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 4 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 86 11
Rank change year-on-year +73 -75 +10
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 468 118 546
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 7.18% 3.29% 10.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.17% 3.65% 12.76%
Number of salaries quoted 332 97 388
10th Percentile £48,750 £47,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £54,500 £55,000 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £70,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year - +20.69% -10.77%
75th Percentile £83,750 £90,000 £76,563
90th Percentile £90,000 £98,500 £85,000
South East median annual salary £65,000 £70,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -7.14% +27.27% -12.00%

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 4,604 3,231 4,280
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 70.66% 90.08% 81.35%
Number of salaries quoted 3,200 1,431 2,692
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £81,250
South East median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £51,852
% change year-on-year +10.00% -3.57% -5.72%

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 4 August 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 4 August 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 +20 198 £65,000 -7.14% 78
Berkshire +69 145 £65,000 -17.46% 80
Buckinghamshire +60 125 £80,000 +60.00% 33
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 (0.85%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.21%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 14 (2.99%) Lightworks
2 3 (0.64%) Simulink
3 2 (0.43%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.43%) EPLAN
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 101 (21.58%) AWS
2 80 (17.09%) Azure
3 51 (10.90%) SaaS
4 34 (7.26%) GCP
5 23 (4.91%) GitHub
6 13 (2.78%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (2.56%) Firebase
8 9 (1.92%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (1.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 7 (1.50%) Anthropic Claude
10 7 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (1.50%) Cloud Run
10 7 (1.50%) Serverless
11 5 (1.07%) Figma
11 5 (1.07%) PaaS
12 4 (0.85%) Amazon EKS
12 4 (0.85%) Microsoft 365
13 3 (0.64%) Amazon S3
14 2 (0.43%) AWS CloudFormation
14 2 (0.43%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.56%) Wireless
2 5 (1.07%) MQTT
3 3 (0.64%) DHCP
3 3 (0.64%) DNS
3 3 (0.64%) Ethernet
3 3 (0.64%) Firewall
3 3 (0.64%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.43%) HTTP
5 1 (0.21%) Broadband
5 1 (0.21%) Internet
5 1 (0.21%) Modbus
5 1 (0.21%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (7.26%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.92%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (1.50%) Pinecone
4 5 (1.07%) MySQL
5 4 (0.85%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.64%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.21%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.21%) Electronic Patient Records
7 1 (0.21%) GIS
7 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.21%) Redis
Development Applications
1 23 (4.91%) Git
2 8 (1.71%) GitLab
2 8 (1.71%) Postman
2 8 (1.71%) Yeoman
3 6 (1.28%) Eclipse
3 6 (1.28%) Eclipse RCP
4 4 (0.85%) Cucumber
4 4 (0.85%) JIRA
4 4 (0.85%) SpecFlow
5 3 (0.64%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.64%) JUnit
5 3 (0.64%) PetaLinux
5 3 (0.64%) Rational DOORS
5 3 (0.64%) Subversion
6 2 (0.43%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.21%) MLflow
7 1 (0.21%) Storybook
7 1 (0.21%) Zephyr
General
1 84 (17.95%) Manufacturing
2 56 (11.97%) Social Skills
3 25 (5.34%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (5.34%) Finance
4 21 (4.49%) Aerospace
5 15 (3.21%) Electronics
6 10 (2.14%) Pharmaceutical
7 7 (1.50%) Public Sector
8 5 (1.07%) Telecoms
9 4 (0.85%) Automotive
9 4 (0.85%) Digital Health
9 4 (0.85%) Health Technology
9 4 (0.85%) Law
10 3 (0.64%) Banking
10 3 (0.64%) Games
11 1 (0.21%) Aviation
11 1 (0.21%) Marketing
11 1 (0.21%) Military
11 1 (0.21%) Retail
11 1 (0.21%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 354 (75.64%) Software Engineer
2 100 (21.37%) Senior
3 87 (18.59%) Senior Software Engineer
4 65 (13.89%) C# Software Engineer
4 65 (13.89%) Embedded Engineer
5 63 (13.46%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 54 (11.54%) Python Engineer
7 53 (11.32%) Lead
8 52 (11.11%) Python Software Engineer
9 38 (8.12%) C++ Software Engineer
10 35 (7.48%) Full-Stack Engineer
10 35 (7.48%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
11 32 (6.84%) Lead Software Engineer
12 28 (5.98%) .NET Software Engineer
13 24 (5.13%) Principal Engineer
14 19 (4.06%) Principal Software Engineer
15 18 (3.85%) Senior Embedded Engineer
15 18 (3.85%) Senior Embedded Software Engineer
16 17 (3.63%) AWS Engineer
17 16 (3.42%) AWS Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 90 (19.23%) .NET
2 34 (7.26%) React
3 20 (4.27%) REST
4 18 (3.85%) Django
5 17 (3.63%) WPF
6 12 (2.56%) .NET Framework
6 12 (2.56%) Node.js
7 10 (2.14%) RESTful
8 9 (1.92%) Vue
9 8 (1.71%) ASP.NET
9 8 (1.71%) WebSockets
10 7 (1.50%) .NET Core
10 7 (1.50%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.50%) Blazor
10 7 (1.50%) JSON
10 7 (1.50%) pgvector
11 6 (1.28%) ASP.NET Web API
12 5 (1.07%) OAuth2
12 5 (1.07%) Spring Boot
12 5 (1.07%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.34%) Distributed Systems
2 24 (5.13%) Cloud Native
3 20 (4.27%) Product Ownership
4 17 (3.63%) Self-Motivation
5 14 (2.99%) Client/Server
6 13 (2.78%) AI Agents
7 12 (2.56%) Distributed Computing
7 12 (2.56%) Embedded Systems
8 11 (2.35%) Life Science
9 10 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.92%) IoT
10 9 (1.92%) Renewable Energy
11 6 (1.28%) Smart Energy
12 5 (1.07%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.07%) SCADA
12 5 (1.07%) Video Conferencing
12 5 (1.07%) Virtual Team
13 4 (0.85%) Algorithms
13 4 (0.85%) Driving Licence
13 4 (0.85%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 41 (8.76%) Linux
2 5 (1.07%) Windows
3 4 (0.85%) Debian
4 3 (0.64%) FreeRTOS
4 3 (0.64%) Gentoo
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (16.24%) Agile
2 68 (14.53%) Problem-Solving
3 67 (14.32%) Test Automation
4 63 (13.46%) AI
5 59 (12.61%) CI/CD
5 59 (12.61%) Full-Stack Development
6 55 (11.75%) Mentoring
7 47 (10.04%) DevOps
8 41 (8.76%) Computer Science
9 39 (8.33%) Containerisation
10 34 (7.26%) Continuous Improvement
11 32 (6.84%) Design Patterns
12 31 (6.62%) TDD
13 30 (6.41%) Machine Learning
14 29 (6.20%) Code Quality
15 25 (5.34%) Event-Driven
16 23 (4.91%) Microservices
16 23 (4.91%) Technical Leadership
17 21 (4.49%) Infrastructure as Code
18 20 (4.27%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 126 (26.92%) C#
2 103 (22.01%) Python
3 84 (17.95%) C++
4 40 (8.55%) C
5 36 (7.69%) TypeScript
6 29 (6.20%) JavaScript
7 24 (5.13%) Java
8 20 (4.27%) SQL
9 19 (4.06%) Rust
10 11 (2.35%) T-SQL
11 7 (1.50%) Bash
12 4 (0.85%) PowerShell
12 4 (0.85%) VB.NET
13 3 (0.64%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.64%) PHP
13 3 (0.64%) Ruby
14 2 (0.43%) Delphi
14 2 (0.43%) Embedded C
14 2 (0.43%) Pascal
15 1 (0.21%) Go
Qualifications
1 91 (19.44%) Degree
2 67 (14.32%) Computer Science Degree
3 21 (4.49%) Security Cleared
4 12 (2.56%) SC Cleared
5 10 (2.14%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.71%) PhD
7 5 (1.07%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.64%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (0.64%) Chartered Engineer
8 3 (0.64%) HNC
8 3 (0.64%) HND
9 2 (0.43%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.43%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.43%) NVQ Level 3
10 1 (0.21%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (8.12%) QA
2 6 (1.28%) MISRA
3 3 (0.64%) ECSS
3 3 (0.64%) GDPR
3 3 (0.64%) SOC 2
4 2 (0.43%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.21%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.21%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.21%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 39 (8.33%) Docker
2 24 (5.13%) Firmware
3 14 (2.99%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (2.78%) Hyper-V
5 11 (2.35%) KVM
6 6 (1.28%) Embedded Firmware
6 6 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.64%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 24 (5.13%) Kubernetes
2 15 (3.21%) Terraform
3 6 (1.28%) Ansible
4 4 (0.85%) Podman
5 3 (0.64%) Grafana
5 3 (0.64%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 25 (5.34%) Microsoft
2 14 (2.99%) VMware
3 5 (1.07%) New Relic
3 5 (1.07%) Salesforce
4 3 (0.64%) Allen-Bradley
4 3 (0.64%) Databricks
4 3 (0.64%) Google
4 3 (0.64%) Siemens
4 3 (0.64%) Wonderware
4 3 (0.64%) Xilinx
5 1 (0.21%) BiZZdesign
5 1 (0.21%) CA Agile Central
5 1 (0.21%) Sparx