Software Engineer Job Trends in the South West

Software Engineer
England > South West

The median Software Engineer salary in the South West is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 4 September 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 45 13
Rank change year-on-year +36 -32 +59
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 812 148 738
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 8.48% 4.33% 9.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.04% 4.70% 10.04%
Number of salaries quoted 592 81 498
10th Percentile £46,375 £45,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +13.04% -7.93%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,751 £69,688
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £83,038 £65,000
% change year-on-year -15.70% +27.75% -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 8,982 3,147 7,353
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.78% 92.04% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 6,188 2,092 4,986
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £38,000 £31,438 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -8.65% -5.25%
75th Percentile £73,813 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £88,750 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% - -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 4 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 4 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 +26 338 £80,000 +3.23% 96
Bristol +30 248 £66,250 +10.42% 53
Dorset +6 91 £65,000 +18.18% 47
Somerset +4 54 £55,000 -15.38% 13
Wiltshire +15 35 £55,000 -15.38% 4
Devon +2 33 £60,000 +33.33% 7
Cornwall - 13 £45,000 - 4
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 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.

1 812 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 163 (20.07%) Security Cleared
3 130 (16.01%) C++
4 128 (15.76%) Agile
5 108 (13.30%) Java
6 97 (11.95%) Full-Stack Development
7 96 (11.82%) Python
8 94 (11.58%) CI/CD
9 82 (10.10%) SC Cleared
10 79 (9.73%) DV Cleared
11 72 (8.87%) C#
12 54 (6.65%) Linux
13 53 (6.53%) SDLC
14 51 (6.28%) Microservices
15 49 (6.03%) JavaScript
16 48 (5.91%) Test Automation
17 46 (5.67%) DevOps
18 44 (5.42%) WPF
19 41 (5.05%) AI
19 41 (5.05%) Embedded Software Development
19 41 (5.05%) Mentoring
20 40 (4.93%) AWS
20 40 (4.93%) Vue
21 38 (4.68%) Software Architecture
22 34 (4.19%) C
23 31 (3.82%) Open Source
24 30 (3.69%) Rust
24 30 (3.69%) Spring
25 28 (3.45%) Continuous Improvement
25 28 (3.45%) Problem-Solving

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 10 (1.23%) Apache
2 3 (0.37%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.12%) Confluence
3 1 (0.12%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 40 (4.93%) AWS
2 27 (3.33%) Azure
3 13 (1.60%) GCP
4 9 (1.11%) Firebase
4 9 (1.11%) OpenShift
5 8 (0.99%) GitHub
6 6 (0.74%) SaaS
7 5 (0.62%) Serverless
8 4 (0.49%) Anthropic Claude
8 4 (0.49%) AWS Lambda
8 4 (0.49%) Cloud Run
9 3 (0.37%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (0.37%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.25%) 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 (1.35%) Ethernet
1 11 (1.35%) Wireless
2 3 (0.37%) AMQP
2 3 (0.37%) RS-485
3 2 (0.25%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.12%) Broadband
4 1 (0.12%) Modbus
4 1 (0.12%) MQTT
4 1 (0.12%) Profibus
4 1 (0.12%) RS-232
4 1 (0.12%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.35%) MongoDB
2 9 (1.11%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (0.99%) Big Data
3 8 (0.99%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (0.62%) Hadoop
4 5 (0.62%) MySQL
5 4 (0.49%) MariaDB
6 3 (0.37%) Chroma
6 3 (0.37%) Cloudera CDH
6 3 (0.37%) Pinecone
6 3 (0.37%) Redis
6 3 (0.37%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.37%) SQL Server
7 2 (0.25%) Metadata
7 2 (0.25%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.12%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 25 (3.08%) Git
2 18 (2.22%) GitLab
3 11 (1.35%) JIRA
4 9 (1.11%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.99%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.86%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.49%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.37%) LabVIEW
8 3 (0.37%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.25%) Gradle
9 2 (0.25%) JUnit
9 2 (0.25%) Mockito
9 2 (0.25%) 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 37 (4.56%) Aerospace
2 24 (2.96%) Finance
3 21 (2.59%) Automotive
4 20 (2.46%) Electronics
5 17 (2.09%) Social Skills
6 15 (1.85%) Aviation
7 14 (1.72%) Manufacturing
8 11 (1.35%) Analytical Skills
9 9 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.11%) Public Sector
10 8 (0.99%) Law
10 8 (0.99%) Military
11 5 (0.62%) Avionics
12 4 (0.49%) Social Housing
12 4 (0.49%) Tech for Good
13 3 (0.37%) Marketing
13 3 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.25%) Banking
14 2 (0.25%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.25%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (5.42%) WPF
2 40 (4.93%) Vue
3 30 (3.69%) Spring
4 27 (3.33%) Spring Boot
5 24 (2.96%) React
6 16 (1.97%) AngularJS
7 13 (1.60%) Terraform
8 12 (1.48%) REST
9 11 (1.35%) Node.js
9 11 (1.35%) RESTful
10 9 (1.11%) .NET
10 9 (1.11%) HTML
11 8 (0.99%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (0.86%) Apache NiFi
13 6 (0.74%) CSS
14 5 (0.62%) gRPC
14 5 (0.62%) Kafka
14 5 (0.62%) OpenAPI
15 4 (0.49%) FastAPI
15 4 (0.49%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 31 (3.82%) Cloud Native
2 30 (3.69%) Embedded Systems
3 28 (3.45%) Public Cloud
4 25 (3.08%) Legacy Systems
5 19 (2.34%) Algorithms
6 14 (1.72%) Distributed Systems
7 9 (1.11%) AI Agents
7 9 (1.11%) IoT
8 7 (0.86%) Device Driver
8 7 (0.86%) Robotics
9 6 (0.74%) ARM Cortex
9 6 (0.74%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.62%) Operational Technology
11 4 (0.49%) Smart Home
12 3 (0.37%) Fat Client
12 3 (0.37%) Onboarding
12 3 (0.37%) Thin Client
13 2 (0.25%) Enterprise Software
13 2 (0.25%) Management Information System
13 2 (0.25%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 54 (6.65%) Linux
2 21 (2.59%) Android
3 18 (2.22%) Windows
4 5 (0.62%) Unix
4 5 (0.62%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.49%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.37%) CentOS
6 3 (0.37%) Debian
6 3 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.37%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.25%) SafeRTOS
7 2 (0.25%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 812 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 128 (15.76%) Agile
3 97 (11.95%) Full-Stack Development
4 94 (11.58%) CI/CD
5 53 (6.53%) SDLC
6 51 (6.28%) Microservices
7 48 (5.91%) Test Automation
8 46 (5.67%) DevOps
9 41 (5.05%) AI
9 41 (5.05%) Embedded Software Development
9 41 (5.05%) Mentoring
10 38 (4.68%) Software Architecture
11 31 (3.82%) Open Source
12 28 (3.45%) Continuous Improvement
12 28 (3.45%) Problem-Solving
13 26 (3.20%) Data Pipeline
14 21 (2.59%) Code Quality
14 21 (2.59%) Computer Science
14 21 (2.59%) Containerisation
15 20 (2.46%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 130 (16.01%) C++
2 108 (13.30%) Java
3 96 (11.82%) Python
4 72 (8.87%) C#
5 49 (6.03%) JavaScript
6 34 (4.19%) C
7 30 (3.69%) Rust
8 26 (3.20%) TypeScript
9 22 (2.71%) Embedded C++
10 17 (2.09%) Kotlin
11 16 (1.97%) Go
12 9 (1.11%) Bash
12 9 (1.11%) SQL
13 8 (0.99%) PHP
14 5 (0.62%) Ada
14 5 (0.62%) Scala
15 4 (0.49%) Embedded C
15 4 (0.49%) MATLAB
16 3 (0.37%) Ada 95
16 3 (0.37%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 163 (20.07%) Security Cleared
2 82 (10.10%) SC Cleared
3 79 (9.73%) DV Cleared
4 20 (2.46%) Degree
5 7 (0.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (0.62%) CEH
6 5 (0.62%) OSCP
7 3 (0.37%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (0.37%) Master's Degree
7 3 (0.37%) PhD
8 2 (0.25%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (1.11%) Accessibility
2 5 (0.62%) QA
3 3 (0.37%) 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 23 (2.83%) Firmware
2 17 (2.09%) Docker
3 4 (0.49%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 25 (3.08%) Kubernetes
2 15 (1.85%) Ansible
3 7 (0.86%) Grafana
3 7 (0.86%) Kibana
3 7 (0.86%) logstash
4 3 (0.37%) Plesk
4 3 (0.37%) Puppet
4 3 (0.37%) SCCM
4 3 (0.37%) SCOM
4 3 (0.37%) SCOrch
5 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.12%) Podman
Vendors
1 6 (0.74%) Intel
2 5 (0.62%) Google
2 5 (0.62%) Microsoft
3 4 (0.49%) OpenAI
3 4 (0.49%) Peregrine
4 3 (0.37%) Red Hat
4 3 (0.37%) Salesforce
4 3 (0.37%) SaltStack
5 2 (0.25%) Atlassian
5 2 (0.25%) VMware
6 1 (0.12%) Databricks
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle
6 1 (0.12%) TOWER Software