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 27 December 2025.

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

6 months to
27 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 76 33 35
Rank change year-on-year -43 +2 +11
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,154 2,140 1,960
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.70% 5.68% 6.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.99% 6.09% 6.61%
Number of salaries quoted 887 1,045 1,190
10th Percentile £40,015 £40,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £52,250 £47,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £73,750
90th Percentile £87,500 £85,000 £83,750
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -3.70%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 38,560 35,159 29,652
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.35% 93.37% 95.30%
Number of salaries quoted 23,516 17,556 22,392
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £66,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 27 December 2025.

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 27 December 2025. 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
South East -38 284 £65,000 +8.33% 521
North of England -27 259 £65,000 +7.00% 512
South West -11 249 £65,000 +18.18% 291
East of England -31 123 £70,000 +3.70% 306
Yorkshire -14 115 £58,750 -4.08% 159
North West -27 113 £67,500 +12.50% 288
Midlands -27 108 £61,250 +11.36% 305
Scotland -28 105 £60,000 - 132
West Midlands -16 63 £60,000 - 146
East Midlands -35 48 £65,000 +30.00% 144
North East -20 31 £70,000 +14.75% 66
Wales -39 17 £60,000 -20.00% 54
Northern Ireland -27 10 £85,000 +13.33% 23
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 27 December 2025, 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 1,153 (99.91%) Software Engineering
2 187 (16.20%) Agile
3 185 (16.03%) C++
4 180 (15.60%) C#
5 156 (13.52%) .NET
6 154 (13.34%) Java
7 148 (12.82%) AWS
8 144 (12.48%) CI/CD
9 141 (12.22%) Security Cleared
10 139 (12.05%) React
11 134 (11.61%) DevOps
12 128 (11.09%) Full-Stack Development
13 127 (11.01%) Azure
13 127 (11.01%) Python
14 117 (10.14%) Degree
15 116 (10.05%) JavaScript
16 113 (9.79%) Mentoring
17 101 (8.75%) TypeScript
18 99 (8.58%) C
19 98 (8.49%) Linux
19 98 (8.49%) SQL
20 95 (8.23%) Microservices
21 84 (7.28%) Problem-Solving
22 75 (6.50%) Kubernetes
22 75 (6.50%) SC Cleared
23 72 (6.24%) AI
24 70 (6.07%) Computer Science
25 64 (5.55%) Docker
26 60 (5.20%) Firmware
27 57 (4.94%) AngularJS

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 12 (1.04%) IIS
2 11 (0.95%) Apache
3 6 (0.52%) Confluence
4 5 (0.43%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Solr
5 3 (0.26%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) ArchestrA
6 2 (0.17%) FactoryTalk
6 2 (0.17%) NServiceBus
6 2 (0.17%) WinCC
7 1 (0.087%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.087%) Kinematics
Applications
1 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.17%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.17%) Sketch
3 1 (0.087%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.087%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.087%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 5 (0.43%) Magento
2 1 (0.087%) Q-Pulse
2 1 (0.087%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 148 (12.82%) AWS
2 127 (11.01%) Azure
3 37 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
3 37 (3.21%) SaaS
4 36 (3.12%) Serverless
5 29 (2.51%) AWS Lambda
6 24 (2.08%) GitHub
7 22 (1.91%) Amazon S3
7 22 (1.91%) GCP
8 18 (1.56%) Amazon EKS
9 14 (1.21%) Amazon ECS
10 11 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (0.69%) OpenShift
12 7 (0.61%) Amazon EC2
12 7 (0.61%) Azure AKS
13 6 (0.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (0.52%) Stripe
14 5 (0.43%) Amazon EventBridge
14 5 (0.43%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 36 (3.12%) Wireless
2 18 (1.56%) RS-232
3 17 (1.47%) Software-Defined Radio
4 16 (1.39%) Bluetooth
5 6 (0.52%) HTTP
5 6 (0.52%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.43%) DNS
6 5 (0.43%) Modbus
7 4 (0.35%) AMQP
7 4 (0.35%) SMTP
8 3 (0.26%) ATM
8 3 (0.26%) Ethernet
9 2 (0.17%) 3G
9 2 (0.17%) Firewall
9 2 (0.17%) GPRS
9 2 (0.17%) GSM
9 2 (0.17%) Profibus
9 2 (0.17%) RS-485
9 2 (0.17%) SSL
9 2 (0.17%) UWB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
2 31 (2.69%) SQL Server
3 22 (1.91%) NoSQL
4 20 (1.73%) Elasticsearch
5 18 (1.56%) Relational Database
6 16 (1.39%) MongoDB
6 16 (1.39%) MySQL
7 14 (1.21%) DynamoDB
8 12 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 8 (0.69%) Redis
10 7 (0.61%) Neo4j
11 5 (0.43%) Big Data
11 5 (0.43%) Hadoop
12 4 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.35%) Apache Cassandra
12 4 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
12 4 (0.35%) GIS
13 3 (0.26%) Cloudera CDH
13 3 (0.26%) MariaDB
13 3 (0.26%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 51 (4.42%) Git
2 16 (1.39%) GitLab
3 15 (1.30%) JIRA
3 15 (1.30%) Visual Studio
4 12 (1.04%) JUnit
5 10 (0.87%) Jenkins
6 8 (0.69%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.43%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.43%) Selenium
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.17%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.17%) Maven
9 2 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.17%) TestRail
10 1 (0.087%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.087%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.087%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (0.087%) Postman
10 1 (0.087%) Rational Statemate
10 1 (0.087%) REST Assured
General
1 97 (8.41%) Social Skills
2 78 (6.76%) Finance
3 47 (4.07%) Manufacturing
4 43 (3.73%) Electronics
5 22 (1.91%) Aerospace
6 20 (1.73%) Public Sector
7 18 (1.56%) Analytical Skills
7 18 (1.56%) Games
8 17 (1.47%) Automotive
8 17 (1.47%) Pharmaceutical
9 15 (1.30%) Retail
10 12 (1.04%) Tech for Good
11 10 (0.87%) Financial Institution
12 8 (0.69%) Law
13 7 (0.61%) Aeronautics
13 7 (0.61%) Marketing
13 7 (0.61%) Military
14 6 (0.52%) Legal
14 6 (0.52%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.43%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 156 (13.52%) .NET
2 139 (12.05%) React
3 57 (4.94%) AngularJS
4 47 (4.07%) Node.js
5 40 (3.47%) RESTful
6 39 (3.38%) Spring
7 37 (3.21%) Spring Boot
8 33 (2.86%) .NET Core
9 30 (2.60%) HTML
10 29 (2.51%) CSS
11 28 (2.43%) .NET Framework
12 27 (2.34%) ASP.NET
12 27 (2.34%) Vue
13 25 (2.17%) REST
14 19 (1.65%) Entity Framework
15 18 (1.56%) Qt
16 17 (1.47%) Next.js
17 16 (1.39%) WinForms
18 14 (1.21%) Blazor
19 13 (1.13%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 66 (5.72%) Cloud Native
2 61 (5.29%) Embedded Systems
3 27 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
4 22 (1.91%) IoT
5 20 (1.73%) Robotics
6 19 (1.65%) e-Learning
7 15 (1.30%) Algorithms
7 15 (1.30%) RISC-V
8 14 (1.21%) Product Ownership
9 13 (1.13%) MicroBlaze
10 12 (1.04%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 11 (0.95%) Driving Licence
12 10 (0.87%) Legacy Systems
12 10 (0.87%) Smart Energy
13 9 (0.78%) Mobile App
13 9 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
14 8 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
14 8 (0.69%) Hedge funds
15 7 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
15 7 (0.61%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 98 (8.49%) Linux
2 33 (2.86%) Embedded Linux
3 32 (2.77%) Windows
4 12 (1.04%) Android
5 6 (0.52%) Unix
6 3 (0.26%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.26%) CentOS
6 3 (0.26%) Debian
6 3 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.17%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.17%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.087%) Fedora
8 1 (0.087%) Robot Operating System
8 1 (0.087%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,153 (99.91%) Software Engineering
2 187 (16.20%) Agile
3 144 (12.48%) CI/CD
4 134 (11.61%) DevOps
5 128 (11.09%) Full-Stack Development
6 113 (9.79%) Mentoring
7 95 (8.23%) Microservices
8 84 (7.28%) Problem-Solving
9 72 (6.24%) AI
10 70 (6.07%) Computer Science
11 48 (4.16%) Containerisation
11 48 (4.16%) Continuous Improvement
12 46 (3.99%) Coaching
13 44 (3.81%) Scrum
14 41 (3.55%) SDLC
15 40 (3.47%) Machine Learning
16 35 (3.03%) Fintech
16 35 (3.03%) Test Automation
17 34 (2.95%) Technical Leadership
18 33 (2.86%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 185 (16.03%) C++
2 180 (15.60%) C#
3 154 (13.34%) Java
4 127 (11.01%) Python
5 116 (10.05%) JavaScript
6 101 (8.75%) TypeScript
7 99 (8.58%) C
8 98 (8.49%) SQL
9 32 (2.77%) PHP
10 24 (2.08%) Ada
11 20 (1.73%) Embedded C++
12 19 (1.65%) Kotlin
13 18 (1.56%) Ruby
13 18 (1.56%) T-SQL
14 14 (1.21%) Ada 95
15 13 (1.13%) Embedded C
15 13 (1.13%) PL/SQL
16 12 (1.04%) Rust
17 11 (0.95%) Scala
18 9 (0.78%) Bash
Qualifications
1 141 (12.22%) Security Cleared
2 117 (10.14%) Degree
3 75 (6.50%) SC Cleared
4 48 (4.16%) Computer Science Degree
4 48 (4.16%) DV Cleared
5 16 (1.39%) Master's Degree
6 15 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (1.30%) Chartered Engineer
7 11 (0.95%) PhD
8 4 (0.35%) DBS Check
9 2 (0.17%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.17%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.17%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.087%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (1.65%) QA
2 14 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 9 (0.78%) MISRA
4 8 (0.69%) IEC 61508
5 7 (0.61%) MISRA C
6 4 (0.35%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.26%) ECSS
7 3 (0.26%) GDPR
7 3 (0.26%) IEC 61131
7 3 (0.26%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.17%) ISO 9000
8 2 (0.17%) ISO 9001
8 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.17%) JTAG
8 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.087%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.087%) Data Quality
System Software
1 64 (5.55%) Docker
2 60 (5.20%) Firmware
3 36 (3.12%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.17%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.087%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 75 (6.50%) Kubernetes
2 30 (2.60%) Terraform
3 8 (0.69%) Kibana
4 7 (0.61%) Grafana
5 6 (0.52%) Functional Safety
6 3 (0.26%) Ansible
6 3 (0.26%) Puppet
7 2 (0.17%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.087%) Istio
Vendors
1 20 (1.73%) Microsoft
2 16 (1.39%) Oracle
3 14 (1.21%) Xamarin
4 12 (1.04%) Sage
5 10 (0.87%) Google
6 8 (0.69%) Atlassian
6 8 (0.69%) Guidewire
7 7 (0.61%) Adobe
8 5 (0.43%) HubSpot
8 5 (0.43%) Zoho
9 4 (0.35%) Red Hat
10 3 (0.26%) Databricks
10 3 (0.26%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.26%) Rockwell
10 3 (0.26%) SaltStack
10 3 (0.26%) SAP
10 3 (0.26%) Siemens
11 2 (0.17%) Palantir
11 2 (0.17%) Roku
11 2 (0.17%) VMware