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 9 April 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 59 41
Rank change year-on-year +19 -18 +29
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 562 290 776
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 4.15% 4.32% 4.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.41% 5.11% 5.29%
Number of salaries quoted 414 179 611
10th Percentile £43,950 £39,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £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 12,752 5,676 14,660
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.21% 84.62% 93.78%
Number of salaries quoted 8,498 3,597 10,984
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £41,250 £35,750
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 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.71%

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 9 April 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 9 April 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 +40 273 £65,000 +8.33% 60
Hampshire +36 181 £65,000 - 62
Oxfordshire +31 146 £65,000 -1.89% 33
Buckinghamshire +16 74 £60,000 - 15
Surrey -1 59 £60,000 -7.69% 16
Berkshire +7 53 £60,000 +9.09% 12
East Sussex - 21 £65,000 - 7
Kent -65 16 £50,000 -20.00% 2
West Sussex -26 9 £65,000 +116.67% 5
Isle of Wight -5 3 £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 9 April 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.

1 550 (97.86%) Software Engineering
2 143 (25.44%) C++
3 100 (17.79%) Degree
4 90 (16.01%) Python
5 87 (15.48%) C#
6 83 (14.77%) .NET
7 64 (11.39%) Full-Stack Development
8 59 (10.50%) Computer Science
9 57 (10.14%) Computer Science Degree
10 56 (9.96%) Agile
11 48 (8.54%) AWS
11 48 (8.54%) SaaS
12 46 (8.19%) Azure
13 45 (8.01%) SQL
14 44 (7.83%) C
15 38 (6.76%) Problem-Solving
15 38 (6.76%) Security Cleared
16 37 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
17 34 (6.05%) DevOps
17 34 (6.05%) Linux
18 32 (5.69%) SC Cleared
19 31 (5.52%) JavaScript
19 31 (5.52%) Test Automation
20 30 (5.34%) AI
21 28 (4.98%) CI/CD
21 28 (4.98%) SQL Server
22 25 (4.45%) Containerisation
22 25 (4.45%) Java
22 25 (4.45%) QA
23 24 (4.27%) Git

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 6 (1.07%) IIS
2 2 (0.36%) Confluence
3 1 (0.18%) CMS
3 1 (0.18%) Kinematics
Applications
1 2 (0.36%) AutoCAD
1 2 (0.36%) EPLAN
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 48 (8.54%) AWS
1 48 (8.54%) SaaS
2 46 (8.19%) Azure
3 21 (3.74%) GCP
4 12 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
5 9 (1.60%) GitHub
6 8 (1.42%) Stripe
7 5 (0.89%) Figma
8 2 (0.36%) Amazon EKS
8 2 (0.36%) AWS Lambda
8 2 (0.36%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (0.36%) GitHub Copilot
8 2 (0.36%) Serverless
9 1 (0.18%) Adobe Analytics
9 1 (0.18%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 19 (3.38%) Wireless
2 3 (0.53%) ATM
3 2 (0.36%) Software-Defined Radio
3 2 (0.36%) SpaceWire
4 1 (0.18%) Broadband
4 1 (0.18%) HTTP
4 1 (0.18%) Internet
4 1 (0.18%) Modbus
4 1 (0.18%) Multicast
4 1 (0.18%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (4.98%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.07%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 3 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.18%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.18%) Pinecone
5 1 (0.18%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.18%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 24 (4.27%) Git
2 9 (1.60%) GitLab
3 7 (1.25%) Visual Studio
3 7 (1.25%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.36%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.36%) Claude Code
4 2 (0.36%) JIRA
4 2 (0.36%) Postman
4 2 (0.36%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.18%) Appium
5 1 (0.18%) CMake
5 1 (0.18%) JUnit
5 1 (0.18%) Katalon Studio
5 1 (0.18%) NUnit
5 1 (0.18%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.18%) Selenium
5 1 (0.18%) Toad
5 1 (0.18%) utPLSQL
5 1 (0.18%) Yeoman
General
1 35 (6.23%) Social Skills
2 28 (4.98%) Electronics
3 13 (2.31%) Manufacturing
4 11 (1.96%) Finance
5 10 (1.78%) Aerospace
6 9 (1.60%) Pharmaceutical
7 7 (1.25%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (1.07%) Aviation
8 6 (1.07%) Games
8 6 (1.07%) Public Sector
9 5 (0.89%) Military
9 5 (0.89%) Tech for Good
10 4 (0.71%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.36%) Automotive
12 1 (0.18%) Health Technology
12 1 (0.18%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.18%) Marketing
12 1 (0.18%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (14.77%) .NET
2 18 (3.20%) React
3 13 (2.31%) Unreal Engine
4 12 (2.14%) REST
5 11 (1.96%) .NET Framework
6 9 (1.60%) ASP.NET
7 8 (1.42%) Django
7 8 (1.42%) HTML
7 8 (1.42%) Laravel
7 8 (1.42%) Vue
8 7 (1.25%) AngularJS
8 7 (1.25%) CSS
8 7 (1.25%) Middleware
8 7 (1.25%) WinForms
9 6 (1.07%) DirectX
9 6 (1.07%) Entity Framework
9 6 (1.07%) OpenGL
9 6 (1.07%) OpenGL ES
9 6 (1.07%) Qt
9 6 (1.07%) Vulkan
Miscellaneous
1 20 (3.56%) IoT
1 20 (3.56%) Smart Energy
2 18 (3.20%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (2.67%) Algorithms
3 15 (2.67%) Client/Server
4 13 (2.31%) Embedded Systems
5 10 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (1.42%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.25%) Cloud Native
8 5 (0.89%) Distributed Computing
8 5 (0.89%) Product Ownership
8 5 (0.89%) Robotics
8 5 (0.89%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (0.71%) AI Agents
10 3 (0.53%) CUDA
10 3 (0.53%) Driving Licence
10 3 (0.53%) SCADA
10 3 (0.53%) Smart Home
11 2 (0.36%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.36%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 34 (6.05%) Linux
2 14 (2.49%) Android
3 9 (1.60%) Windows
4 2 (0.36%) VxWorks
5 1 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.18%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 550 (97.86%) Software Engineering
2 64 (11.39%) Full-Stack Development
3 59 (10.50%) Computer Science
4 56 (9.96%) Agile
5 38 (6.76%) Problem-Solving
6 37 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
7 34 (6.05%) DevOps
8 31 (5.52%) Test Automation
9 30 (5.34%) AI
10 28 (4.98%) CI/CD
11 25 (4.45%) Containerisation
12 23 (4.09%) Code Quality
13 20 (3.56%) Energy Management
13 20 (3.56%) Storage Management
14 19 (3.38%) Software Testing
15 18 (3.20%) Machine Learning
15 18 (3.20%) TDD
16 17 (3.02%) SDLC
17 16 (2.85%) User Experience
18 15 (2.67%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 143 (25.44%) C++
2 90 (16.01%) Python
3 87 (15.48%) C#
4 45 (8.01%) SQL
5 44 (7.83%) C
6 31 (5.52%) JavaScript
7 25 (4.45%) Java
8 22 (3.91%) Rust
9 18 (3.20%) TypeScript
10 11 (1.96%) PHP
11 8 (1.42%) Ruby
12 7 (1.25%) PL/SQL
13 6 (1.07%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.71%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.71%) Delphi
14 4 (0.71%) Go
15 3 (0.53%) Uniface
16 2 (0.36%) Embedded C++
16 2 (0.36%) MATLAB
16 2 (0.36%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 100 (17.79%) Degree
2 57 (10.14%) Computer Science Degree
3 38 (6.76%) Security Cleared
4 32 (5.69%) SC Cleared
5 23 (4.09%) Master's Degree
6 11 (1.96%) PhD
7 3 (0.53%) DV Cleared
7 3 (0.53%) HNC
7 3 (0.53%) HND
8 2 (0.36%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.36%) Chartered Engineer
8 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.36%) NVQ Level 3
8 2 (0.36%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.45%) QA
2 4 (0.71%) ECSS
2 4 (0.71%) ISO 9001
3 2 (0.36%) GDPR
3 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 1 (0.18%) Data Quality
System Software
1 21 (3.74%) Docker
2 19 (3.38%) Firmware
3 13 (2.31%) Hyper-V
3 13 (2.31%) KVM
3 13 (2.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 14 (2.49%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.53%) Terraform
Vendors
1 13 (2.31%) VMware
2 8 (1.42%) HubSpot
2 8 (1.42%) Microsoft
2 8 (1.42%) Oracle
3 6 (1.07%) Sage
3 6 (1.07%) Xamarin
4 4 (0.71%) Salesforce
5 3 (0.53%) Allen-Bradley
5 3 (0.53%) Google
5 3 (0.53%) Siemens
5 3 (0.53%) Wonderware
6 2 (0.36%) Zoho
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe
7 1 (0.18%) NVIDIA
7 1 (0.18%) Typelevel