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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 42 13
Rank change year-on-year +30 -29 +68
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 652 175 784
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 7.50% 5.10% 9.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.95% 5.59% 9.72%
Number of salaries quoted 467 98 595
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 8,200 3,129 8,062
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.29% 91.25% 95.65%
Number of salaries quoted 5,580 2,115 5,887
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £29,605
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 31 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 31 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 +32 257 £75,000 - 38
Bristol +20 217 £70,000 - 23
Dorset +3 77 £50,000 -7.17% 9
Somerset -5 48 £55,000 -15.38% 3
Devon +1 29 £60,000 +33.33% 4
Wiltshire -2 22 £55,000 -15.38% 4
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 31 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.

1 652 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 139 (21.32%) Security Cleared
3 116 (17.79%) C++
4 98 (15.03%) Full-Stack Development
4 98 (15.03%) Java
5 96 (14.72%) Agile
6 90 (13.80%) CI/CD
7 87 (13.34%) Python
8 76 (11.66%) SC Cleared
9 73 (11.20%) C#
10 64 (9.82%) DV Cleared
11 51 (7.82%) JavaScript
12 50 (7.67%) Linux
13 49 (7.52%) Microservices
14 48 (7.36%) SDLC
15 47 (7.21%) DevOps
16 43 (6.60%) Mentoring
16 43 (6.60%) WPF
17 41 (6.29%) Test Automation
18 40 (6.13%) Vue
19 37 (5.67%) AI
20 36 (5.52%) AWS
20 36 (5.52%) Software Architecture
21 33 (5.06%) Kubernetes
22 31 (4.75%) Embedded Software Development
23 30 (4.60%) C
24 27 (4.14%) Containerisation
24 27 (4.14%) Continuous Improvement
24 27 (4.14%) Docker
25 26 (3.99%) Git

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 (1.38%) Apache
2 2 (0.31%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.15%) Confluence
3 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 36 (5.52%) AWS
2 24 (3.68%) Azure
3 15 (2.30%) GCP
4 9 (1.38%) Firebase
5 8 (1.23%) GitHub
5 8 (1.23%) SaaS
6 7 (1.07%) OpenShift
7 5 (0.77%) Azure AKS
8 4 (0.61%) Anthropic Claude
8 4 (0.61%) Cloud Run
9 3 (0.46%) 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 (0.15%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 1 (0.15%) Cloud Functions
11 1 (0.15%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.69%) Wireless
2 9 (1.38%) Ethernet
3 3 (0.46%) Broadband
3 3 (0.46%) RS-485
4 2 (0.31%) AMQP
4 2 (0.31%) Network Security
4 2 (0.31%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.15%) Modbus
5 1 (0.15%) MQTT
5 1 (0.15%) Profibus
5 1 (0.15%) RS-232
5 1 (0.15%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.84%) MongoDB
2 8 (1.23%) Big Data
2 8 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
2 8 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (1.07%) MySQL
3 7 (1.07%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.61%) Hadoop
4 4 (0.61%) MariaDB
5 3 (0.46%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.46%) Pinecone
5 3 (0.46%) Redis
6 2 (0.31%) Cloudera CDH
6 2 (0.31%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.15%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.15%) Metadata
7 1 (0.15%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 26 (3.99%) Git
2 18 (2.76%) GitLab
3 11 (1.69%) JIRA
4 9 (1.38%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.23%) SonarQube
6 7 (1.07%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.46%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.46%) 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 (0.15%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.15%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.15%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.15%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.15%) GoogleTest
9 1 (0.15%) Valgrind
General
1 28 (4.29%) Aerospace
2 19 (2.91%) Electronics
3 16 (2.45%) Automotive
4 14 (2.15%) Finance
4 14 (2.15%) Social Skills
5 13 (1.99%) Manufacturing
6 10 (1.53%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (0.92%) Aviation
7 6 (0.92%) Military
7 6 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
7 6 (0.92%) Public Sector
8 5 (0.77%) Social Housing
8 5 (0.77%) Tech for Good
9 4 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.46%) Avionics
11 2 (0.31%) Law
11 2 (0.31%) Wearables
12 1 (0.15%) Games
12 1 (0.15%) Legal
12 1 (0.15%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.60%) WPF
2 40 (6.13%) Vue
3 25 (3.83%) Spring
4 20 (3.07%) React
5 19 (2.91%) Spring Boot
6 16 (2.45%) AngularJS
7 15 (2.30%) REST
8 12 (1.84%) .NET
8 12 (1.84%) HTML
9 11 (1.69%) Node.js
9 11 (1.69%) RESTful
10 8 (1.23%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (1.07%) .NET Framework
11 7 (1.07%) Apache NiFi
11 7 (1.07%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.92%) CSS
12 6 (0.92%) Django
12 6 (0.92%) gRPC
13 5 (0.77%) .NET Core
13 5 (0.77%) Dapper ORM
Miscellaneous
1 27 (4.14%) Embedded Systems
2 25 (3.83%) Cloud Native
3 22 (3.37%) Legacy Systems
4 18 (2.76%) Public Cloud
5 17 (2.61%) Algorithms
6 16 (2.45%) Distributed Systems
7 9 (1.38%) AI Agents
8 7 (1.07%) Device Driver
9 6 (0.92%) ARM Cortex
10 5 (0.77%) IoT
10 5 (0.77%) Operational Technology
10 5 (0.77%) Smart Home
11 4 (0.61%) Robotics
12 3 (0.46%) Data Structures
12 3 (0.46%) Fat Client
12 3 (0.46%) Thin Client
13 2 (0.31%) Driving Licence
13 2 (0.31%) Over-the-Top Content
13 2 (0.31%) Raspberry Pi
13 2 (0.31%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 50 (7.67%) Linux
2 19 (2.91%) Android
3 16 (2.45%) Windows
4 6 (0.92%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.77%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.46%) 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 (0.15%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.15%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 652 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 98 (15.03%) Full-Stack Development
3 96 (14.72%) Agile
4 90 (13.80%) CI/CD
5 49 (7.52%) Microservices
6 48 (7.36%) SDLC
7 47 (7.21%) DevOps
8 43 (6.60%) Mentoring
9 41 (6.29%) Test Automation
10 37 (5.67%) AI
11 36 (5.52%) Software Architecture
12 31 (4.75%) Embedded Software Development
13 27 (4.14%) Containerisation
13 27 (4.14%) Continuous Improvement
14 25 (3.83%) Problem-Solving
15 22 (3.37%) Clean Code
15 22 (3.37%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 21 (3.22%) Platform Engineering
17 20 (3.07%) Open Source
18 19 (2.91%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 116 (17.79%) C++
2 98 (15.03%) Java
3 87 (13.34%) Python
4 73 (11.20%) C#
5 51 (7.82%) JavaScript
6 30 (4.60%) C
7 26 (3.99%) TypeScript
8 25 (3.83%) Rust
9 22 (3.37%) Embedded C++
10 17 (2.61%) Go
11 16 (2.45%) Kotlin
11 16 (2.45%) SQL
12 10 (1.53%) Bash
13 9 (1.38%) PHP
14 6 (0.92%) Scala
15 4 (0.61%) Embedded C
15 4 (0.61%) MATLAB
15 4 (0.61%) PowerShell
16 1 (0.15%) Assembly Language
16 1 (0.15%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 139 (21.32%) Security Cleared
2 76 (11.66%) SC Cleared
3 64 (9.82%) DV Cleared
4 17 (2.61%) Degree
5 5 (0.77%) CEH
5 5 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (0.77%) OSCP
6 3 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (0.31%) HND
8 1 (0.15%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.15%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (0.92%) Accessibility
2 4 (0.61%) QA
3 1 (0.15%) DO-178B
3 1 (0.15%) DO-254
3 1 (0.15%) HAZOP
3 1 (0.15%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.15%) IEC 62304
3 1 (0.15%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.15%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 27 (4.14%) Docker
2 23 (3.53%) Firmware
3 4 (0.61%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 33 (5.06%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.99%) Ansible
3 11 (1.69%) Terraform
4 7 (1.07%) Grafana
4 7 (1.07%) Kibana
4 7 (1.07%) logstash
5 3 (0.46%) Plesk
5 3 (0.46%) SCCM
5 3 (0.46%) SCOM
5 3 (0.46%) SCOrch
6 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.31%) Podman
6 2 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 6 (0.92%) Intel
2 5 (0.77%) Microsoft
3 4 (0.61%) Google
3 4 (0.61%) OpenAI
3 4 (0.61%) Peregrine
4 2 (0.31%) Atlassian
4 2 (0.31%) Red Hat
4 2 (0.31%) SaltStack
4 2 (0.31%) Typelevel
4 2 (0.31%) VMware
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle
5 1 (0.15%) Salesforce
5 1 (0.15%) TOWER Software