 (9.60%) Linux
11 95 (9.30%) CI/CD
12 86 (8.42%) C
12 86 (8.42%) SC Cleared
13 83 (8.13%) Azure
14 77 (7.54%) Computer Science Degree
15 74 (7.25%) Full-Stack Development
16 73 (7.15%) Docker
16 73 (7.15%) JavaScript
16 73 (7.15%) Problem-Solving
17 71 (6.95%) Computer Science
18 70 (6.86%) TypeScript
19 67 (6.56%) DevOps
20 63 (6.17%) Git
21 62 (6.07%) Mentoring
22 58 (5.68%) SDLC
23 57 (5.58%) Software Architecture
24 55 (5.39%) Java
25 53 (5.19%) SaaS
26 50 (4.90%) React

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 9 (0.88%) Apache
2 2 (0.20%) Confluence
3 1 (0.098%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 18 (1.76%) Lightworks
2 6 (0.59%) Simulink
3 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (0.59%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 111 (10.87%) AWS
2 83 (8.13%) Azure
3 53 (5.19%) SaaS
4 27 (2.64%) GCP
5 15 (1.47%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (1.27%) Serverless
7 12 (1.18%) Firebase
8 11 (1.08%) GitHub
9 7 (0.69%) Anthropic Claude
9 7 (0.69%) Cloud Run
10 6 (0.59%) PaaS
11 5 (0.49%) Azure Functions
11 5 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
12 4 (0.39%) Amazon EKS
13 3 (0.29%) Azure Key Vault
13 3 (0.29%) Azure Monitor
14 2 (0.20%) Azure AKS
14 2 (0.20%) Azure App Service
14 2 (0.20%) Azure Service Bus
14 2 (0.20%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.74%) Wireless
2 13 (1.27%) TCP/IP
3 10 (0.98%) ATM
3 10 (0.98%) MQTT
4 8 (0.78%) 5G
5 7 (0.69%) Wireshark
6 5 (0.49%) Ethernet
7 3 (0.29%) HTTP
7 3 (0.29%) Software-Defined Radio
8 1 (0.098%) Broadband
8 1 (0.098%) Internet
8 1 (0.098%) LAN
8 1 (0.098%) Multicast
8 1 (0.098%) NGN
8 1 (0.098%) SNMP
8 1 (0.098%) Software-Defined Networking
8 1 (0.098%) VLAN
8 1 (0.098%) VoIP
8 1 (0.098%) WAN
8 1 (0.098%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.74%) PostgreSQL
2 27 (2.64%) SQL Server
3 13 (1.27%) MySQL
4 10 (0.98%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.78%) Relational Database
6 7 (0.69%) Chroma
6 7 (0.69%) Pinecone
6 7 (0.69%) Redis
7 6 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.20%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.20%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.098%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 63 (6.17%) Git
2 21 (2.06%) GitLab
3 18 (1.76%) Visual Studio Code
4 10 (0.98%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.69%) JIRA
6 6 (0.59%) CMake
7 5 (0.49%) Yeoman
8 4 (0.39%) PetaLinux
8 4 (0.39%) Rational Rhapsody
8 4 (0.39%) Visual Studio
9 3 (0.29%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.29%) Eclipse RCP
9 3 (0.29%) JUnit
9 3 (0.29%) Storybook
10 2 (0.20%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.20%) ESLint
10 2 (0.20%) NUnit
10 2 (0.20%) Vite
11 1 (0.098%) IntelliJ
11 1 (0.098%) Subversion
General
1 89 (8.72%) Manufacturing
2 79 (7.74%) Electronics
3 65 (6.37%) Social Skills
4 47 (4.60%) Aviation
5 39 (3.82%) Aerospace
6 38 (3.72%) Finance
7 18 (1.76%) Analytical Skills
8 15 (1.47%) Automotive
9 14 (1.37%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.27%) Public Sector
11 12 (1.18%) Military
12 10 (0.98%) Games
13 9 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
14 8 (0.78%) Health Technology
15 6 (0.59%) Law
15 6 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
16 4 (0.39%) Digital Health
17 3 (0.29%) Banking
17 3 (0.29%) Marketing
18 2 (0.20%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 116 (11.36%) .NET
2 50 (4.90%) React
3 35 (3.43%) CSS
4 33 (3.23%) HTML
5 28 (2.74%) WPF
6 27 (2.64%) Vue
7 22 (2.15%) Django
8 21 (2.06%) AngularJS
8 21 (2.06%) Node.js
9 18 (1.76%) Terraform
10 14 (1.37%) JSON
10 14 (1.37%) React Native
11 13 (1.27%) XML
12 12 (1.18%) ASP.NET
13 10 (0.98%) REST
13 10 (0.98%) WebSockets
13 10 (0.98%) Yocto
14 7 (0.69%) .NET Core
14 7 (0.69%) Blazor
14 7 (0.69%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 49 (4.80%) Algorithms
2 42 (4.11%) Embedded Systems
3 37 (3.62%) Robotics
4 25 (2.45%) Distributed Computing
5 22 (2.15%) Cloud Native
5 22 (2.15%) Product Ownership
6 13 (1.27%) AI Agents
6 13 (1.27%) Data Structures
7 12 (1.18%) IoT
8 9 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
8 9 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (0.69%) Life Science
11 6 (0.59%) Client/Server
11 6 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
12 5 (0.49%) FPGA
12 5 (0.49%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (0.49%) Management Information System
13 4 (0.39%) Verilog
13 4 (0.39%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 98 (9.60%) Linux
2 25 (2.45%) Windows
3 12 (1.18%) Embedded Linux
4 6 (0.59%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.49%) Debian
6 4 (0.39%) Android
7 3 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.29%) Gentoo
8 2 (0.20%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.098%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,014 (99.31%) Software Engineering
2 111 (10.87%) Agile
3 110 (10.77%) AI
4 95 (9.30%) CI/CD
5 74 (7.25%) Full-Stack Development
6 73 (7.15%) Problem-Solving
7 71 (6.95%) Computer Science
8 67 (6.56%) DevOps
9 62 (6.07%) Mentoring
10 58 (5.68%) SDLC
11 57 (5.58%) Software Architecture
12 48 (4.70%) Machine Learning
13 47 (4.60%) Containerisation
14 46 (4.51%) Test Automation
15 45 (4.41%) Microservices
16 37 (3.62%) Continuous Improvement
17 34 (3.33%) Data Science
18 32 (3.13%) Code Quality
19 31 (3.04%) Embedded Software Development
20 30 (2.94%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 262 (25.66%) C++
2 217 (21.25%) C#
3 205 (20.08%) Python
4 86 (8.42%) C
5 73 (7.15%) JavaScript
6 70 (6.86%) TypeScript
7 55 (5.39%) Java
8 41 (4.02%) SQL
9 27 (2.64%) Rust
10 20 (1.96%) Go
11 12 (1.18%) PHP
12 11 (1.08%) Ada
13 8 (0.78%) MATLAB
14 6 (0.59%) T-SQL
15 5 (0.49%) Embedded C++
16 4 (0.39%) Bash
16 4 (0.39%) Julia
16 4 (0.39%) Ruby
16 4 (0.39%) VB.NET
17 3 (0.29%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 156 (15.28%) Degree
2 122 (11.95%) Security Cleared
3 86 (8.42%) SC Cleared
4 77 (7.54%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (3.92%) Master's Degree
6 33 (3.23%) DV Cleared
7 26 (2.55%) PhD
8 8 (0.78%) Azure Certification
8 8 (0.78%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.20%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.20%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (1.08%) QA
2 4 (0.39%) DO-178B
2 4 (0.39%) ECSS
3 3 (0.29%) GAMP
4 2 (0.20%) AUTOSAR
4 2 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.20%) MISRA
4 2 (0.20%) MISRA C
5 1 (0.098%) Accessibility
System Software
1 73 (7.15%) Docker
2 30 (2.94%) Firmware
3 13 (1.27%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.20%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.20%) KVM
5 2 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.098%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 43 (4.21%) Kubernetes
2 15 (1.47%) Ansible
3 6 (0.59%) Podman
4 2 (0.20%) Puppet
Vendors
1 13 (1.27%) Salesforce
2 11 (1.08%) Microsoft
3 10 (0.98%) Oracle
4 8 (0.78%) Sage
5 5 (0.49%) Google
6 4 (0.39%) Xilinx
7 2 (0.20%) Atlassian
7 2 (0.20%) ServiceNow
7 2 (0.20%) VMware
7 2 (0.20%) Yahoo!
8 1 (0.098%) Adobe
8 1 (0.098%) IBM
8 1 (0.098%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.098%) Typelevel
8 1 (0.098%) Xamarin