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 18 May 2026.

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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 88 41
Rank change year-on-year +65 -47 +53
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 333 102 320
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 5.87% 2.99% 4.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.21% 3.50% 5.20%
Number of salaries quoted 245 79 255
10th Percentile £45,000 £40,000 £33,800
25th Percentile £52,500 £49,375 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £51,020
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +17.60% -18.04%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £97,500 £78,250
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 5,360 2,911 6,151
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.48% 85.37% 94.46%
Number of salaries quoted 3,645 1,269 4,419
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,950 £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 £64,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £77,882
South East median annual salary £52,500 £53,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.87% +7.00% -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 18 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 18 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 +25 181 £65,000 -1.89% 22
Buckinghamshire +46 83 £75,000 +25.00% 11
Berkshire +34 69 £55,000 - 17
Software Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 326 (97.90%) Software Engineering
2 77 (23.12%) C#
3 70 (21.02%) .NET
4 68 (20.42%) C++
5 63 (18.92%) Python
6 58 (17.42%) Degree
7 55 (16.52%) Full-Stack Development
8 52 (15.62%) AWS
9 49 (14.71%) Computer Science Degree
10 45 (13.51%) SaaS
11 31 (9.31%) Azure
12 27 (8.11%) Test Automation
13 25 (7.51%) Code Quality
13 25 (7.51%) Linux
14 23 (6.91%) Agile
14 23 (6.91%) SQL Server
15 22 (6.61%) Mentoring
15 22 (6.61%) QA
16 20 (6.01%) C
17 19 (5.71%) Computer Science
17 19 (5.71%) Firmware
17 19 (5.71%) GCP
18 18 (5.41%) CI/CD
18 18 (5.41%) TypeScript
19 17 (5.11%) Continuous Improvement
19 17 (5.11%) JavaScript
19 17 (5.11%) Problem-Solving
19 17 (5.11%) Storage Management
20 16 (4.80%) TDD
21 15 (4.50%) Energy Management

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 (0.30%) ArchestrA
1 1 (0.30%) Kinematics
Applications
1 2 (0.60%) AutoCAD
1 2 (0.60%) EPLAN
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 52 (15.62%) AWS
2 45 (13.51%) SaaS
3 31 (9.31%) Azure
4 19 (5.71%) GCP
5 8 (2.40%) GitHub
6 5 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (1.50%) Figma
7 3 (0.90%) AWS Lambda
7 3 (0.90%) PaaS
7 3 (0.90%) Serverless
8 2 (0.60%) GitHub Copilot
9 1 (0.30%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (0.30%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.30%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.30%) Internet
1 1 (0.30%) Modbus
1 1 (0.30%) Software-Defined Networking
1 1 (0.30%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.91%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.30%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 10 (3.00%) Git
2 5 (1.50%) Yeoman
3 3 (0.90%) GitLab
4 2 (0.60%) Claude Code
4 2 (0.60%) Postman
4 2 (0.60%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.30%) JUnit
5 1 (0.30%) NUnit
General
1 33 (9.91%) Manufacturing
2 24 (7.21%) Social Skills
3 13 (3.90%) Electronics
3 13 (3.90%) Finance
4 10 (3.00%) Pharmaceutical
5 7 (2.10%) Aerospace
6 6 (1.80%) Public Sector
7 3 (0.90%) Tech for Good
7 3 (0.90%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.60%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (0.60%) Automotive
8 2 (0.60%) Games
9 1 (0.30%) Health Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (21.02%) .NET
2 13 (3.90%) WPF
3 12 (3.60%) React
4 9 (2.70%) Django
4 9 (2.70%) REST
5 7 (2.10%) WebSockets
6 5 (1.50%) .NET Framework
6 5 (1.50%) Twisted
6 5 (1.50%) Web Services
7 4 (1.20%) .NET Core
7 4 (1.20%) Blazor
8 3 (0.90%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.90%) ASP.NET Web API
8 3 (0.90%) Node.js
8 3 (0.90%) RESTful
8 3 (0.90%) Ruby on Rails
9 2 (0.60%) ASP.NET
9 2 (0.60%) Vue
10 1 (0.30%) Middleware
10 1 (0.30%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.80%) Client/Server
2 15 (4.50%) IoT
2 15 (4.50%) Smart Energy
3 14 (4.20%) Distributed Systems
4 13 (3.90%) Distributed Computing
5 11 (3.30%) Embedded Systems
6 8 (2.40%) Cloud Native
7 7 (2.10%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.50%) Product Ownership
8 5 (1.50%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (1.20%) Driving Licence
9 4 (1.20%) SCADA
10 3 (0.90%) Algorithms
10 3 (0.90%) CUDA
11 2 (0.60%) AI Agents
11 2 (0.60%) Life Science
11 2 (0.60%) PMI
11 2 (0.60%) Tandem
12 1 (0.30%) EPoS
12 1 (0.30%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 25 (7.51%) Linux
2 2 (0.60%) Windows
3 1 (0.30%) Robot Operating System
3 1 (0.30%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 326 (97.90%) Software Engineering
2 55 (16.52%) Full-Stack Development
3 27 (8.11%) Test Automation
4 25 (7.51%) Code Quality
5 23 (6.91%) Agile
6 22 (6.61%) Mentoring
7 19 (5.71%) Computer Science
8 18 (5.41%) CI/CD
9 17 (5.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 17 (5.11%) Problem-Solving
9 17 (5.11%) Storage Management
10 16 (4.80%) TDD
11 15 (4.50%) Energy Management
12 14 (4.20%) Collaborative Culture
12 14 (4.20%) Containerisation
13 13 (3.90%) AI
13 13 (3.90%) System Testing
14 12 (3.60%) Machine Learning
15 11 (3.30%) Design Patterns
16 10 (3.00%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 77 (23.12%) C#
2 68 (20.42%) C++
3 63 (18.92%) Python
4 20 (6.01%) C
5 18 (5.41%) TypeScript
6 17 (5.11%) JavaScript
7 13 (3.90%) Rust
7 13 (3.90%) SQL
8 3 (0.90%) Ruby
9 2 (0.60%) Go
9 2 (0.60%) PHP
10 1 (0.30%) F#
10 1 (0.30%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.30%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 58 (17.42%) Degree
2 49 (14.71%) Computer Science Degree
3 6 (1.80%) Security Cleared
4 5 (1.50%) Master's Degree
4 5 (1.50%) PhD
5 4 (1.20%) SC Cleared
6 3 (0.90%) HNC
6 3 (0.90%) HND
7 2 (0.60%) NVQ Level 3
7 2 (0.60%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.30%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.30%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.61%) QA
2 2 (0.60%) GDPR
3 1 (0.30%) ECSS
System Software
1 19 (5.71%) Firmware
2 13 (3.90%) Hyper-V
2 13 (3.90%) KVM
2 13 (3.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (2.70%) Docker
4 5 (1.50%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 4 (1.20%) Terraform
2 3 (0.90%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 13 (3.90%) VMware
2 3 (0.90%) Allen-Bradley
2 3 (0.90%) Microsoft
2 3 (0.90%) Salesforce
2 3 (0.90%) Siemens
2 3 (0.90%) Wonderware
3 1 (0.30%) NVIDIA