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 14 March 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 45 60
Rank change year-on-year +16 +15 +25
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 228 144 241
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 4.90% 5.13% 4.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.27% 6.24% 4.22%
Number of salaries quoted 153 76 194
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,125 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £54,750
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.59% -8.75%
75th Percentile £70,000 £76,563 £65,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £112,500 £77,500
South East median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -8.33%

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 4,325 2,307 5,706
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.99% 82.19% 94.64%
Number of salaries quoted 2,821 1,230 4,277
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £41,250 £36,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,585 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.17% +15.17% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £75,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £90,000 £80,000
South East median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 14 March 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 14 March 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 +28 116 £65,000 -1.89% 32
Buckinghamshire +29 71 £45,000 -25.00% 12
Berkshire -26 41 £60,000 +9.09% 15
Software Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 14 March 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.

1 227 (99.56%) Software Engineering
2 56 (24.56%) .NET
3 42 (18.42%) Full-Stack Development
4 41 (17.98%) C++
5 38 (16.67%) C#
6 37 (16.23%) Degree
7 34 (14.91%) Azure
8 32 (14.04%) Python
9 31 (13.60%) Computer Science Degree
9 31 (13.60%) SaaS
10 30 (13.16%) SQL
11 29 (12.72%) Computer Science
12 25 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
13 23 (10.09%) SQL Server
14 22 (9.65%) AWS
15 20 (8.77%) Linux
16 19 (8.33%) GCP
17 18 (7.89%) Energy Management
17 18 (7.89%) Storage Management
18 17 (7.46%) C
18 17 (7.46%) Code Quality
18 17 (7.46%) QA
19 16 (7.02%) .NET Framework
19 16 (7.02%) Agile
19 16 (7.02%) DevOps
19 16 (7.02%) Test Automation
20 14 (6.14%) Continuous Improvement
21 13 (5.70%) Azure DevOps
22 12 (5.26%) Entity Framework
22 12 (5.26%) IIS

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 12 (5.26%) IIS
2 1 (0.44%) CMS
2 1 (0.44%) Kinematics
Applications
1 2 (0.88%) AutoCAD
1 2 (0.88%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 1 (0.44%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 34 (14.91%) Azure
2 31 (13.60%) SaaS
3 22 (9.65%) AWS
4 19 (8.33%) GCP
5 13 (5.70%) Azure DevOps
6 7 (3.07%) GitHub
7 3 (1.32%) Figma
8 2 (0.88%) Amazon EKS
8 2 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (0.88%) GitHub Copilot
8 2 (0.88%) Serverless
9 1 (0.44%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.88%) SpaceWire
2 1 (0.44%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.09%) SQL Server
2 12 (5.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 2 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (3.95%) Git
2 2 (0.88%) Claude Code
2 2 (0.88%) GitLab
3 1 (0.44%) NUnit
3 1 (0.44%) Postman
3 1 (0.44%) SpecFlow
3 1 (0.44%) Yeoman
General
1 16 (7.02%) Social Skills
2 9 (3.95%) Finance
3 6 (2.63%) Electronics
3 6 (2.63%) Manufacturing
4 4 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
4 4 (1.75%) Tech for Good
5 3 (1.32%) Public Sector
5 3 (1.32%) Telecoms
6 2 (0.88%) Aerospace
6 2 (0.88%) Aviation
6 2 (0.88%) Games
7 1 (0.44%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (0.44%) Automotive
7 1 (0.44%) Health Technology
7 1 (0.44%) Law
7 1 (0.44%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (24.56%) .NET
2 16 (7.02%) .NET Framework
3 12 (5.26%) Entity Framework
3 12 (5.26%) WinForms
4 10 (4.39%) ASP.NET
5 6 (2.63%) React
6 5 (2.19%) Django
7 4 (1.75%) REST
7 4 (1.75%) Ruby on Rails
8 3 (1.32%) Twisted
8 3 (1.32%) Web Services
8 3 (1.32%) WebSockets
9 2 (0.88%) Qt
10 1 (0.44%) AngularJS
10 1 (0.44%) ASP.NET Web API
10 1 (0.44%) Blazor
10 1 (0.44%) Middleware
10 1 (0.44%) Playwright
10 1 (0.44%) Spring
10 1 (0.44%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (7.89%) IoT
1 18 (7.89%) Smart Energy
2 13 (5.70%) Distributed Systems
3 11 (4.82%) Client/Server
4 10 (4.39%) Embedded Systems
5 5 (2.19%) Algorithms
5 5 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.32%) Cloud Native
6 3 (1.32%) CUDA
6 3 (1.32%) Product Ownership
6 3 (1.32%) Video Conferencing
7 2 (0.88%) AI Agents
7 2 (0.88%) Driving Licence
7 2 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (0.88%) N-Tier
7 2 (0.88%) PMI
7 2 (0.88%) SCADA
8 1 (0.44%) EPoS
8 1 (0.44%) Reference Data
8 1 (0.44%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 20 (8.77%) Linux
2 12 (5.26%) Windows
3 2 (0.88%) VxWorks
4 1 (0.44%) Robot Operating System
4 1 (0.44%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 227 (99.56%) Software Engineering
2 42 (18.42%) Full-Stack Development
3 29 (12.72%) Computer Science
4 25 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
5 18 (7.89%) Energy Management
5 18 (7.89%) Storage Management
6 17 (7.46%) Code Quality
7 16 (7.02%) Agile
7 16 (7.02%) DevOps
7 16 (7.02%) Test Automation
8 14 (6.14%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (4.82%) CI/CD
9 11 (4.82%) System Testing
10 9 (3.95%) Collaborative Culture
10 9 (3.95%) TDD
11 8 (3.51%) AI
11 8 (3.51%) Data Management
11 8 (3.51%) SDLC
12 7 (3.07%) Containerisation
12 7 (3.07%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 41 (17.98%) C++
2 38 (16.67%) C#
3 32 (14.04%) Python
4 30 (13.16%) SQL
5 17 (7.46%) C
6 12 (5.26%) T-SQL
7 11 (4.82%) Rust
8 10 (4.39%) TypeScript
9 9 (3.95%) JavaScript
10 5 (2.19%) Java
11 4 (1.75%) Ruby
12 2 (0.88%) Embedded C++
12 2 (0.88%) Go
12 2 (0.88%) PHP
12 2 (0.88%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.44%) Bash
13 1 (0.44%) F#
13 1 (0.44%) Fortran
13 1 (0.44%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 37 (16.23%) Degree
2 31 (13.60%) Computer Science Degree
3 4 (1.75%) Security Cleared
4 2 (0.88%) DV Cleared
4 2 (0.88%) HNC
4 2 (0.88%) HND
4 2 (0.88%) Master's Degree
4 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (0.88%) NVQ Level 3
4 2 (0.88%) PhD
4 2 (0.88%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.46%) QA
2 4 (1.75%) ECSS
3 2 (0.88%) GDPR
4 1 (0.44%) Data Quality
System Software
1 11 (4.82%) Hyper-V
1 11 (4.82%) KVM
1 11 (4.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.39%) Firmware
3 7 (3.07%) Docker
4 3 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 2 (0.88%) Kubernetes
1 2 (0.88%) Terraform
Vendors
1 12 (5.26%) Sage
1 12 (5.26%) Xamarin
2 11 (4.82%) VMware
3 9 (3.95%) Microsoft
4 5 (2.19%) Google
4 5 (2.19%) Zoho
5 2 (0.88%) Allen-Bradley
5 2 (0.88%) Siemens
5 2 (0.88%) Wonderware
6 1 (0.44%) NVIDIA