Software Engineer Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Software Engineer salary in the Thames Valley is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 93 40
Rank change year-on-year +72 -53 +45
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 342 98 325
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 6.02% 2.88% 4.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.37% 3.38% 5.28%
Number of salaries quoted 252 77 260
10th Percentile £45,000 £40,000 £32,825
25th Percentile £54,375 £48,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £50,510
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +18.79% -18.86%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £88,500 £77,625
South East median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +18.18% -12.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. 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 Thames Valley with a recognized job title 5,366 2,897 6,157
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.42% 85.23% 94.49%
Number of salaries quoted 3,649 1,262 4,416
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,775 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £86,250 £78,750
South East median annual salary £52,500 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.94% +6.00% -9.09%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 21 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the Thames Valley

Software Engineer
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineer within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 21 May 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
Oxfordshire +25 184 £65,000 -3.70% 18
Buckinghamshire +48 88 £80,000 +33.33% 10
Berkshire +48 70 £52,500 +0.96% 15
Software Engineer
South East

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 21 May 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 Thames Valley region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 335 (97.95%) Software Engineering
2 84 (24.56%) C#
3 73 (21.35%) .NET
4 70 (20.47%) C++
5 65 (19.01%) Python
6 61 (17.84%) Degree
7 58 (16.96%) AWS
8 55 (16.08%) Full-Stack Development
9 52 (15.20%) Computer Science Degree
10 47 (13.74%) SaaS
11 34 (9.94%) Azure
12 30 (8.77%) Test Automation
13 27 (7.89%) Code Quality
14 26 (7.60%) Agile
14 26 (7.60%) Linux
15 25 (7.31%) Mentoring
16 24 (7.02%) SQL Server
17 23 (6.73%) QA
18 21 (6.14%) C
18 21 (6.14%) CI/CD
19 20 (5.85%) Computer Science
19 20 (5.85%) GCP
20 19 (5.56%) Firmware
20 19 (5.56%) TypeScript
21 18 (5.26%) Continuous Improvement
21 18 (5.26%) JavaScript
21 18 (5.26%) Problem-Solving
21 18 (5.26%) TDD
22 17 (4.97%) Storage Management
23 16 (4.68%) Containerisation

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 1 (0.29%) ArchestrA
1 1 (0.29%) Kinematics
Applications
1 2 (0.58%) AutoCAD
1 2 (0.58%) EPLAN
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 58 (16.96%) AWS
2 47 (13.74%) SaaS
3 34 (9.94%) Azure
4 20 (5.85%) GCP
5 8 (2.34%) GitHub
6 6 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (1.46%) Figma
8 4 (1.17%) AWS Lambda
8 4 (1.17%) PaaS
8 4 (1.17%) Serverless
9 2 (0.58%) Amazon S3
9 2 (0.58%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (0.29%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (0.29%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.29%) Internet
1 1 (0.29%) Modbus
1 1 (0.29%) Software-Defined Networking
1 1 (0.29%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (7.02%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.29%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 10 (2.92%) Git
2 6 (1.75%) Yeoman
3 3 (0.88%) GitLab
4 2 (0.58%) Claude Code
4 2 (0.58%) Postman
4 2 (0.58%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.29%) JUnit
5 1 (0.29%) NUnit
General
1 35 (10.23%) Manufacturing
2 26 (7.60%) Social Skills
3 14 (4.09%) Finance
4 13 (3.80%) Electronics
5 10 (2.92%) Pharmaceutical
6 7 (2.05%) Aerospace
7 6 (1.75%) Public Sector
8 4 (1.17%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.58%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (0.58%) Automotive
9 2 (0.58%) Games
9 2 (0.58%) Tech for Good
10 1 (0.29%) Health Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (21.35%) .NET
2 14 (4.09%) React
2 14 (4.09%) WPF
3 9 (2.63%) Django
3 9 (2.63%) REST
4 7 (2.05%) WebSockets
5 5 (1.46%) .NET Framework
5 5 (1.46%) Blazor
5 5 (1.46%) Twisted
5 5 (1.46%) Web Services
6 4 (1.17%) .NET Core
6 4 (1.17%) AngularJS
6 4 (1.17%) Node.js
7 3 (0.88%) ASP.NET Web API
7 3 (0.88%) RESTful
8 2 (0.58%) ASP.NET
8 2 (0.58%) Ruby on Rails
8 2 (0.58%) Vue
9 1 (0.29%) Playwright
9 1 (0.29%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.97%) Client/Server
2 15 (4.39%) Distributed Systems
2 15 (4.39%) IoT
2 15 (4.39%) Smart Energy
3 14 (4.09%) Distributed Computing
4 12 (3.51%) Embedded Systems
5 9 (2.63%) Cloud Native
6 7 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.46%) Product Ownership
7 5 (1.46%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.17%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.17%) Driving Licence
8 4 (1.17%) SCADA
9 3 (0.88%) CUDA
10 2 (0.58%) AI Agents
10 2 (0.58%) Life Science
10 2 (0.58%) PMI
10 2 (0.58%) Tandem
11 1 (0.29%) Operational Technology
11 1 (0.29%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.60%) Linux
2 2 (0.58%) Windows
3 1 (0.29%) Robot Operating System
3 1 (0.29%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 335 (97.95%) Software Engineering
2 55 (16.08%) Full-Stack Development
3 30 (8.77%) Test Automation
4 27 (7.89%) Code Quality
5 26 (7.60%) Agile
6 25 (7.31%) Mentoring
7 21 (6.14%) CI/CD
8 20 (5.85%) Computer Science
9 18 (5.26%) Continuous Improvement
9 18 (5.26%) Problem-Solving
9 18 (5.26%) TDD
10 17 (4.97%) Storage Management
11 16 (4.68%) Containerisation
12 15 (4.39%) Energy Management
13 14 (4.09%) AI
13 14 (4.09%) Collaborative Culture
13 14 (4.09%) System Testing
14 13 (3.80%) Machine Learning
15 12 (3.51%) Design Patterns
15 12 (3.51%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 84 (24.56%) C#
2 70 (20.47%) C++
3 65 (19.01%) Python
4 21 (6.14%) C
5 19 (5.56%) TypeScript
6 18 (5.26%) JavaScript
7 14 (4.09%) Rust
8 13 (3.80%) SQL
9 2 (0.58%) Go
9 2 (0.58%) PHP
9 2 (0.58%) Ruby
10 1 (0.29%) F#
10 1 (0.29%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.29%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 61 (17.84%) Degree
2 52 (15.20%) Computer Science Degree
3 6 (1.75%) Master's Degree
3 6 (1.75%) PhD
3 6 (1.75%) Security Cleared
4 4 (1.17%) SC Cleared
5 3 (0.88%) HNC
5 3 (0.88%) HND
6 2 (0.58%) NVQ Level 3
6 2 (0.58%) PMI Certification
7 1 (0.29%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.29%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.73%) QA
2 2 (0.58%) GDPR
3 1 (0.29%) ECSS
System Software
1 19 (5.56%) Firmware
2 14 (4.09%) Hyper-V
2 14 (4.09%) KVM
2 14 (4.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (2.92%) Docker
4 5 (1.46%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 5 (1.46%) Terraform
2 3 (0.88%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 14 (4.09%) VMware
2 4 (1.17%) Salesforce
3 3 (0.88%) Allen-Bradley
3 3 (0.88%) Microsoft
3 3 (0.88%) Siemens
3 3 (0.88%) Wonderware
4 1 (0.29%) NVIDIA