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 19 December 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 33 81
Rank change year-on-year -48 +48 -28
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 268 605 241
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 2.59% 6.36% 3.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.82% 6.86% 3.53%
Number of salaries quoted 193 271 173
10th Percentile £42,000 £41,098 £41,700
25th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% - +4.35%
75th Percentile £75,000 £74,375 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £82,500 £81,250
England median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year - - +2.17%

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 9,489 8,821 6,822
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.54% 92.71% 94.40%
Number of salaries quoted 5,916 4,803 4,909
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,500 £38,750
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 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 19 December 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 19 December 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 +4 102 £65,000 +8.33% 74
Thames Valley -48 96 £62,500 +4.17% 128
Surrey -23 48 £90,000 +50.00% 45
Oxfordshire -1 45 £67,500 +3.85% 40
Buckinghamshire -21 31 £37,500 -31.82% 39
Berkshire -63 20 £60,000 -4.00% 49
Isle of Wight -10 8 £75,900 +38.00% 15
East Sussex +19 6 £82,500 +65.00% 19
West Sussex -15 4 - - 17
Kent -64 4 £50,000 -28.57% 37
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 19 December 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.

1 268 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 69 (25.75%) Agile
3 64 (23.88%) C++
4 54 (20.15%) C#
5 51 (19.03%) Degree
6 47 (17.54%) .NET
7 43 (16.04%) DevOps
8 37 (13.81%) Computer Science
9 36 (13.43%) Azure
9 36 (13.43%) Security Cleared
10 33 (12.31%) SC Cleared
11 31 (11.57%) SQL
12 30 (11.19%) C
12 30 (11.19%) Mentoring
13 29 (10.82%) Full-Stack Development
13 29 (10.82%) Problem-Solving
14 27 (10.07%) AI
14 27 (10.07%) Python
15 26 (9.70%) Computer Science Degree
16 25 (9.33%) CI/CD
16 25 (9.33%) Coaching
16 25 (9.33%) Linux
17 22 (8.21%) Azure DevOps
17 22 (8.21%) JavaScript
17 22 (8.21%) Wireless
18 18 (6.72%) Machine Learning
19 17 (6.34%) Firmware
19 17 (6.34%) Signal Processing
20 16 (5.97%) Innovative Thinking
21 15 (5.60%) ASP.NET

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 (4.48%) IIS
2 1 (0.37%) ArchestrA
2 1 (0.37%) CMS
2 1 (0.37%) FactoryTalk
2 1 (0.37%) Kinematics
2 1 (0.37%) WinCC
Applications
1 1 (0.37%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.37%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 1 (0.37%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 36 (13.43%) Azure
2 22 (8.21%) Azure DevOps
3 10 (3.73%) AWS
3 10 (3.73%) SaaS
4 7 (2.61%) GitHub
5 5 (1.87%) GCP
6 4 (1.49%) GitHub Actions
6 4 (1.49%) Serverless
6 4 (1.49%) Stripe
7 2 (0.75%) AWS Lambda
7 2 (0.75%) Azure Data Factory
7 2 (0.75%) Cloudflare
7 2 (0.75%) GitHub Copilot
8 1 (0.37%) Amazon ECS
8 1 (0.37%) Amazon EKS
8 1 (0.37%) Amazon S3
8 1 (0.37%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.37%) Heroku
Communications & Networking
1 22 (8.21%) Wireless
2 15 (5.60%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (1.12%) ATM
4 2 (0.75%) Modbus
5 1 (0.37%) DNS
5 1 (0.37%) Firewall
5 1 (0.37%) HTTP
5 1 (0.37%) Profibus
5 1 (0.37%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.48%) SQL Server
1 12 (4.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 5 (1.87%) PostgreSQL
3 4 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (1.12%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (1.12%) GIS
5 2 (0.75%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.75%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.75%) Redis
5 2 (0.75%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.37%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.37%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.37%) MySQL
6 1 (0.37%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.37%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 12 (4.48%) Git
2 4 (1.49%) JIRA
2 4 (1.49%) Visual Studio
3 3 (1.12%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.12%) TestRail
4 2 (0.75%) GitLab
5 1 (0.37%) Appium
5 1 (0.37%) JUnit
5 1 (0.37%) Katalon Studio
5 1 (0.37%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.37%) Selenium
General
1 26 (9.70%) Social Skills
2 18 (6.72%) Finance
3 16 (5.97%) Manufacturing
4 5 (1.87%) Automotive
4 5 (1.87%) Electronics
5 4 (1.49%) Public Sector
5 4 (1.49%) Tech for Good
6 2 (0.75%) Aviation
6 2 (0.75%) Law
7 1 (0.37%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.37%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (0.37%) Games
7 1 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.37%) Military
7 1 (0.37%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (17.54%) .NET
2 15 (5.60%) ASP.NET
2 15 (5.60%) WinForms
3 14 (5.22%) .NET Framework
4 13 (4.85%) React
5 12 (4.48%) Entity Framework
6 8 (2.99%) Qt
7 6 (2.24%) .NET Core
8 5 (1.87%) Ruby on Rails
8 5 (1.87%) WPF
9 4 (1.49%) AngularJS
9 4 (1.49%) RESTful
10 3 (1.12%) Blazor
10 3 (1.12%) Laravel
10 3 (1.12%) Next.js
10 3 (1.12%) REST
11 2 (0.75%) ASP.NET Core
11 2 (0.75%) FastAPI
11 2 (0.75%) Node.js
11 2 (0.75%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 23 (8.58%) Embedded Systems
2 17 (6.34%) RISC-V
3 16 (5.97%) e-Learning
4 15 (5.60%) MicroBlaze
5 12 (4.48%) Manufacturing Execution System
6 11 (4.10%) Algorithms
7 8 (2.99%) IoT
7 8 (2.99%) Smart Energy
8 6 (2.24%) 3D Graphics
9 4 (1.49%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (1.12%) Data Structures
10 3 (1.12%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (1.12%) Mobile App
11 2 (0.75%) AI Agents
11 2 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.75%) N-Tier
11 2 (0.75%) Product Ownership
11 2 (0.75%) Robotics
11 2 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 25 (9.33%) Linux
2 15 (5.60%) Embedded Linux
3 13 (4.85%) Windows
4 8 (2.99%) Android
5 4 (1.49%) Unix
6 2 (0.75%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.37%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.37%) VxWorks
7 1 (0.37%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 268 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 69 (25.75%) Agile
3 43 (16.04%) DevOps
4 37 (13.81%) Computer Science
5 30 (11.19%) Mentoring
6 29 (10.82%) Full-Stack Development
6 29 (10.82%) Problem-Solving
7 27 (10.07%) AI
8 25 (9.33%) CI/CD
8 25 (9.33%) Coaching
9 18 (6.72%) Machine Learning
10 17 (6.34%) Signal Processing
11 16 (5.97%) Innovative Thinking
12 15 (5.60%) Digital Signal Processing
13 14 (5.22%) Mathematics
13 14 (5.22%) Technical Leadership
14 13 (4.85%) SDLC
15 12 (4.48%) Microservices
16 11 (4.10%) Physics
17 10 (3.73%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 64 (23.88%) C++
2 54 (20.15%) C#
3 31 (11.57%) SQL
4 30 (11.19%) C
5 27 (10.07%) Python
6 22 (8.21%) JavaScript
7 15 (5.60%) Java
8 13 (4.85%) T-SQL
8 13 (4.85%) TypeScript
9 7 (2.61%) Ada
9 7 (2.61%) Ada 95
9 7 (2.61%) Bash
9 7 (2.61%) Rust
10 6 (2.24%) Delphi
11 5 (1.87%) Ruby
12 4 (1.49%) Fortran
12 4 (1.49%) PHP
13 3 (1.12%) Go
13 3 (1.12%) Julia
14 2 (0.75%) BrightScript
Qualifications
1 51 (19.03%) Degree
2 36 (13.43%) Security Cleared
3 33 (12.31%) SC Cleared
4 26 (9.70%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (4.85%) Master's Degree
5 13 (4.85%) PhD
6 7 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (2.61%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (0.75%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.75%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.75%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.37%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.61%) ISO/IEC 12207
2 6 (2.24%) QA
3 3 (1.12%) ECSS
4 2 (0.75%) ISO 9000
4 2 (0.75%) JTAG
5 1 (0.37%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.37%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.37%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 17 (6.34%) Firmware
2 15 (5.60%) Embedded Firmware
3 12 (4.48%) Docker
4 1 (0.37%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (3.73%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.49%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (5.60%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.22%) Sage
3 12 (4.48%) Xamarin
4 11 (4.10%) Guidewire
5 5 (1.87%) Google
5 5 (1.87%) Zoho
6 3 (1.12%) HubSpot
7 2 (0.75%) Databricks
7 2 (0.75%) Roku
8 1 (0.37%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.37%) Rockwell
8 1 (0.37%) SendGrid
8 1 (0.37%) Siemens
8 1 (0.37%) VMware