Software Engineer Job Trends in the South West

Software Engineer
England > South West

The median Software Engineer salary in the South West is £68,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 10 October 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 52 14
Rank change year-on-year +44 -38 +41
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 939 137 643
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 8.93% 3.83% 9.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.64% 4.11% 10.00%
Number of salaries quoted 647 76 368
10th Percentile £50,000 £45,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £60,000 £52,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £68,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% +8.33% -
75th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £82,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -15.15% +26.92% -7.14%

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 9,740 3,332 6,433
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.63% 93.12% 94.51%
Number of salaries quoted 6,699 2,153 3,972
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £31,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £45,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +22.22% -10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £75,000 £62,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £55,281
% change year-on-year +7.27% -0.51% -7.87%

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 10 October 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 10 October 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 +16 377 £80,000 +3.23% 118
Bristol +47 282 £65,000 +8.33% 82
Dorset +11 112 £100,000 +66.67% 63
Somerset +26 72 £60,000 -7.69% 26
Devon +10 41 £65,000 +44.44% 13
Wiltshire +9 36 £55,000 +34.83% 12
Cornwall - 19 £45,000 -
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 10 October 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.

1 939 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 171 (18.21%) Agile
3 166 (17.68%) Security Cleared
4 131 (13.95%) Java
5 128 (13.63%) C++
6 121 (12.89%) Full-Stack Development
7 103 (10.97%) Python
8 99 (10.54%) CI/CD
9 84 (8.95%) SC Cleared
10 77 (8.20%) DV Cleared
11 72 (7.67%) C#
12 62 (6.60%) SDLC
13 60 (6.39%) Linux
14 56 (5.96%) AWS
15 55 (5.86%) Test Automation
16 54 (5.75%) JavaScript
16 54 (5.75%) Microservices
17 50 (5.32%) AI
18 44 (4.69%) DevOps
19 41 (4.37%) WPF
20 39 (4.15%) Embedded Software Development
20 39 (4.15%) Open Source
20 39 (4.15%) Software Architecture
20 39 (4.15%) Vue
21 37 (3.94%) Azure
22 36 (3.83%) Mentoring
23 33 (3.51%) C
23 33 (3.51%) Kubernetes
24 32 (3.41%) Collaborative Working
24 32 (3.41%) Problem-Solving

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 14 (1.49%) Apache
2 6 (0.64%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.11%) Confluence
3 1 (0.11%) OpenStack
Business Applications
1 5 (0.53%) Visualfiles
Cloud Services
1 56 (5.96%) AWS
2 37 (3.94%) Azure
3 16 (1.70%) GCP
4 11 (1.17%) OpenShift
4 11 (1.17%) Serverless
5 9 (0.96%) Firebase
5 9 (0.96%) GitHub
6 8 (0.85%) SaaS
7 6 (0.64%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (0.53%) Amazon EKS
8 5 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
8 5 (0.53%) Cloud Run
9 4 (0.43%) Amazon S3
9 4 (0.43%) Anthropic Claude
10 2 (0.21%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (0.21%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.21%) Vercel
11 1 (0.11%) Amazon OpenSearch
11 1 (0.11%) Azure AI
11 1 (0.11%) Cloud Functions
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.85%) Ethernet
1 8 (0.85%) Wireless
2 5 (0.53%) AMQP
3 3 (0.32%) RS-485
4 2 (0.21%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.11%) Broadband
5 1 (0.11%) HTTP
5 1 (0.11%) MQTT
5 1 (0.11%) RS-232
5 1 (0.11%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.28%) Big Data
2 11 (1.17%) MongoDB
2 11 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (1.06%) Elasticsearch
4 7 (0.75%) Hadoop
5 6 (0.64%) Redis
6 5 (0.53%) Cloudera CDH
6 5 (0.53%) Relational Database
7 4 (0.43%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.32%) Chroma
8 3 (0.32%) MariaDB
8 3 (0.32%) MySQL
8 3 (0.32%) Pinecone
8 3 (0.32%) SQL Server
9 2 (0.21%) Metadata
10 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.11%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.11%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 25 (2.66%) GitLab
2 24 (2.56%) Git
3 13 (1.38%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.06%) JIRA
5 9 (0.96%) SonarQube
6 8 (0.85%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.43%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.32%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.32%) LabVIEW
8 3 (0.32%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.21%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.21%) Gradle
9 2 (0.21%) JUnit
9 2 (0.21%) Mockito
9 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.11%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.11%) Eclipse
10 1 (0.11%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.11%) Mocha
10 1 (0.11%) Valgrind
General
1 35 (3.73%) Aerospace
1 35 (3.73%) Finance
2 26 (2.77%) Social Skills
3 18 (1.92%) Automotive
4 16 (1.70%) Aviation
4 16 (1.70%) Electronics
5 15 (1.60%) Public Sector
6 13 (1.38%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (1.28%) Manufacturing
8 9 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (0.85%) Law
10 6 (0.64%) Military
11 5 (0.53%) Avionics
12 4 (0.43%) Banking
12 4 (0.43%) Social Housing
12 4 (0.43%) Tech for Good
13 3 (0.32%) Marketing
13 3 (0.32%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.21%) Games
14 2 (0.21%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (4.37%) WPF
2 39 (4.15%) Vue
3 31 (3.30%) Spring
3 31 (3.30%) Spring Boot
4 28 (2.98%) React
5 17 (1.81%) Terraform
6 16 (1.70%) REST
7 15 (1.60%) AngularJS
8 13 (1.38%) .NET
8 13 (1.38%) Node.js
9 12 (1.28%) RESTful
10 9 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
11 8 (0.85%) Apache NiFi
12 7 (0.75%) gRPC
12 7 (0.75%) Kafka
12 7 (0.75%) OpenAPI
13 6 (0.64%) FastAPI
13 6 (0.64%) RabbitMQ
13 6 (0.64%) Swagger
14 5 (0.53%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 41 (4.37%) Cloud Native
2 32 (3.41%) Public Cloud
3 25 (2.66%) Embedded Systems
4 24 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
5 17 (1.81%) Distributed Systems
6 12 (1.28%) Algorithms
6 12 (1.28%) IoT
7 9 (0.96%) AI Agents
8 7 (0.75%) Robotics
9 6 (0.64%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.53%) Device Driver
11 4 (0.43%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (0.43%) Operational Technology
11 4 (0.43%) Smart Home
12 3 (0.32%) ARM Cortex
12 3 (0.32%) Mobile App
12 3 (0.32%) Onboarding
13 2 (0.21%) Enterprise Software
13 2 (0.21%) Mobile Banking
13 2 (0.21%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 60 (6.39%) Linux
2 23 (2.45%) Android
3 17 (1.81%) Windows
4 6 (0.64%) Ubuntu
5 5 (0.53%) Apple iOS
5 5 (0.53%) CentOS
5 5 (0.53%) Debian
5 5 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.53%) Unix
6 3 (0.32%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.32%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.21%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.11%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 939 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 171 (18.21%) Agile
3 121 (12.89%) Full-Stack Development
4 99 (10.54%) CI/CD
5 62 (6.60%) SDLC
6 55 (5.86%) Test Automation
7 54 (5.75%) Microservices
8 50 (5.32%) AI
9 44 (4.69%) DevOps
10 39 (4.15%) Embedded Software Development
10 39 (4.15%) Open Source
10 39 (4.15%) Software Architecture
11 36 (3.83%) Mentoring
12 32 (3.41%) Collaborative Working
12 32 (3.41%) Problem-Solving
13 31 (3.30%) Continuous Improvement
14 29 (3.09%) Containerisation
14 29 (3.09%) Cybersecurity
15 28 (2.98%) Data Pipeline
16 24 (2.56%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 131 (13.95%) Java
2 128 (13.63%) C++
3 103 (10.97%) Python
4 72 (7.67%) C#
5 54 (5.75%) JavaScript
6 33 (3.51%) C
7 32 (3.41%) Rust
8 30 (3.19%) TypeScript
9 20 (2.13%) Kotlin
10 19 (2.02%) Go
11 18 (1.92%) Embedded C++
12 11 (1.17%) SQL
13 10 (1.06%) Ada
13 10 (1.06%) Bash
14 9 (0.96%) PHP
15 7 (0.75%) Scala
16 5 (0.53%) MATLAB
17 3 (0.32%) Ada 95
18 1 (0.11%) Assembly Language
18 1 (0.11%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 166 (17.68%) Security Cleared
2 84 (8.95%) SC Cleared
3 77 (8.20%) DV Cleared
4 24 (2.56%) Degree
5 8 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (0.43%) CEH
6 4 (0.43%) OSCP
7 3 (0.32%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (0.32%) Master's Degree
7 3 (0.32%) PhD
8 2 (0.21%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.21%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (0.85%) Accessibility
1 8 (0.85%) QA
2 3 (0.32%) MIL-STD-1553
3 2 (0.21%) GDPR
4 1 (0.11%) DO-178B
4 1 (0.11%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 23 (2.45%) Docker
2 17 (1.81%) Firmware
3 5 (0.53%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 33 (3.51%) Kubernetes
2 16 (1.70%) Ansible
3 8 (0.85%) Grafana
3 8 (0.85%) Kibana
3 8 (0.85%) logstash
4 5 (0.53%) Puppet
5 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.21%) Plesk
6 1 (0.11%) Podman
6 1 (0.11%) SCCM
6 1 (0.11%) SCOM
6 1 (0.11%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 10 (1.06%) Google
2 6 (0.64%) Intel
3 5 (0.53%) LexisNexis
3 5 (0.53%) Red Hat
3 5 (0.53%) SaltStack
4 4 (0.43%) Atlassian
4 4 (0.43%) Databricks
4 4 (0.43%) Microsoft
4 4 (0.43%) OpenAI
4 4 (0.43%) Peregrine
5 3 (0.32%) Salesforce
6 2 (0.21%) VMware
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle
7 1 (0.11%) TOWER Software