Software Engineering Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 105 8
Rank change year-on-year +89 -97 +22
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 495 103 591
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 6.51% 2.72% 13.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.11% 3.01% 15.82%
Number of salaries quoted 353 79 317
10th Percentile £45,000 £33,685 £40,750
25th Percentile £55,000 £54,375 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +16.67% -14.29%
75th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
South East median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% -6.25%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,433 3,418 3,735
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 71.49% 90.26% 83.31%
Number of salaries quoted 3,873 1,484 1,817
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £31,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £34,000 £41,263
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -13.64% -
75th Percentile £72,500 £67,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
South East median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -13.64% -

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Software Engineering.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 15 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineering in the Thames Valley

Software Engineering
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 Engineering within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 15 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
Oxfordshire +22 210 £65,000 -7.14% 22
Berkshire +79 176 £80,000 -5.88% 31
Buckinghamshire +47 109 £75,000 +114.29% 10
Software Engineering
South East

Software Engineering
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 4 (0.81%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.40%) Apache
2 2 (0.40%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.20%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 23 (4.65%) Lightworks
2 4 (0.81%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 3 (0.61%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 105 (21.21%) AWS
2 69 (13.94%) Azure
3 50 (10.10%) SaaS
4 29 (5.86%) GitHub
5 24 (4.85%) GCP
6 15 (3.03%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
8 12 (2.42%) Firebase
9 8 (1.62%) Anthropic Claude
9 8 (1.62%) Serverless
10 7 (1.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 7 (1.41%) Cloud Run
11 6 (1.21%) GitHub Copilot
12 5 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (1.01%) AWS Lambda
12 5 (1.01%) PaaS
13 4 (0.81%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.81%) Microsoft 365
14 2 (0.40%) AWS CloudFormation
14 2 (0.40%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 22 (4.44%) Wireless
2 6 (1.21%) MQTT
3 5 (1.01%) Ethernet
4 4 (0.81%) HTTP
5 2 (0.40%) DHCP
5 2 (0.40%) DNS
5 2 (0.40%) Firewall
5 2 (0.40%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.20%) NGN
6 1 (0.20%) SNMP
6 1 (0.20%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.20%) VLAN
6 1 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (5.86%) SQL Server
2 26 (5.25%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (1.82%) Relational Database
4 7 (1.41%) Chroma
4 7 (1.41%) Pinecone
5 5 (1.01%) MySQL
6 3 (0.61%) Amazon Aurora
6 3 (0.61%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.61%) Redis
7 1 (0.20%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
7 1 (0.20%) GIS
Development Applications
1 24 (4.85%) Git
2 11 (2.22%) GitLab
3 7 (1.41%) Yeoman
4 6 (1.21%) Eclipse
4 6 (1.21%) Eclipse RCP
5 5 (1.01%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.81%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.81%) JIRA
6 4 (0.81%) PetaLinux
6 4 (0.81%) Postman
7 3 (0.61%) JUnit
7 3 (0.61%) MLflow
7 3 (0.61%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.40%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.40%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.40%) Subversion
9 1 (0.20%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.20%) Mocha
9 1 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.20%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 75 (15.15%) Manufacturing
2 71 (14.34%) Social Skills
3 38 (7.68%) Aerospace
4 33 (6.67%) Finance
5 25 (5.05%) Electronics
6 20 (4.04%) Analytical Skills
7 15 (3.03%) Health Technology
8 9 (1.82%) Automotive
8 9 (1.82%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.41%) Retail
10 6 (1.21%) Banking
10 6 (1.21%) Public Sector
11 4 (0.81%) Digital Health
11 4 (0.81%) Law
12 3 (0.61%) Tech for Good
13 2 (0.40%) Aviation
13 2 (0.40%) Back Office
13 2 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.20%) Games
14 1 (0.20%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 390 (78.79%) Software Engineer
2 118 (23.84%) Senior
3 99 (20.00%) Senior Software Engineer
4 81 (16.36%) C# Software Engineer
5 69 (13.94%) Embedded Engineer
6 67 (13.54%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 55 (11.11%) Python Engineer
7 55 (11.11%) Python Software Engineer
8 43 (8.69%) C++ Software Engineer
9 36 (7.27%) Lead
10 34 (6.87%) AWS Engineer
11 33 (6.67%) AWS Software Engineer
12 25 (5.05%) .NET Software Engineer
12 25 (5.05%) Lead Software Engineer
13 19 (3.84%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
14 18 (3.64%) Senior Embedded Engineer
14 18 (3.64%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
15 17 (3.43%) Developer
16 16 (3.23%) Full-Stack Engineer
16 16 (3.23%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (15.96%) .NET
2 38 (7.68%) React
3 25 (5.05%) WPF
4 23 (4.65%) Node.js
5 16 (3.23%) Django
6 14 (2.83%) React Native
7 13 (2.63%) Vue
8 12 (2.42%) Terraform
9 10 (2.02%) REST
10 9 (1.82%) RESTful
11 8 (1.62%) .NET Core
12 7 (1.41%) ASP.NET
12 7 (1.41%) pgvector
13 6 (1.21%) JSON
13 6 (1.21%) Spring Boot
14 5 (1.01%) Blazor
14 5 (1.01%) Playwright
14 5 (1.01%) Spring
14 5 (1.01%) Swagger
15 4 (0.81%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 24 (4.85%) Cloud Native
1 24 (4.85%) Distributed Computing
2 22 (4.44%) Embedded Systems
3 20 (4.04%) Product Ownership
4 14 (2.83%) AI Agents
5 13 (2.63%) Distributed Systems
6 12 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
6 12 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
7 10 (2.02%) Life Science
8 8 (1.62%) NHS
8 8 (1.62%) Renewable Energy
9 7 (1.41%) Robotics
10 5 (1.01%) Client/Server
10 5 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (1.01%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.81%) FPGA
11 4 (0.81%) IoT
11 4 (0.81%) Verilog
11 4 (0.81%) VHDL
11 4 (0.81%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 40 (8.08%) Linux
2 7 (1.41%) Debian
3 6 (1.21%) Android
3 6 (1.21%) Apple iOS
3 6 (1.21%) Windows
4 4 (0.81%) FreeRTOS
5 3 (0.61%) Embedded Linux
5 3 (0.61%) Gentoo
5 3 (0.61%) Robot Operating System
5 3 (0.61%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (17.17%) AI
2 70 (14.14%) Agile
3 69 (13.94%) CI/CD
4 65 (13.13%) Problem-Solving
5 55 (11.11%) Mentoring
6 54 (10.91%) Test Automation
7 53 (10.71%) DevOps
8 51 (10.30%) Full-Stack Development
9 42 (8.48%) Computer Science
10 33 (6.67%) Containerisation
11 32 (6.46%) Design Patterns
12 29 (5.86%) Machine Learning
12 29 (5.86%) Microservices
13 28 (5.66%) Computational Fluid Dynamics
13 28 (5.66%) Finite Element Analysis
14 27 (5.45%) Code Quality
14 27 (5.45%) Open Source
15 24 (4.85%) Continuous Improvement
15 24 (4.85%) SDLC
16 22 (4.44%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 140 (28.28%) C#
2 105 (21.21%) Python
3 89 (17.98%) C++
4 44 (8.89%) TypeScript
5 38 (7.68%) Java
5 38 (7.68%) JavaScript
6 33 (6.67%) C
7 30 (6.06%) SQL
8 15 (3.03%) Rust
9 13 (2.63%) PHP
10 11 (2.22%) T-SQL
11 10 (2.02%) Bash
12 4 (0.81%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.61%) PowerShell
13 3 (0.61%) Ruby
13 3 (0.61%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.40%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.40%) Delphi
14 2 (0.40%) Embedded C
14 2 (0.40%) Pascal
Qualifications
1 90 (18.18%) Degree
2 64 (12.93%) Computer Science Degree
3 29 (5.86%) Security Cleared
4 19 (3.84%) SC Cleared
5 17 (3.43%) Master's Degree
6 16 (3.23%) PhD
7 7 (1.41%) DV Cleared
8 4 (0.81%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.81%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.40%) Postgraduate
10 1 (0.20%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.20%) Chartered Engineer
10 1 (0.20%) CISSP
10 1 (0.20%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.86%) QA
2 9 (1.82%) MISRA
3 4 (0.81%) ECSS
4 2 (0.40%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.40%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.20%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.20%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 36 (7.27%) Docker
2 16 (3.23%) Firmware
3 7 (1.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.81%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.61%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.40%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.40%) KVM
7 1 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 30 (6.06%) Kubernetes
2 5 (1.01%) Ansible
3 4 (0.81%) Podman
4 2 (0.40%) Grafana
4 2 (0.40%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 24 (4.85%) Microsoft
2 14 (2.83%) Salesforce
3 9 (1.82%) Sage
4 5 (1.01%) Google
4 5 (1.01%) New Relic
4 5 (1.01%) Thales
5 4 (0.81%) VMware
5 4 (0.81%) Xilinx
6 3 (0.61%) NVIDIA
7 2 (0.40%) ServiceNow
7 2 (0.40%) Zoho
8 1 (0.20%) BiZZdesign
8 1 (0.20%) CA Agile Central
8 1 (0.20%) Databricks
8 1 (0.20%) Sparx