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 9 April 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 42 18
Rank change year-on-year +26 -24 +43
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 458 170 770
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 6.50% 6.24% 9.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.92% 6.71% 9.44%
Number of salaries quoted 337 109 625
10th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £47,603 £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 £70,000
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 6,616 2,532 8,154
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.95% 92.88% 96.00%
Number of salaries quoted 4,588 1,641 6,270
10th Percentile £30,000 £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 £68,114 £64,000
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% -8.71%

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 9 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 9 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 +9 179 £65,000 +8.33% 49
Gloucestershire +41 143 £70,000 +16.67% 47
Dorset +11 63 £55,000 +4.76% 10
Devon -8 24 £45,000 -30.77% 7
Wiltshire -2 16 £60,000 -7.69% 11
Somerset -17 16 £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 9 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.

1 458 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 99 (21.62%) Security Cleared
3 83 (18.12%) Java
4 63 (13.76%) Full-Stack Development
5 56 (12.23%) Python
6 55 (12.01%) C++
6 55 (12.01%) SC Cleared
7 48 (10.48%) Agile
8 43 (9.39%) C#
9 40 (8.73%) TypeScript
10 39 (8.52%) JavaScript
11 38 (8.30%) CI/CD
11 38 (8.30%) Kubernetes
12 36 (7.86%) AWS
13 35 (7.64%) DV Cleared
14 34 (7.42%) Linux
15 33 (7.21%) DevOps
16 32 (6.99%) Problem-Solving
16 32 (6.99%) React
17 28 (6.11%) AI
17 28 (6.11%) Docker
18 27 (5.90%) .NET
19 23 (5.02%) Continuous Improvement
20 22 (4.80%) Mentoring
20 22 (4.80%) Test Automation
21 20 (4.37%) C
21 20 (4.37%) REST
22 19 (4.15%) Degree
22 19 (4.15%) Spring
22 19 (4.15%) SQL

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 (1.75%) Apache
2 3 (0.66%) CMS
3 2 (0.44%) Confluence
4 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 2 (0.44%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 36 (7.86%) AWS
2 12 (2.62%) SaaS
3 11 (2.40%) Azure
3 11 (2.40%) Azure AKS
4 7 (1.53%) AWS Lambda
4 7 (1.53%) Serverless
5 6 (1.31%) Amazon EKS
5 6 (1.31%) Amazon S3
5 6 (1.31%) GCP
6 5 (1.09%) GitHub
7 4 (0.87%) Amazon ECS
8 3 (0.66%) Amazon SQS
8 3 (0.66%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.44%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (0.44%) AWS Fargate
9 2 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.22%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.87%) DNS
1 4 (0.87%) HTTP
1 4 (0.87%) SMTP
1 4 (0.87%) TCP/IP
1 4 (0.87%) Wireless
2 3 (0.66%) Broadband
2 3 (0.66%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.44%) Network Security
3 2 (0.44%) Software-Defined Radio
4 1 (0.22%) AMQP
4 1 (0.22%) Modbus
4 1 (0.22%) Profibus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.62%) SQL Server
2 11 (2.40%) Elasticsearch
3 7 (1.53%) MySQL
4 6 (1.31%) MongoDB
4 6 (1.31%) NoSQL
4 6 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.87%) Neo4j
6 3 (0.66%) Oracle Database
6 3 (0.66%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.44%) Big Data
7 2 (0.44%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.22%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.22%) Cloudera CDH
8 1 (0.22%) DocumentDB
8 1 (0.22%) Geospatial Data
8 1 (0.22%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 17 (3.71%) Git
2 7 (1.53%) JUnit
3 6 (1.31%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.09%) GitLab
5 4 (0.87%) JIRA
6 3 (0.66%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.66%) Gradle
7 2 (0.44%) Android Studio
7 2 (0.44%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.44%) Maven
7 2 (0.44%) PROIV
7 2 (0.44%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.44%) Subversion
7 2 (0.44%) Xcode
8 1 (0.22%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.22%) JMeter
8 1 (0.22%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.22%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.22%) Selenium
8 1 (0.22%) TeamCity
General
1 27 (5.90%) Aerospace
2 22 (4.80%) Finance
3 17 (3.71%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (3.28%) Automotive
4 15 (3.28%) Social Skills
5 12 (2.62%) Electronics
6 10 (2.18%) Manufacturing
7 8 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
8 7 (1.53%) Aeronautics
9 5 (1.09%) Military
9 5 (1.09%) Public Sector
10 3 (0.66%) Law
10 3 (0.66%) Marketing
10 3 (0.66%) Social Housing
10 3 (0.66%) Tech for Good
10 3 (0.66%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.44%) Aviation
11 2 (0.44%) Avionics
11 2 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (6.99%) React
2 27 (5.90%) .NET
3 20 (4.37%) REST
4 19 (4.15%) Spring
5 18 (3.93%) HTML
5 18 (3.93%) Node.js
6 16 (3.49%) AngularJS
7 15 (3.28%) Spring Boot
8 13 (2.84%) .NET Core
9 11 (2.40%) .NET Framework
9 11 (2.40%) Dapper ORM
9 11 (2.40%) Entity Framework
9 11 (2.40%) Vue
10 10 (2.18%) RESTful
11 8 (1.75%) ASP.NET
11 8 (1.75%) WPF
12 7 (1.53%) CSS
13 6 (1.31%) Qt
14 5 (1.09%) Apache NiFi
15 4 (0.87%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 16 (3.49%) Cloud Native
2 11 (2.40%) Embedded Systems
3 10 (2.18%) Robotics
3 10 (2.18%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (1.97%) Algorithms
5 6 (1.31%) IoT
6 5 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (0.87%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (0.87%) GNSS
7 4 (0.87%) Satnav
8 3 (0.66%) ARM Cortex
8 3 (0.66%) Over-the-Top Content
8 3 (0.66%) Smart Home
8 3 (0.66%) Video\Live Streaming
9 2 (0.44%) Device Driver
9 2 (0.44%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.44%) Fat Client
9 2 (0.44%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.44%) Raspberry Pi
9 2 (0.44%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 34 (7.42%) Linux
2 8 (1.75%) Windows
3 5 (1.09%) FreeRTOS
4 3 (0.66%) Android
5 2 (0.44%) SafeRTOS
5 2 (0.44%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.22%) CentOS
6 1 (0.22%) Debian
6 1 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.22%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 458 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 63 (13.76%) Full-Stack Development
3 48 (10.48%) Agile
4 38 (8.30%) CI/CD
5 33 (7.21%) DevOps
6 32 (6.99%) Problem-Solving
7 28 (6.11%) AI
8 23 (5.02%) Continuous Improvement
9 22 (4.80%) Mentoring
9 22 (4.80%) Test Automation
10 18 (3.93%) Containerisation
10 18 (3.93%) Embedded Software Development
11 17 (3.71%) SDLC
12 16 (3.49%) Microservices
12 16 (3.49%) Platform Engineering
12 16 (3.49%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 15 (3.28%) Performance Optimisation
14 12 (2.62%) Cybersecurity
14 12 (2.62%) Data Science
14 12 (2.62%) Secure Coding
Programming Languages
1 83 (18.12%) Java
2 56 (12.23%) Python
3 55 (12.01%) C++
4 43 (9.39%) C#
5 40 (8.73%) TypeScript
6 39 (8.52%) JavaScript
7 20 (4.37%) C
8 19 (4.15%) SQL
9 10 (2.18%) Embedded C++
10 9 (1.97%) PHP
11 8 (1.75%) Kotlin
11 8 (1.75%) Rust
12 7 (1.53%) Bash
13 6 (1.31%) Go
14 4 (0.87%) Scala
15 3 (0.66%) Embedded C
15 3 (0.66%) PowerShell
16 2 (0.44%) Swift
17 1 (0.22%) Delphi
17 1 (0.22%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 99 (21.62%) Security Cleared
2 55 (12.01%) SC Cleared
3 35 (7.64%) DV Cleared
4 19 (4.15%) Degree
5 2 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (0.44%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.22%) CEH
6 1 (0.22%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.66%) 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 (6.11%) Docker
2 7 (1.53%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 38 (8.30%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.97%) Terraform
3 5 (1.09%) Ansible
4 4 (0.87%) Kibana
5 3 (0.66%) Grafana
6 2 (0.44%) logstash
6 2 (0.44%) SCCM
6 2 (0.44%) SCOM
6 2 (0.44%) SCOrch
7 1 (0.22%) Plesk
7 1 (0.22%) Podman
7 1 (0.22%) Puppet
Vendors
1 11 (2.40%) Oracle
2 3 (0.66%) SAP
3 2 (0.44%) Atlassian
3 2 (0.44%) Microsoft
3 2 (0.44%) 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