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 28 November 2025.

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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 87 24 70
Rank change year-on-year -63 +46 -25
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 245 833 270
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 2.57% 7.47% 3.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.81% 7.86% 3.83%
Number of salaries quoted 170 436 195
10th Percentile £40,014 £40,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £56,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +16.07% -6.67% +4.35%
75th Percentile £80,000 £70,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £82,500 £80,000
England median annual salary £75,000 £65,465 £70,000
% change year-on-year +14.57% -6.48% +0.80%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 8,712 10,600 7,047
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.37% 95.08% 94.63%
Number of salaries quoted 5,486 5,905 5,065
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £29,741
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £38,500
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 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £57,560 £60,000
% change year-on-year -4.45% -4.07% -

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 28 November 2025.

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 28 November 2025. 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 -4 98 £65,000 +18.18% 34
Thames Valley -84 71 £60,000 - 65
Surrey -32 48 £90,000 +63.64% 15
Oxfordshire -11 32 £65,000 +8.33% 45
Buckinghamshire -29 21 £35,000 -30.00% 9
Berkshire -88 18 £60,000 - 12
Isle of Wight -9 9 £71,950 +30.82%
Kent -56 9 £62,500 -10.71% 3
East Sussex +20 6 £82,500 +37.50% 10
West Sussex -23 4 - - 2
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 28 November 2025, 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.

1 245 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 74 (30.20%) Agile
3 61 (24.90%) C++
4 55 (22.45%) Degree
5 47 (19.18%) C#
5 47 (19.18%) DevOps
6 39 (15.92%) Computer Science
6 39 (15.92%) Security Cleared
7 37 (15.10%) Azure
8 36 (14.69%) .NET
8 36 (14.69%) SC Cleared
8 36 (14.69%) SQL
9 34 (13.88%) C
10 30 (12.24%) Mentoring
11 29 (11.84%) Problem-Solving
12 28 (11.43%) Linux
12 28 (11.43%) Python
13 26 (10.61%) AI
13 26 (10.61%) Coaching
14 23 (9.39%) CI/CD
14 23 (9.39%) Computer Science Degree
15 21 (8.57%) Azure DevOps
16 20 (8.16%) Firmware
16 20 (8.16%) Full-Stack Development
16 20 (8.16%) Wireless
17 19 (7.76%) Innovative Thinking
18 18 (7.35%) Digital Signal Processing
18 18 (7.35%) Embedded Firmware
18 18 (7.35%) Embedded Linux
18 18 (7.35%) Signal Processing

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 (4.90%) IIS
2 3 (1.22%) CMS
3 1 (0.41%) ArchestrA
3 1 (0.41%) FactoryTalk
3 1 (0.41%) WinCC
Applications
1 3 (1.22%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.41%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 37 (15.10%) Azure
2 21 (8.57%) Azure DevOps
3 14 (5.71%) AWS
4 5 (2.04%) GCP
4 5 (2.04%) GitHub
4 5 (2.04%) SaaS
5 4 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
5 4 (1.63%) Serverless
6 2 (0.82%) AWS Lambda
6 2 (0.82%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (0.82%) Cloudflare
6 2 (0.82%) Stripe
7 1 (0.41%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (0.41%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (0.41%) Amazon S3
7 1 (0.41%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.41%) Heroku
Communications & Networking
1 20 (8.16%) Wireless
2 18 (7.35%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (1.22%) ATM
4 1 (0.41%) DNS
4 1 (0.41%) Firewall
4 1 (0.41%) HTTP
4 1 (0.41%) Modbus
4 1 (0.41%) Profibus
4 1 (0.41%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (5.31%) SQL Server
2 12 (4.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 6 (2.45%) NoSQL
4 5 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.63%) Azure SQL Database
6 3 (1.22%) GIS
6 3 (1.22%) MongoDB
6 3 (1.22%) Redis
6 3 (1.22%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.82%) MySQL
8 1 (0.41%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.41%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.41%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 10 (4.08%) Git
2 4 (1.63%) JIRA
3 3 (1.22%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.22%) TestRail
4 2 (0.82%) GitLab
5 1 (0.41%) Appium
5 1 (0.41%) JUnit
5 1 (0.41%) Katalon Studio
5 1 (0.41%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.41%) Selenium
5 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio
General
1 26 (10.61%) Finance
2 25 (10.20%) Social Skills
3 15 (6.12%) Manufacturing
4 5 (2.04%) Automotive
5 4 (1.63%) Electronics
5 4 (1.63%) Tech for Good
6 3 (1.22%) Law
6 3 (1.22%) Retail
7 2 (0.82%) Aviation
7 2 (0.82%) Military
8 1 (0.41%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.41%) Games
8 1 (0.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.41%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.41%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (14.69%) .NET
2 15 (6.12%) ASP.NET
2 15 (6.12%) WinForms
3 14 (5.71%) React
4 12 (4.90%) .NET Framework
4 12 (4.90%) Entity Framework
5 8 (3.27%) Qt
6 5 (2.04%) .NET Core
6 5 (2.04%) Ruby on Rails
6 5 (2.04%) WPF
7 4 (1.63%) Next.js
7 4 (1.63%) Node.js
7 4 (1.63%) RESTful
8 3 (1.22%) AngularJS
8 3 (1.22%) Blazor
8 3 (1.22%) REST
9 2 (0.82%) ASP.NET Core
9 2 (0.82%) Spring
10 1 (0.41%) CSS
10 1 (0.41%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 24 (9.80%) Embedded Systems
2 20 (8.16%) RISC-V
3 19 (7.76%) e-Learning
4 18 (7.35%) MicroBlaze
5 12 (4.90%) Manufacturing Execution System
6 11 (4.49%) Algorithms
7 9 (3.67%) IoT
8 6 (2.45%) 3D Graphics
8 6 (2.45%) Smart Energy
9 4 (1.63%) Cloud Native
10 3 (1.22%) Data Structures
10 3 (1.22%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.22%) Product Ownership
11 2 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.82%) N-Tier
11 2 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
12 1 (0.41%) Greenfield Project
12 1 (0.41%) Operational Technology
12 1 (0.41%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 28 (11.43%) Linux
2 18 (7.35%) Embedded Linux
3 13 (5.31%) Windows
4 7 (2.86%) Android
5 4 (1.63%) Unix
6 2 (0.82%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.41%) VxWorks
7 1 (0.41%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 245 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 74 (30.20%) Agile
3 47 (19.18%) DevOps
4 39 (15.92%) Computer Science
5 30 (12.24%) Mentoring
6 29 (11.84%) Problem-Solving
7 26 (10.61%) AI
7 26 (10.61%) Coaching
8 23 (9.39%) CI/CD
9 20 (8.16%) Full-Stack Development
10 19 (7.76%) Innovative Thinking
11 18 (7.35%) Digital Signal Processing
11 18 (7.35%) Signal Processing
12 17 (6.94%) Mathematics
13 16 (6.53%) Machine Learning
13 16 (6.53%) SDLC
14 15 (6.12%) Technical Leadership
15 14 (5.71%) Physics
16 13 (5.31%) Microservices
17 12 (4.90%) Active Listening
Programming Languages
1 61 (24.90%) C++
2 47 (19.18%) C#
3 36 (14.69%) SQL
4 34 (13.88%) C
5 28 (11.43%) Python
6 17 (6.94%) JavaScript
7 16 (6.53%) Java
8 13 (5.31%) T-SQL
9 12 (4.90%) TypeScript
10 8 (3.27%) Ada
10 8 (3.27%) Ada 95
11 7 (2.86%) Bash
11 7 (2.86%) Rust
12 6 (2.45%) Delphi
13 5 (2.04%) Ruby
14 4 (1.63%) Fortran
14 4 (1.63%) Uniface
15 3 (1.22%) Julia
15 3 (1.22%) Kotlin
16 2 (0.82%) Go
Qualifications
1 55 (22.45%) Degree
2 39 (15.92%) Security Cleared
3 36 (14.69%) SC Cleared
4 23 (9.39%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (5.31%) Master's Degree
5 13 (5.31%) PhD
6 8 (3.27%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (3.27%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (0.82%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.82%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.41%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 12207
2 4 (1.63%) QA
3 3 (1.22%) ECSS
4 2 (0.82%) ISO 9000
4 2 (0.82%) JTAG
5 1 (0.41%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.41%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.41%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 20 (8.16%) Firmware
2 18 (7.35%) Embedded Firmware
3 10 (4.08%) Docker
4 1 (0.41%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (3.27%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.63%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (6.12%) Guidewire
1 15 (6.12%) Sage
2 14 (5.71%) Microsoft
3 12 (4.90%) Xamarin
4 5 (2.04%) Google
4 5 (2.04%) Zoho
5 2 (0.82%) Databricks
5 2 (0.82%) Roku
6 1 (0.41%) HubSpot
6 1 (0.41%) Rockwell
6 1 (0.41%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.41%) SendGrid
6 1 (0.41%) Siemens
6 1 (0.41%) VMware