Software Engineer Job Trends in the South West

Software Engineer
England > South West

The median Software Engineer salary in the South West is £69,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 September 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 51 13
Rank change year-on-year +42 -38 +54
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 863 143 718
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 8.62% 4.11% 9.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.26% 4.45% 10.08%
Number of salaries quoted 634 80 455
10th Percentile £48,750 £45,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,250 £65,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.54% +12.07% -7.13%
75th Percentile £85,000 £83,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £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 West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South West. 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 West with a recognized job title 9,322 3,212 7,124
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.14% 92.41% 94.96%
Number of salaries quoted 6,451 2,104 4,681
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £39,500 £31,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £46,760 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.62% -10.08% -5.45%
75th Percentile £75,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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 West.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the South West

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the South West.

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the South West

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the South West over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the South West

Software Engineer
Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 15 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
Gloucestershire +25 358 £80,000 +4.92% 115
Bristol +34 255 £65,000 +8.33% 72
Dorset +6 107 £100,000 +81.82% 63
Somerset +5 55 £60,000 -7.69% 30
Devon +8 37 £60,000 +33.33% 5
Wiltshire +8 34 £55,000 -15.38% 8
Cornwall - 17 £45,000 - 2
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 15 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 West region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 863 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 167 (19.35%) Security Cleared
3 144 (16.69%) Agile
4 131 (15.18%) C++
5 113 (13.09%) Java
6 101 (11.70%) Full-Stack Development
7 99 (11.47%) Python
8 95 (11.01%) CI/CD
9 85 (9.85%) SC Cleared
10 81 (9.39%) DV Cleared
11 72 (8.34%) C#
12 57 (6.60%) SDLC
13 55 (6.37%) Linux
14 52 (6.03%) Microservices
15 51 (5.91%) JavaScript
16 48 (5.56%) Test Automation
17 47 (5.45%) DevOps
18 45 (5.21%) AI
19 44 (5.10%) AWS
20 43 (4.98%) WPF
21 41 (4.75%) Embedded Software Development
21 41 (4.75%) Vue
22 39 (4.52%) Mentoring
23 38 (4.40%) Software Architecture
24 33 (3.82%) C
24 33 (3.82%) Open Source
25 31 (3.59%) Rust
25 31 (3.59%) Spring
26 30 (3.48%) Problem-Solving
27 29 (3.36%) Spring Boot

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 (1.39%) Apache
2 4 (0.46%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.12%) Confluence
3 1 (0.12%) OpenStack
Business Applications
1 2 (0.23%) Visualfiles
Cloud Services
1 44 (5.10%) AWS
2 28 (3.24%) Azure
3 14 (1.62%) GCP
4 10 (1.16%) OpenShift
5 9 (1.04%) Firebase
6 8 (0.93%) GitHub
6 8 (0.93%) SaaS
7 7 (0.81%) Serverless
8 5 (0.58%) AWS Lambda
9 4 (0.46%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (0.46%) Anthropic Claude
9 4 (0.46%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (0.46%) Cloud Run
10 2 (0.23%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.12%) Amazon OpenSearch
11 1 (0.12%) Azure AI
11 1 (0.12%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 1 (0.12%) Cloud Functions
11 1 (0.12%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.27%) Ethernet
2 9 (1.04%) Wireless
3 4 (0.46%) AMQP
4 3 (0.35%) RS-485
5 2 (0.23%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.12%) Broadband
6 1 (0.12%) Modbus
6 1 (0.12%) MQTT
6 1 (0.12%) Profibus
6 1 (0.12%) RS-232
6 1 (0.12%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.27%) MongoDB
2 10 (1.16%) Elasticsearch
3 9 (1.04%) Big Data
3 9 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (0.70%) Hadoop
5 5 (0.58%) MySQL
6 4 (0.46%) Cloudera CDH
6 4 (0.46%) MariaDB
7 3 (0.35%) Chroma
7 3 (0.35%) Pinecone
7 3 (0.35%) Redis
7 3 (0.35%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.35%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.23%) Metadata
8 2 (0.23%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.12%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 24 (2.78%) Git
2 19 (2.20%) GitLab
3 11 (1.27%) JIRA
4 10 (1.16%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.04%) SonarQube
6 8 (0.93%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.46%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.35%) LabVIEW
8 3 (0.35%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.23%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.23%) Gradle
9 2 (0.23%) JUnit
9 2 (0.23%) Mockito
9 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.12%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.12%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.12%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.12%) Mocha
10 1 (0.12%) Valgrind
General
1 38 (4.40%) Aerospace
2 24 (2.78%) Finance
3 21 (2.43%) Automotive
4 19 (2.20%) Electronics
5 18 (2.09%) Social Skills
6 15 (1.74%) Aviation
7 14 (1.62%) Manufacturing
8 12 (1.39%) Analytical Skills
9 10 (1.16%) Public Sector
10 9 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (0.93%) Law
12 7 (0.81%) Military
13 4 (0.46%) Avionics
13 4 (0.46%) Social Housing
13 4 (0.46%) Tech for Good
14 3 (0.35%) Marketing
14 3 (0.35%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.23%) Banking
15 2 (0.23%) Financial Institution
15 2 (0.23%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.98%) WPF
2 41 (4.75%) Vue
3 31 (3.59%) Spring
4 29 (3.36%) Spring Boot
5 26 (3.01%) React
6 17 (1.97%) AngularJS
7 15 (1.74%) Terraform
8 13 (1.51%) REST
9 11 (1.27%) Node.js
9 11 (1.27%) RESTful
10 9 (1.04%) .NET
10 9 (1.04%) Elastic Stack
11 8 (0.93%) Apache NiFi
11 8 (0.93%) HTML
12 6 (0.70%) CSS
12 6 (0.70%) gRPC
12 6 (0.70%) OpenAPI
13 5 (0.58%) Kafka
13 5 (0.58%) Swagger
14 4 (0.46%) Material-UI
Miscellaneous
1 31 (3.59%) Cloud Native
2 29 (3.36%) Embedded Systems
2 29 (3.36%) Public Cloud
3 25 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
4 18 (2.09%) Algorithms
5 14 (1.62%) Distributed Systems
6 12 (1.39%) IoT
7 9 (1.04%) AI Agents
8 7 (0.81%) Device Driver
8 7 (0.81%) Robotics
9 6 (0.70%) ARM Cortex
9 6 (0.70%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.58%) Operational Technology
11 4 (0.46%) Smart Home
12 3 (0.35%) Fat Client
12 3 (0.35%) Greenfield Project
12 3 (0.35%) Mobile App
12 3 (0.35%) Onboarding
12 3 (0.35%) Thin Client
13 2 (0.23%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 55 (6.37%) Linux
2 21 (2.43%) Android
3 18 (2.09%) Windows
4 5 (0.58%) Ubuntu
4 5 (0.58%) Unix
4 5 (0.58%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.46%) CentOS
5 4 (0.46%) Debian
5 4 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
7 2 (0.23%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.23%) SafeRTOS
7 2 (0.23%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 863 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 144 (16.69%) Agile
3 101 (11.70%) Full-Stack Development
4 95 (11.01%) CI/CD
5 57 (6.60%) SDLC
6 52 (6.03%) Microservices
7 48 (5.56%) Test Automation
8 47 (5.45%) DevOps
9 45 (5.21%) AI
10 41 (4.75%) Embedded Software Development
11 39 (4.52%) Mentoring
12 38 (4.40%) Software Architecture
13 33 (3.82%) Open Source
14 30 (3.48%) Problem-Solving
15 28 (3.24%) Data Pipeline
16 27 (3.13%) Continuous Improvement
17 23 (2.67%) Collaborative Working
18 22 (2.55%) Containerisation
19 21 (2.43%) Code Quality
20 20 (2.32%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 131 (15.18%) C++
2 113 (13.09%) Java
3 99 (11.47%) Python
4 72 (8.34%) C#
5 51 (5.91%) JavaScript
6 33 (3.82%) C
7 31 (3.59%) Rust
8 26 (3.01%) TypeScript
9 22 (2.55%) Embedded C++
10 17 (1.97%) Go
10 17 (1.97%) Kotlin
11 10 (1.16%) Bash
11 10 (1.16%) SQL
12 8 (0.93%) PHP
13 7 (0.81%) Ada
14 5 (0.58%) Scala
15 4 (0.46%) Embedded C
15 4 (0.46%) MATLAB
16 3 (0.35%) Ada 95
16 3 (0.35%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 167 (19.35%) Security Cleared
2 85 (9.85%) SC Cleared
3 81 (9.39%) DV Cleared
4 21 (2.43%) Degree
5 7 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (0.58%) CEH
6 5 (0.58%) OSCP
7 3 (0.35%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (0.35%) Master's Degree
7 3 (0.35%) PhD
8 2 (0.23%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (1.04%) Accessibility
2 5 (0.58%) QA
3 3 (0.35%) MIL-STD-1553
4 1 (0.12%) DO-178B
4 1 (0.12%) DO-254
4 1 (0.12%) HAZOP
4 1 (0.12%) IEC 61508
4 1 (0.12%) IEC 62304
4 1 (0.12%) ISO 26262
4 1 (0.12%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 21 (2.43%) Firmware
2 17 (1.97%) Docker
3 4 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 26 (3.01%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.97%) Ansible
3 8 (0.93%) Grafana
3 8 (0.93%) Kibana
3 8 (0.93%) logstash
4 4 (0.46%) Puppet
5 3 (0.35%) Plesk
5 3 (0.35%) SCCM
5 3 (0.35%) SCOM
5 3 (0.35%) SCOrch
6 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.12%) Podman
Vendors
1 6 (0.70%) Google
1 6 (0.70%) Intel
2 5 (0.58%) Microsoft
3 4 (0.46%) OpenAI
3 4 (0.46%) Peregrine
3 4 (0.46%) Red Hat
3 4 (0.46%) SaltStack
4 3 (0.35%) Databricks
4 3 (0.35%) Salesforce
5 2 (0.23%) Atlassian
5 2 (0.23%) LexisNexis
5 2 (0.23%) VMware
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle
6 1 (0.12%) TOWER Software