Software Engineer Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Software Engineer salary in the UK excluding London is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 12 February 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 35 28
Rank change year-on-year -22 -7 +24
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,563 1,842 3,434
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.31% 5.62% 6.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.63% 6.13% 7.31%
Number of salaries quoted 1,230 880 2,148
10th Percentile £41,925 £40,000 £39,750
25th Percentile £52,250 £47,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £93,778 £82,548
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year - +12.00% -7.41%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 43,082 30,072 46,962
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.12% 91.71% 95.07%
Number of salaries quoted 26,701 14,775 36,495
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 12 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 12 February 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
North of England -5 378 £65,000 +6.56% 156
South East -25 361 £65,000 +8.33% 188
South West -2 325 £65,000 +13.16% 133
North West +6 180 £65,000 - 103
East of England -23 171 £70,000 +5.65% 85
Scotland -12 148 £62,500 +13.64% 91
Yorkshire -12 142 £61,250 - 32
Midlands -13 136 £60,000 +11.63% 79
East Midlands -13 72 £60,000 +20.00% 39
West Midlands +2 67 £60,000 +9.09% 40
North East -7 56 £70,000 +27.27% 21
Wales -27 31 £60,000 -11.11% 19
Northern Ireland -30 13 £85,000 -5.56% 5
Software Engineer
UK

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 12 February 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 UK excluding London region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 1,554 (99.42%) Software Engineering
2 223 (14.27%) C#
3 209 (13.37%) C++
4 204 (13.05%) AWS
5 201 (12.86%) .NET
6 199 (12.73%) Java
7 189 (12.09%) Agile
8 180 (11.52%) Full-Stack Development
9 176 (11.26%) Python
10 167 (10.68%) Security Cleared
11 164 (10.49%) CI/CD
12 157 (10.04%) React
13 156 (9.98%) Azure
14 153 (9.79%) DevOps
15 141 (9.02%) JavaScript
16 132 (8.45%) Degree
17 129 (8.25%) SQL
18 127 (8.13%) TypeScript
19 108 (6.91%) C
20 107 (6.85%) Microservices
21 103 (6.59%) Mentoring
22 102 (6.53%) Problem-Solving
23 101 (6.46%) Linux
24 92 (5.89%) Kubernetes
25 87 (5.57%) Continuous Improvement
26 84 (5.37%) SC Cleared
27 83 (5.31%) Computer Science
28 77 (4.93%) AI
29 75 (4.80%) Docker
30 73 (4.67%) SaaS

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 13 (0.83%) Apache
2 12 (0.77%) IIS
3 7 (0.45%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.32%) CMS
4 5 (0.32%) Confluence
5 3 (0.19%) Apache Solr
6 2 (0.13%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.064%) GeoServer
7 1 (0.064%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.064%) Kinematics
7 1 (0.064%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) EngageOne
1 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.13%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.13%) Sketch
3 1 (0.064%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.064%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) Magento
2 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.064%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 204 (13.05%) AWS
2 156 (9.98%) Azure
3 73 (4.67%) SaaS
4 44 (2.82%) Serverless
5 37 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (2.30%) GCP
7 34 (2.18%) AWS Lambda
8 26 (1.66%) Amazon S3
9 25 (1.60%) Amazon EKS
10 17 (1.09%) Azure AKS
11 15 (0.96%) Amazon ECS
11 15 (0.96%) GitHub
12 10 (0.64%) OpenShift
13 9 (0.58%) Stripe
14 8 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
15 7 (0.45%) Amazon EC2
16 5 (0.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 5 (0.32%) Amazon SQS
16 5 (0.32%) AWS Fargate
17 4 (0.26%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 26 (1.66%) Wireless
2 16 (1.02%) RS-232
3 14 (0.90%) Bluetooth
4 7 (0.45%) Modbus
5 6 (0.38%) Ethernet
5 6 (0.38%) HTTP
5 6 (0.38%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.32%) AMQP
6 5 (0.32%) DNS
6 5 (0.32%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.26%) LTE
7 4 (0.26%) SMTP
7 4 (0.26%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.19%) ATM
8 3 (0.19%) Broadband
9 2 (0.13%) 3G
9 2 (0.13%) GPRS
9 2 (0.13%) GSM
9 2 (0.13%) RTP
9 2 (0.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (3.20%) SQL Server
2 41 (2.62%) PostgreSQL
3 33 (2.11%) NoSQL
4 24 (1.54%) Elasticsearch
5 19 (1.22%) MySQL
5 19 (1.22%) Relational Database
6 16 (1.02%) MongoDB
7 15 (0.96%) DynamoDB
8 12 (0.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 9 (0.58%) Neo4j
10 8 (0.51%) Big Data
10 8 (0.51%) Redis
11 7 (0.45%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.32%) Cloudera CDH
13 4 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
14 3 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
14 3 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
14 3 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
14 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.19%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 53 (3.39%) Git
2 17 (1.09%) GitLab
2 17 (1.09%) Visual Studio
3 13 (0.83%) JIRA
4 12 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.70%) JUnit
6 7 (0.45%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.32%) Selenium
7 5 (0.32%) Subversion
8 4 (0.26%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.26%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.26%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
9 3 (0.19%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.19%) Gradle
10 2 (0.13%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.13%) Maven
10 2 (0.13%) PROIV
10 2 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 107 (6.85%) Social Skills
2 90 (5.76%) Finance
3 55 (3.52%) Electronics
4 46 (2.94%) Manufacturing
5 29 (1.86%) Aerospace
6 24 (1.54%) Automotive
6 24 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
6 24 (1.54%) Public Sector
7 23 (1.47%) Analytical Skills
7 23 (1.47%) Games
8 15 (0.96%) Tech for Good
9 14 (0.90%) Retail
10 9 (0.58%) Financial Institution
10 9 (0.58%) Military
11 8 (0.51%) Law
11 8 (0.51%) Marketing
12 7 (0.45%) Aeronautics
12 7 (0.45%) Health Technology
13 5 (0.32%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.26%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 201 (12.86%) .NET
2 157 (10.04%) React
3 68 (4.35%) Node.js
4 67 (4.29%) AngularJS
5 51 (3.26%) Spring
6 49 (3.13%) RESTful
7 47 (3.01%) Spring Boot
8 45 (2.88%) REST
9 41 (2.62%) .NET Core
10 37 (2.37%) .NET Framework
11 34 (2.18%) Vue
12 32 (2.05%) HTML
13 31 (1.98%) CSS
14 28 (1.79%) ASP.NET
15 25 (1.60%) Qt
16 23 (1.47%) Entity Framework
17 20 (1.28%) Next.js
18 15 (0.96%) Web Services
18 15 (0.96%) WinForms
19 14 (0.90%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 76 (4.86%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.33%) Embedded Systems
3 30 (1.92%) IoT
4 28 (1.79%) Distributed Systems
5 26 (1.66%) Robotics
6 20 (1.28%) Algorithms
7 16 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (0.90%) Hedge funds
8 14 (0.90%) Smart Energy
9 12 (0.77%) Product Ownership
9 12 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
10 11 (0.70%) CAN bus
11 9 (0.58%) Client/Server
11 9 (0.58%) Driving Licence
11 9 (0.58%) e-Learning
12 8 (0.51%) Mobile App
12 8 (0.51%) Renewable Energy
13 7 (0.45%) Enterprise Software
14 6 (0.38%) AI Agents
14 6 (0.38%) Device Driver
Operating Systems
1 101 (6.46%) Linux
2 33 (2.11%) Windows
3 28 (1.79%) Embedded Linux
4 24 (1.54%) Android
5 6 (0.38%) Unix
6 5 (0.32%) CentOS
6 5 (0.32%) Debian
6 5 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.32%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.26%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.13%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.13%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.064%) Fedora
10 1 (0.064%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,554 (99.42%) Software Engineering
2 189 (12.09%) Agile
3 180 (11.52%) Full-Stack Development
4 164 (10.49%) CI/CD
5 153 (9.79%) DevOps
6 107 (6.85%) Microservices
7 103 (6.59%) Mentoring
8 102 (6.53%) Problem-Solving
9 87 (5.57%) Continuous Improvement
10 83 (5.31%) Computer Science
11 77 (4.93%) AI
12 65 (4.16%) Scrum
13 63 (4.03%) SDLC
14 61 (3.90%) Containerisation
15 51 (3.26%) Test Automation
16 50 (3.20%) TDD
17 41 (2.62%) Machine Learning
18 40 (2.56%) Collaborative Culture
18 40 (2.56%) Fintech
19 38 (2.43%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 223 (14.27%) C#
2 209 (13.37%) C++
3 199 (12.73%) Java
4 176 (11.26%) Python
5 141 (9.02%) JavaScript
6 129 (8.25%) SQL
7 127 (8.13%) TypeScript
8 108 (6.91%) C
9 44 (2.82%) PHP
10 25 (1.60%) Kotlin
11 22 (1.41%) Embedded C
12 20 (1.28%) Rust
12 20 (1.28%) T-SQL
13 18 (1.15%) Embedded C++
14 17 (1.09%) Ruby
15 16 (1.02%) Ada
16 13 (0.83%) Bash
16 13 (0.83%) PL/SQL
16 13 (0.83%) Scala
17 11 (0.70%) Go
Qualifications
1 167 (10.68%) Security Cleared
2 132 (8.45%) Degree
3 84 (5.37%) SC Cleared
4 64 (4.09%) Computer Science Degree
5 45 (2.88%) DV Cleared
6 18 (1.15%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.64%) PhD
8 8 (0.51%) DBS Check
9 7 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (0.45%) Chartered Engineer
10 2 (0.13%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.13%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (1.86%) QA
2 13 (0.83%) MISRA
3 11 (0.70%) IEC 61508
3 11 (0.70%) MISRA C
4 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 4 (0.26%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.26%) ECSS
5 4 (0.26%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.19%) GDPR
6 3 (0.19%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.13%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.064%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.064%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.064%) IEC 61131
8 1 (0.064%) ISO 9000
8 1 (0.064%) JTAG
System Software
1 75 (4.80%) Docker
2 63 (4.03%) Firmware
3 27 (1.73%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.38%) Hyper-V
4 6 (0.38%) KVM
4 6 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.064%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 92 (5.89%) Kubernetes
2 44 (2.82%) Terraform
3 11 (0.70%) Functional Safety
4 7 (0.45%) Kibana
5 6 (0.38%) Ansible
5 6 (0.38%) Grafana
6 5 (0.32%) Puppet
7 2 (0.13%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.064%) Istio
8 1 (0.064%) logstash
8 1 (0.064%) Packer
8 1 (0.064%) Podman
8 1 (0.064%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 20 (1.28%) Oracle
2 17 (1.09%) Microsoft
3 15 (0.96%) Xamarin
4 12 (0.77%) Adobe
4 12 (0.77%) Google
4 12 (0.77%) Sage
5 8 (0.51%) HubSpot
6 6 (0.38%) Red Hat
6 6 (0.38%) VMware
7 5 (0.32%) SaltStack
7 5 (0.32%) Zoho
8 4 (0.26%) Atlassian
8 4 (0.26%) Atmel
9 3 (0.19%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.19%) Salesforce
9 3 (0.19%) SAP
10 2 (0.13%) Databricks
10 2 (0.13%) Palantir
10 2 (0.13%) Siemens
11 1 (0.064%) Remedy