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 20 February 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 23 23
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +20
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 341 285 572
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 5.76% 8.02% 8.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.17% 8.53% 8.99%
Number of salaries quoted 258 124 471
10th Percentile £45,000 £40,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £47,231 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £57,443 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +13.16% -0.10% -4.17%
75th Percentile £70,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £88,500 £81,250
England median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year - +12.00% -7.41%

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 5,528 3,343 6,365
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.32% 94.12% 95.80%
Number of salaries quoted 3,873 1,723 5,039
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,000 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £36,365
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,439 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.15% +8.88% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,525 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 +8 156 £65,000 +10.69% 57
Gloucestershire +32 87 £70,000 +16.67% 71
Dorset -9 45 £55,000 +10.00% 30
Devon -19 18 £45,000 -25.00% 21
Wiltshire -3 12 £60,000 +2.13% 25
Somerset -26 7 £65,000 -1.89% 34
Cornwall -14 1 - - 2
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 20 February 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.

1 341 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 80 (23.46%) Security Cleared
3 71 (20.82%) Java
4 52 (15.25%) Full-Stack Development
5 46 (13.49%) Python
6 43 (12.61%) SC Cleared
7 41 (12.02%) Agile
8 38 (11.14%) AWS
8 38 (11.14%) Kubernetes
9 37 (10.85%) C++
10 36 (10.56%) React
10 36 (10.56%) TypeScript
11 35 (10.26%) C#
11 35 (10.26%) CI/CD
11 35 (10.26%) JavaScript
12 29 (8.50%) DevOps
12 29 (8.50%) Problem-Solving
13 28 (8.21%) Linux
14 25 (7.33%) .NET
15 24 (7.04%) Degree
16 23 (6.74%) AI
16 23 (6.74%) Docker
16 23 (6.74%) DV Cleared
16 23 (6.74%) Spring
17 22 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
18 19 (5.57%) Mentoring
18 19 (5.57%) Microservices
18 19 (5.57%) Spring Boot
18 19 (5.57%) Test Automation
19 18 (5.28%) REST

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 (2.35%) Apache
2 3 (0.88%) CMS
2 3 (0.88%) Confluence
3 1 (0.29%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 2 (0.59%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 38 (11.14%) AWS
2 13 (3.81%) Azure
3 11 (3.23%) AWS Lambda
3 11 (3.23%) Serverless
4 10 (2.93%) Amazon S3
4 10 (2.93%) SaaS
5 9 (2.64%) Amazon EKS
5 9 (2.64%) Azure AKS
6 7 (2.05%) Amazon ECS
7 6 (1.76%) GCP
8 3 (0.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 3 (0.88%) Amazon EC2
8 3 (0.88%) Amazon SQS
8 3 (0.88%) AWS Fargate
8 3 (0.88%) GitHub
8 3 (0.88%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.59%) Amazon MSK
9 2 (0.59%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 2 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.29%) Cloud Run
Communications & Networking
1 4 (1.17%) DNS
1 4 (1.17%) HTTP
1 4 (1.17%) SMTP
1 4 (1.17%) Software-Defined Radio
1 4 (1.17%) TCP/IP
2 2 (0.59%) Broadband
3 1 (0.29%) AMQP
3 1 (0.29%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (3.23%) Elasticsearch
2 10 (2.93%) SQL Server
3 7 (2.05%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.76%) NoSQL
5 5 (1.47%) MongoDB
5 5 (1.47%) MySQL
6 4 (1.17%) Neo4j
7 3 (0.88%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.59%) Big Data
8 2 (0.59%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.29%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.29%) Cloudera CDH
9 1 (0.29%) DocumentDB
9 1 (0.29%) Geospatial Data
9 1 (0.29%) Hadoop
9 1 (0.29%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.29%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 11 (3.23%) Git
2 8 (2.35%) JUnit
3 7 (2.05%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.47%) GitLab
5 4 (1.17%) Oracle APEX
6 3 (0.88%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.88%) Cypress.io
6 3 (0.88%) Gradle
6 3 (0.88%) JIRA
7 2 (0.59%) Android Studio
7 2 (0.59%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.59%) Maven
7 2 (0.59%) PROIV
7 2 (0.59%) Xcode
8 1 (0.29%) JMeter
8 1 (0.29%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.29%) Selenium
8 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.29%) Subversion
8 1 (0.29%) TeamCity
General
1 23 (6.74%) Finance
2 18 (5.28%) Aerospace
3 16 (4.69%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (4.69%) Social Skills
4 12 (3.52%) Automotive
5 8 (2.35%) Manufacturing
6 7 (2.05%) Aeronautics
6 7 (2.05%) Electronics
6 7 (2.05%) Public Sector
7 6 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (0.88%) Law
8 3 (0.88%) Marketing
8 3 (0.88%) Military
8 3 (0.88%) Social Housing
8 3 (0.88%) Tech for Good
8 3 (0.88%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.29%) Games
9 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (10.56%) React
2 25 (7.33%) .NET
3 23 (6.74%) Spring
4 19 (5.57%) Spring Boot
5 18 (5.28%) REST
6 15 (4.40%) Node.js
7 13 (3.81%) AngularJS
7 13 (3.81%) HTML
8 11 (3.23%) .NET Core
8 11 (3.23%) RESTful
9 9 (2.64%) .NET Framework
9 9 (2.64%) CSS
9 9 (2.64%) Dapper ORM
9 9 (2.64%) Entity Framework
9 9 (2.64%) Qt
10 8 (2.35%) ASP.NET
11 7 (2.05%) Vue
12 5 (1.47%) Hibernate
12 5 (1.47%) Jest
12 5 (1.47%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.57%) Cloud Native
2 10 (2.93%) Robotics
3 9 (2.64%) Self-Motivation
4 7 (2.05%) Embedded Systems
5 6 (1.76%) IoT
6 4 (1.17%) Algorithms
6 4 (1.17%) GNSS
6 4 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (1.17%) Satnav
7 3 (0.88%) Smart Home
8 2 (0.59%) Mobile App
8 2 (0.59%) Over-the-Top Content
8 2 (0.59%) Video\Live Streaming
9 1 (0.29%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (0.29%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.29%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.29%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.29%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 28 (8.21%) Linux
2 4 (1.17%) Windows
3 2 (0.59%) Android
4 1 (0.29%) CentOS
4 1 (0.29%) Debian
4 1 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
4 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 341 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 52 (15.25%) Full-Stack Development
3 41 (12.02%) Agile
4 35 (10.26%) CI/CD
5 29 (8.50%) DevOps
5 29 (8.50%) Problem-Solving
6 23 (6.74%) AI
7 22 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 19 (5.57%) Mentoring
8 19 (5.57%) Microservices
8 19 (5.57%) Test Automation
9 14 (4.11%) Containerisation
10 13 (3.81%) Digital Signal Processing
10 13 (3.81%) Performance Optimisation
10 13 (3.81%) Signal Processing
11 12 (3.52%) Embedded Software Development
11 12 (3.52%) Machine Learning
12 11 (3.23%) Collaborative Culture
12 11 (3.23%) Scrum
13 10 (2.93%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 71 (20.82%) Java
2 46 (13.49%) Python
3 37 (10.85%) C++
4 36 (10.56%) TypeScript
5 35 (10.26%) C#
5 35 (10.26%) JavaScript
6 18 (5.28%) SQL
7 12 (3.52%) C
8 9 (2.64%) Embedded C++
9 7 (2.05%) Kotlin
9 7 (2.05%) Rust
10 6 (1.76%) Bash
11 5 (1.47%) PHP
12 4 (1.17%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.88%) Go
13 3 (0.88%) Scala
14 2 (0.59%) Swift
15 1 (0.29%) PowerShell
15 1 (0.29%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 80 (23.46%) Security Cleared
2 43 (12.61%) SC Cleared
3 24 (7.04%) Degree
4 23 (6.74%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.17%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.29%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.88%) QA
System Software
1 23 (6.74%) Docker
Systems Management
1 38 (11.14%) Kubernetes
2 8 (2.35%) Terraform
3 6 (1.76%) Kibana
4 2 (0.59%) Ansible
4 2 (0.59%) Grafana
5 1 (0.29%) logstash
5 1 (0.29%) Podman
5 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 15 (4.40%) Oracle
2 3 (0.88%) Atlassian
2 3 (0.88%) SAP
3 2 (0.59%) Google
4 1 (0.29%) OpenAI
4 1 (0.29%) Palantir
4 1 (0.29%) Red Hat
4 1 (0.29%) SaltStack
4 1 (0.29%) Typelevel