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 10 July 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 35 13
Rank change year-on-year +20 -22 +65
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 589 186 926
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 7.17% 5.71% 9.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.62% 6.19% 9.80%
Number of salaries quoted 426 109 716
10th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £39,375
25th Percentile £53,750 £52,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +13.04% -4.17%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £67,813
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £78,810 £60,000
% change year-on-year -11.18% +31.35% -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 7,727 3,004 9,451
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.03% 92.15% 96.00%
Number of salaries quoted 5,328 2,016 7,040
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,625 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £35,000 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,043 £53,000
% change year-on-year +4.46% +3.85% -11.67%

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 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 10 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 +34 216 £75,000 -4.76% 63
Bristol +18 212 £70,000 - 39
Dorset +2 75 £50,000 -7.17% 18
Somerset -17 38 £53,750 -17.31% 15
Devon -11 27 £57,500 +15.00% 3
Wiltshire -3 17 £55,000 -15.38% 2
Cornwall - 3 - -
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 589 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 127 (21.56%) Security Cleared
3 103 (17.49%) C++
4 96 (16.30%) Java
5 90 (15.28%) Full-Stack Development
6 80 (13.58%) Agile
7 76 (12.90%) Python
8 75 (12.73%) SC Cleared
9 74 (12.56%) CI/CD
10 67 (11.38%) C#
11 49 (8.32%) DevOps
12 47 (7.98%) DV Cleared
13 46 (7.81%) JavaScript
14 45 (7.64%) Linux
15 42 (7.13%) Microservices
16 39 (6.62%) Vue
17 37 (6.28%) SDLC
18 36 (6.11%) Kubernetes
18 36 (6.11%) Mentoring
19 35 (5.94%) AI
19 35 (5.94%) WPF
20 33 (5.60%) AWS
20 33 (5.60%) Test Automation
21 30 (5.09%) Docker
22 29 (4.92%) Software Architecture
23 28 (4.75%) C
23 28 (4.75%) Containerisation
24 27 (4.58%) Site Reliability Engineering
24 27 (4.58%) TypeScript
25 26 (4.41%) Azure

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 11 (1.87%) Apache
2 3 (0.51%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.17%) CMS
3 1 (0.17%) Confluence
3 1 (0.17%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 33 (5.60%) AWS
2 26 (4.41%) Azure
3 15 (2.55%) GCP
4 12 (2.04%) SaaS
5 9 (1.53%) Azure AKS
6 8 (1.36%) Firebase
6 8 (1.36%) GitHub
7 4 (0.68%) Anthropic Claude
7 4 (0.68%) Cloud Run
7 4 (0.68%) OpenShift
7 4 (0.68%) Serverless
8 3 (0.51%) Amazon EKS
8 3 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
8 3 (0.51%) AWS Lambda
9 2 (0.34%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.17%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 1 (0.17%) Cloud Functions
10 1 (0.17%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.87%) Wireless
2 8 (1.36%) Ethernet
3 4 (0.68%) Broadband
4 3 (0.51%) AMQP
5 2 (0.34%) Network Security
5 2 (0.34%) RS-485
5 2 (0.34%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.17%) Modbus
6 1 (0.17%) MQTT
6 1 (0.17%) Profibus
6 1 (0.17%) RS-232
6 1 (0.17%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.21%) Elasticsearch
2 12 (2.04%) MongoDB
3 10 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.53%) Big Data
4 9 (1.53%) SQL Server
5 8 (1.36%) MySQL
6 5 (0.85%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.68%) Hadoop
8 3 (0.51%) Cloudera CDH
8 3 (0.51%) MariaDB
8 3 (0.51%) Pinecone
8 3 (0.51%) Redis
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.17%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.17%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 22 (3.74%) Git
2 14 (2.38%) GitLab
3 10 (1.70%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.53%) SonarQube
5 8 (1.36%) Cucumber
5 8 (1.36%) JIRA
6 4 (0.68%) Gradle
7 2 (0.34%) JUnit
7 2 (0.34%) Maven
7 2 (0.34%) Mockito
7 2 (0.34%) Subversion
7 2 (0.34%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.17%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.17%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.17%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.17%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.17%) LabVIEW
8 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 24 (4.07%) Aerospace
2 17 (2.89%) Electronics
3 14 (2.38%) Automotive
4 11 (1.87%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (1.87%) Social Skills
5 10 (1.70%) Manufacturing
6 9 (1.53%) Finance
7 5 (0.85%) Aviation
7 5 (0.85%) Social Housing
7 5 (0.85%) Tech for Good
8 3 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (0.51%) Public Sector
9 2 (0.34%) Avionics
9 2 (0.34%) Law
9 2 (0.34%) Military
9 2 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.34%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (6.62%) Vue
2 35 (5.94%) WPF
3 26 (4.41%) Spring
4 21 (3.57%) React
4 21 (3.57%) REST
5 18 (3.06%) Spring Boot
6 17 (2.89%) AngularJS
7 16 (2.72%) Node.js
8 15 (2.55%) .NET
9 12 (2.04%) HTML
10 11 (1.87%) .NET Framework
10 11 (1.87%) RESTful
11 9 (1.53%) .NET Core
11 9 (1.53%) Dapper ORM
11 9 (1.53%) Elastic Stack
11 9 (1.53%) Entity Framework
12 8 (1.36%) Apache NiFi
13 7 (1.19%) gRPC
14 6 (1.02%) CSS
14 6 (1.02%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 25 (4.24%) Embedded Systems
2 17 (2.89%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (2.55%) Algorithms
4 14 (2.38%) Cloud Native
5 10 (1.70%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (1.53%) Public Cloud
7 8 (1.36%) AI Agents
8 7 (1.19%) Device Driver
9 5 (0.85%) ARM Cortex
9 5 (0.85%) IoT
9 5 (0.85%) Operational Technology
9 5 (0.85%) Smart Home
10 4 (0.68%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.51%) Fat Client
11 3 (0.51%) Over-the-Top Content
11 3 (0.51%) Thin Client
11 3 (0.51%) Video\Live Streaming
12 2 (0.34%) Data Structures
12 2 (0.34%) PKI
12 2 (0.34%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 45 (7.64%) Linux
2 15 (2.55%) Android
3 12 (2.04%) Windows
4 6 (1.02%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.85%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.51%) CentOS
6 3 (0.51%) Debian
6 3 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.34%) SafeRTOS
7 2 (0.34%) Unix
7 2 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.17%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 589 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 90 (15.28%) Full-Stack Development
3 80 (13.58%) Agile
4 74 (12.56%) CI/CD
5 49 (8.32%) DevOps
6 42 (7.13%) Microservices
7 37 (6.28%) SDLC
8 36 (6.11%) Mentoring
9 35 (5.94%) AI
10 33 (5.60%) Test Automation
11 29 (4.92%) Software Architecture
12 28 (4.75%) Containerisation
13 27 (4.58%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 26 (4.41%) Platform Engineering
15 25 (4.24%) Continuous Improvement
15 25 (4.24%) Embedded Software Development
15 25 (4.24%) Problem-Solving
16 20 (3.40%) Clean Code
17 19 (3.23%) Migration
18 16 (2.72%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 103 (17.49%) C++
2 96 (16.30%) Java
3 76 (12.90%) Python
4 67 (11.38%) C#
5 46 (7.81%) JavaScript
6 28 (4.75%) C
7 27 (4.58%) TypeScript
8 23 (3.90%) Rust
9 22 (3.74%) Embedded C++
10 17 (2.89%) Go
11 16 (2.72%) SQL
12 15 (2.55%) Kotlin
13 12 (2.04%) Bash
14 10 (1.70%) PHP
15 6 (1.02%) Scala
16 4 (0.68%) Embedded C
16 4 (0.68%) MATLAB
16 4 (0.68%) PowerShell
17 1 (0.17%) Assembly Language
17 1 (0.17%) R
Qualifications
1 127 (21.56%) Security Cleared
2 75 (12.73%) SC Cleared
3 47 (7.98%) DV Cleared
4 13 (2.21%) Degree
5 5 (0.85%) CEH
5 5 (0.85%) OSCP
6 3 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (0.34%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (0.34%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.51%) Accessibility
2 2 (0.34%) QA
3 1 (0.17%) DO-178B
3 1 (0.17%) DO-254
3 1 (0.17%) HAZOP
3 1 (0.17%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.17%) IEC 62304
3 1 (0.17%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 30 (5.09%) Docker
2 22 (3.74%) Firmware
3 3 (0.51%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 36 (6.11%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.72%) Terraform
3 15 (2.55%) Ansible
4 8 (1.36%) Grafana
4 8 (1.36%) Kibana
4 8 (1.36%) logstash
5 3 (0.51%) Plesk
5 3 (0.51%) Puppet
5 3 (0.51%) SCCM
5 3 (0.51%) SCOM
5 3 (0.51%) SCOrch
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.34%) Podman
Vendors
1 5 (0.85%) Google
1 5 (0.85%) Microsoft
2 4 (0.68%) OpenAI
2 4 (0.68%) Peregrine
3 3 (0.51%) Intel
3 3 (0.51%) Oracle
3 3 (0.51%) Red Hat
3 3 (0.51%) SaltStack
4 2 (0.34%) Atlassian
4 2 (0.34%) Typelevel
4 2 (0.34%) VMware
5 1 (0.17%) TOWER Software