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 6 April 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 41 18
Rank change year-on-year +24 -23 +39
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 448 169 756
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 6.45% 6.20% 9.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.86% 6.66% 9.44%
Number of salaries quoted 330 108 619
10th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £48,463 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £69,375
90th Percentile £80,000 £93,778 £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 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 6,532 2,537 8,006
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.01% 93.07% 95.93%
Number of salaries quoted 4,527 1,636 6,171
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,750 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,216 £64,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.72%

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 6 April 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 6 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
Bristol +11 177 £65,000 +8.33% 49
Gloucestershire +38 139 £70,000 +16.67% 47
Dorset +8 60 £55,000 +4.76% 10
Devon -9 24 £45,000 -30.77% 7
Wiltshire +1 16 £60,000 -7.69% 11
Somerset -18 15 £65,000 -8.77% 20
Cornwall -15 2 - - 1
Software Engineer
England

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

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

1 448 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 96 (21.43%) Security Cleared
3 79 (17.63%) Java
4 62 (13.84%) Full-Stack Development
5 54 (12.05%) C++
5 54 (12.05%) Python
5 54 (12.05%) SC Cleared
6 46 (10.27%) Agile
7 43 (9.60%) C#
8 40 (8.93%) TypeScript
9 39 (8.71%) Kubernetes
10 38 (8.48%) JavaScript
11 35 (7.81%) AWS
11 35 (7.81%) CI/CD
12 32 (7.14%) DevOps
12 32 (7.14%) DV Cleared
12 32 (7.14%) Linux
12 32 (7.14%) Problem-Solving
12 32 (7.14%) React
13 28 (6.25%) Docker
14 27 (6.03%) .NET
14 27 (6.03%) AI
15 23 (5.13%) Continuous Improvement
15 23 (5.13%) Mentoring
16 20 (4.46%) C
16 20 (4.46%) Degree
16 20 (4.46%) REST
16 20 (4.46%) Test Automation
17 19 (4.24%) Spring
18 18 (4.02%) Containerisation

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 8 (1.79%) Apache
2 3 (0.67%) CMS
3 2 (0.45%) Confluence
4 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 2 (0.45%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 35 (7.81%) AWS
2 12 (2.68%) SaaS
3 11 (2.46%) Azure
3 11 (2.46%) Azure AKS
4 7 (1.56%) AWS Lambda
4 7 (1.56%) Serverless
5 6 (1.34%) Amazon EKS
5 6 (1.34%) Amazon S3
5 6 (1.34%) GCP
6 5 (1.12%) GitHub
7 4 (0.89%) Amazon ECS
8 3 (0.67%) Amazon SQS
8 3 (0.67%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.45%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (0.45%) AWS Fargate
9 2 (0.45%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.22%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.89%) DNS
1 4 (0.89%) HTTP
1 4 (0.89%) SMTP
1 4 (0.89%) TCP/IP
1 4 (0.89%) Wireless
2 3 (0.67%) Broadband
3 2 (0.45%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.45%) Network Security
3 2 (0.45%) Software-Defined Radio
4 1 (0.22%) AMQP
4 1 (0.22%) Modbus
4 1 (0.22%) Profibus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.68%) SQL Server
2 11 (2.46%) Elasticsearch
3 6 (1.34%) MongoDB
3 6 (1.34%) MySQL
3 6 (1.34%) NoSQL
3 6 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.89%) Neo4j
5 3 (0.67%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.45%) Big Data
6 2 (0.45%) MariaDB
6 2 (0.45%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.22%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.22%) Cloudera CDH
7 1 (0.22%) DocumentDB
7 1 (0.22%) Geospatial Data
7 1 (0.22%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 15 (3.35%) Git
2 7 (1.56%) JUnit
3 6 (1.34%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.12%) GitLab
5 3 (0.67%) Cucumber
5 3 (0.67%) Gradle
6 2 (0.45%) Android Studio
6 2 (0.45%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.45%) JIRA
6 2 (0.45%) Maven
6 2 (0.45%) PROIV
6 2 (0.45%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.45%) Subversion
6 2 (0.45%) Xcode
7 1 (0.22%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.22%) JMeter
7 1 (0.22%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle APEX
7 1 (0.22%) Selenium
7 1 (0.22%) TeamCity
General
1 24 (5.36%) Aerospace
2 22 (4.91%) Finance
3 17 (3.79%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (3.35%) Social Skills
5 14 (3.13%) Automotive
6 12 (2.68%) Electronics
7 9 (2.01%) Manufacturing
8 8 (1.79%) Pharmaceutical
9 7 (1.56%) Aeronautics
10 5 (1.12%) Military
10 5 (1.12%) Public Sector
11 3 (0.67%) Law
11 3 (0.67%) Marketing
11 3 (0.67%) Social Housing
11 3 (0.67%) Tech for Good
11 3 (0.67%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.45%) Aviation
12 2 (0.45%) Avionics
12 2 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (7.14%) React
2 27 (6.03%) .NET
3 20 (4.46%) REST
4 19 (4.24%) Spring
5 18 (4.02%) HTML
5 18 (4.02%) Node.js
6 16 (3.57%) AngularJS
7 15 (3.35%) Spring Boot
8 13 (2.90%) .NET Core
9 11 (2.46%) .NET Framework
9 11 (2.46%) Dapper ORM
9 11 (2.46%) Entity Framework
9 11 (2.46%) Vue
10 10 (2.23%) RESTful
11 8 (1.79%) ASP.NET
12 7 (1.56%) CSS
12 7 (1.56%) Qt
12 7 (1.56%) WPF
13 5 (1.12%) Apache NiFi
14 4 (0.89%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 16 (3.57%) Cloud Native
2 10 (2.23%) Robotics
2 10 (2.23%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (2.01%) Embedded Systems
4 8 (1.79%) Algorithms
5 6 (1.34%) IoT
6 5 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (0.89%) GNSS
7 4 (0.89%) Satnav
8 3 (0.67%) ARM Cortex
8 3 (0.67%) Over-the-Top Content
8 3 (0.67%) Smart Home
8 3 (0.67%) Video\Live Streaming
9 2 (0.45%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.45%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.45%) Raspberry Pi
10 1 (0.22%) Device Driver
10 1 (0.22%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.22%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 32 (7.14%) Linux
2 6 (1.34%) Windows
3 5 (1.12%) FreeRTOS
4 2 (0.45%) Android
4 2 (0.45%) SafeRTOS
5 1 (0.22%) CentOS
5 1 (0.22%) Debian
5 1 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.22%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 448 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 62 (13.84%) Full-Stack Development
3 46 (10.27%) Agile
4 35 (7.81%) CI/CD
5 32 (7.14%) DevOps
5 32 (7.14%) Problem-Solving
6 27 (6.03%) AI
7 23 (5.13%) Continuous Improvement
7 23 (5.13%) Mentoring
8 20 (4.46%) Test Automation
9 18 (4.02%) Containerisation
9 18 (4.02%) Embedded Software Development
10 16 (3.57%) Microservices
10 16 (3.57%) SDLC
11 15 (3.35%) Performance Optimisation
11 15 (3.35%) Platform Engineering
11 15 (3.35%) Site Reliability Engineering
12 13 (2.90%) Signal Processing
13 12 (2.68%) Secure Coding
14 11 (2.46%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 79 (17.63%) Java
2 54 (12.05%) C++
2 54 (12.05%) Python
3 43 (9.60%) C#
4 40 (8.93%) TypeScript
5 38 (8.48%) JavaScript
6 20 (4.46%) C
7 18 (4.02%) SQL
8 10 (2.23%) Embedded C++
9 9 (2.01%) PHP
10 7 (1.56%) Bash
10 7 (1.56%) Kotlin
10 7 (1.56%) Rust
11 5 (1.12%) Go
12 4 (0.89%) Scala
13 3 (0.67%) Embedded C
14 2 (0.45%) Swift
15 1 (0.22%) PL/SQL
15 1 (0.22%) PowerShell
15 1 (0.22%) R
Qualifications
1 96 (21.43%) Security Cleared
2 54 (12.05%) SC Cleared
3 32 (7.14%) DV Cleared
4 20 (4.46%) Degree
5 2 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (0.45%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.67%) QA
2 1 (0.22%) Accessibility
2 1 (0.22%) DO-254
2 1 (0.22%) HAZOP
2 1 (0.22%) IEC 61508
2 1 (0.22%) IEC 62304
2 1 (0.22%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 28 (6.25%) Docker
2 7 (1.56%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 39 (8.71%) Kubernetes
2 9 (2.01%) Terraform
3 4 (0.89%) Kibana
4 3 (0.67%) Ansible
4 3 (0.67%) Grafana
5 2 (0.45%) logstash
6 1 (0.22%) Plesk
6 1 (0.22%) Podman
6 1 (0.22%) Puppet
Vendors
1 11 (2.46%) Oracle
2 3 (0.67%) SAP
3 2 (0.45%) Atlassian
3 2 (0.45%) Typelevel
4 1 (0.22%) Google
4 1 (0.22%) OpenAI
4 1 (0.22%) Palantir
4 1 (0.22%) Red Hat
4 1 (0.22%) SaltStack