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 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 42 13
Rank change year-on-year +29 -29 +63
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 642 175 780
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 7.47% 5.11% 9.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.90% 5.60% 9.67%
Number of salaries quoted 457 98 594
10th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £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 £82,688 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £80,000 £61,000
% change year-on-year -12.50% +31.15% -12.86%

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 8,124 3,127 8,068
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.52% 91.30% 95.68%
Number of salaries quoted 5,520 2,114 5,903
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £29,442
25th Percentile £35,000 £32,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -7.41%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £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 29 July 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 29 July 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 +32 251 £75,000 - 44
Bristol +22 214 £70,000 - 30
Dorset +3 80 £50,000 -7.17% 12
Somerset -10 46 £55,000 -15.38% 13
Devon -2 26 £60,000 +33.33% 6
Wiltshire -3 22 £55,000 -15.38% 5
Cornwall - 2 - - 2
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 29 July 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.

1 642 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 139 (21.65%) Security Cleared
3 115 (17.91%) C++
4 96 (14.95%) Java
5 95 (14.80%) Full-Stack Development
6 94 (14.64%) Agile
7 89 (13.86%) CI/CD
8 85 (13.24%) Python
9 77 (11.99%) SC Cleared
10 71 (11.06%) C#
11 63 (9.81%) DV Cleared
12 50 (7.79%) JavaScript
12 50 (7.79%) Linux
13 49 (7.63%) SDLC
14 48 (7.48%) DevOps
15 47 (7.32%) Microservices
16 43 (6.70%) Mentoring
17 42 (6.54%) Test Automation
18 41 (6.39%) WPF
19 39 (6.07%) Vue
20 37 (5.76%) AI
21 36 (5.61%) AWS
22 35 (5.45%) Software Architecture
23 32 (4.98%) Kubernetes
24 31 (4.83%) Embedded Software Development
25 30 (4.67%) C
26 27 (4.21%) Containerisation
26 27 (4.21%) Continuous Improvement
26 27 (4.21%) Docker
26 27 (4.21%) TypeScript

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 9 (1.40%) Apache
2 2 (0.31%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.16%) CMS
3 1 (0.16%) Confluence
3 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 36 (5.61%) AWS
2 24 (3.74%) Azure
3 15 (2.34%) GCP
4 9 (1.40%) Firebase
5 8 (1.25%) GitHub
5 8 (1.25%) SaaS
6 6 (0.93%) OpenShift
7 5 (0.78%) Azure AKS
8 4 (0.62%) Anthropic Claude
8 4 (0.62%) Cloud Run
9 3 (0.47%) Serverless
10 2 (0.31%) Amazon EKS
10 2 (0.31%) Amazon S3
10 2 (0.31%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.31%) AWS Lambda
11 1 (0.16%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 1 (0.16%) Cloud Functions
11 1 (0.16%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.71%) Wireless
2 9 (1.40%) Ethernet
3 3 (0.47%) Broadband
3 3 (0.47%) RS-485
4 2 (0.31%) AMQP
4 2 (0.31%) Network Security
4 2 (0.31%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.16%) Modbus
5 1 (0.16%) MQTT
5 1 (0.16%) Profibus
5 1 (0.16%) RS-232
5 1 (0.16%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.87%) MongoDB
2 9 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (1.25%) Big Data
3 8 (1.25%) Elasticsearch
4 7 (1.09%) MySQL
4 7 (1.09%) SQL Server
5 4 (0.62%) Hadoop
5 4 (0.62%) MariaDB
6 3 (0.47%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.47%) Pinecone
6 3 (0.47%) Redis
7 2 (0.31%) Cloudera CDH
7 2 (0.31%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.16%) Metadata
8 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 26 (4.05%) Git
2 17 (2.65%) GitLab
3 11 (1.71%) JIRA
4 9 (1.40%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.25%) SonarQube
6 7 (1.09%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.47%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.47%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.31%) Gradle
8 2 (0.31%) JUnit
8 2 (0.31%) Mockito
8 2 (0.31%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.31%) Subversion
8 2 (0.31%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.16%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.16%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.16%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.16%) GoogleTest
9 1 (0.16%) Valgrind
General
1 28 (4.36%) Aerospace
2 19 (2.96%) Electronics
3 16 (2.49%) Automotive
4 15 (2.34%) Finance
4 15 (2.34%) Social Skills
5 13 (2.02%) Manufacturing
6 10 (1.56%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (0.93%) Aviation
7 6 (0.93%) Military
7 6 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (0.78%) Public Sector
8 5 (0.78%) Social Housing
8 5 (0.78%) Tech for Good
9 4 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.47%) Avionics
11 2 (0.31%) Law
11 2 (0.31%) Wearables
12 1 (0.16%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.16%) Legal
12 1 (0.16%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (6.39%) WPF
2 39 (6.07%) Vue
3 24 (3.74%) Spring
4 21 (3.27%) React
5 17 (2.65%) Spring Boot
6 16 (2.49%) AngularJS
7 15 (2.34%) REST
8 12 (1.87%) .NET
8 12 (1.87%) HTML
8 12 (1.87%) Node.js
9 11 (1.71%) RESTful
10 8 (1.25%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (1.09%) .NET Framework
11 7 (1.09%) Apache NiFi
11 7 (1.09%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.93%) CSS
12 6 (0.93%) Django
12 6 (0.93%) gRPC
13 5 (0.78%) .NET Core
13 5 (0.78%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 27 (4.21%) Embedded Systems
2 25 (3.89%) Cloud Native
3 21 (3.27%) Legacy Systems
4 16 (2.49%) Algorithms
4 16 (2.49%) Public Cloud
5 15 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (1.40%) AI Agents
7 7 (1.09%) Device Driver
8 6 (0.93%) ARM Cortex
9 5 (0.78%) IoT
9 5 (0.78%) Operational Technology
9 5 (0.78%) Smart Home
10 4 (0.62%) Robotics
11 3 (0.47%) Fat Client
11 3 (0.47%) Thin Client
12 2 (0.31%) Management Information System
12 2 (0.31%) Over-the-Top Content
12 2 (0.31%) PKI
12 2 (0.31%) Smartphone
12 2 (0.31%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 50 (7.79%) Linux
2 19 (2.96%) Android
3 15 (2.34%) Windows
4 6 (0.93%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.78%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.47%) Unix
7 2 (0.31%) CentOS
7 2 (0.31%) Debian
7 2 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.31%) SafeRTOS
7 2 (0.31%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.31%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.16%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 642 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 95 (14.80%) Full-Stack Development
3 94 (14.64%) Agile
4 89 (13.86%) CI/CD
5 49 (7.63%) SDLC
6 48 (7.48%) DevOps
7 47 (7.32%) Microservices
8 43 (6.70%) Mentoring
9 42 (6.54%) Test Automation
10 37 (5.76%) AI
11 35 (5.45%) Software Architecture
12 31 (4.83%) Embedded Software Development
13 27 (4.21%) Containerisation
13 27 (4.21%) Continuous Improvement
14 26 (4.05%) Problem-Solving
15 22 (3.43%) Clean Code
15 22 (3.43%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 21 (3.27%) Platform Engineering
17 19 (2.96%) Migration
18 18 (2.80%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 115 (17.91%) C++
2 96 (14.95%) Java
3 85 (13.24%) Python
4 71 (11.06%) C#
5 50 (7.79%) JavaScript
6 30 (4.67%) C
7 27 (4.21%) TypeScript
8 25 (3.89%) Rust
9 22 (3.43%) Embedded C++
10 17 (2.65%) Go
11 16 (2.49%) Kotlin
11 16 (2.49%) SQL
12 10 (1.56%) Bash
13 9 (1.40%) PHP
14 6 (0.93%) Scala
15 4 (0.62%) Embedded C
15 4 (0.62%) MATLAB
15 4 (0.62%) PowerShell
16 1 (0.16%) Ada
16 1 (0.16%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 139 (21.65%) Security Cleared
2 77 (11.99%) SC Cleared
3 63 (9.81%) DV Cleared
4 16 (2.49%) Degree
5 5 (0.78%) CEH
5 5 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (0.78%) OSCP
6 3 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (0.31%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (0.93%) Accessibility
2 4 (0.62%) QA
3 1 (0.16%) DO-178B
3 1 (0.16%) DO-254
3 1 (0.16%) HAZOP
3 1 (0.16%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.16%) IEC 62304
3 1 (0.16%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.16%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 27 (4.21%) Docker
2 23 (3.58%) Firmware
3 4 (0.62%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 32 (4.98%) Kubernetes
2 13 (2.02%) Ansible
3 11 (1.71%) Terraform
4 7 (1.09%) Grafana
4 7 (1.09%) Kibana
4 7 (1.09%) logstash
5 3 (0.47%) Plesk
5 3 (0.47%) SCCM
5 3 (0.47%) SCOM
5 3 (0.47%) SCOrch
6 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.31%) Podman
6 2 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 6 (0.93%) Intel
2 5 (0.78%) Microsoft
3 4 (0.62%) Google
3 4 (0.62%) OpenAI
3 4 (0.62%) Peregrine
4 2 (0.31%) Atlassian
4 2 (0.31%) Oracle
4 2 (0.31%) Red Hat
4 2 (0.31%) SaltStack
4 2 (0.31%) Typelevel
4 2 (0.31%) VMware
5 1 (0.16%) Salesforce
5 1 (0.16%) TOWER Software