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 2 April 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 49 17
Rank change year-on-year -1 -32 +46
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 2,169 1,281 5,446
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.78% 4.95% 8.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.09% 5.54% 9.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,678 887 2,863
10th Percentile £41,250 £40,300 £39,658
25th Percentile £51,250 £48,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £82,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.45% +20.83% -13.04%

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 53,023 23,117 60,174
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 89.31% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 33,975 14,425 44,809
10th Percentile £28,500 £29,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,640 £68,568 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £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 2 April 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 2 April 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 -5 543 £65,000 - 146
South East +5 527 £65,000 +8.33% 186
South West +23 424 £65,000 +8.33% 136
North West +8 297 £65,000 - 80
East of England -13 223 £70,000 +5.73% 90
Midlands +32 193 £65,000 +13.04% 79
Scotland -5 187 £65,000 +7.88% 59
Yorkshire +10 177 £62,500 -8.09% 45
West Midlands +22 100 £65,000 +10.64% 46
East Midlands +2 94 £60,000 +4.35% 33
North East -5 69 £67,500 +22.73% 21
Wales -11 54 £40,000 -39.62% 22
Northern Ireland -33 18 £90,000 - 5
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 April 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 2,148 (99.03%) Software Engineering
2 298 (13.74%) C++
3 268 (12.36%) C#
4 263 (12.13%) Agile
5 258 (11.89%) Java
6 247 (11.39%) AWS
7 246 (11.34%) Python
8 231 (10.65%) .NET
9 224 (10.33%) Full-Stack Development
10 200 (9.22%) Security Cleared
11 179 (8.25%) Azure
11 179 (8.25%) CI/CD
12 178 (8.21%) JavaScript
13 166 (7.65%) Degree
14 165 (7.61%) DevOps
15 158 (7.28%) React
16 155 (7.15%) C
17 150 (6.92%) SQL
18 148 (6.82%) TypeScript
19 127 (5.86%) Linux
20 121 (5.58%) Continuous Improvement
21 118 (5.44%) Problem-Solving
22 117 (5.39%) Microservices
23 112 (5.16%) Mentoring
24 108 (4.98%) SC Cleared
25 106 (4.89%) SaaS
26 99 (4.56%) Computer Science
26 99 (4.56%) Kubernetes
27 95 (4.38%) AI
28 89 (4.10%) Docker

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 (0.55%) Apache
2 8 (0.37%) IIS
3 7 (0.32%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.28%) CMS
5 5 (0.23%) Confluence
6 4 (0.18%) GeoServer
7 3 (0.14%) Apache Solr
8 2 (0.092%) NServiceBus
9 1 (0.046%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.046%) Kinematics
9 1 (0.046%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.046%) Umbraco
Applications
1 4 (0.18%) EngageOne
2 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
3 2 (0.092%) Adobe XD
3 2 (0.092%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.092%) EPLAN
3 2 (0.092%) Sketch
4 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.046%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.46%) Magento
2 2 (0.092%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.046%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 247 (11.39%) AWS
2 179 (8.25%) Azure
3 106 (4.89%) SaaS
4 51 (2.35%) GCP
5 45 (2.07%) Serverless
6 26 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
7 25 (1.15%) Azure DevOps
8 24 (1.11%) GitHub
9 21 (0.97%) Azure AKS
10 20 (0.92%) Amazon EKS
11 19 (0.88%) Amazon S3
12 9 (0.41%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (0.41%) OpenShift
13 8 (0.37%) Stripe
14 7 (0.32%) Figma
15 6 (0.28%) Amazon ECS
16 5 (0.23%) Amazon EC2
16 5 (0.23%) GitHub Actions
17 4 (0.18%) Anthropic Claude
17 4 (0.18%) Twilio
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.38%) Wireless
2 19 (0.88%) Ethernet
3 17 (0.78%) RS-232
4 9 (0.41%) Bluetooth
5 8 (0.37%) Modbus
5 8 (0.37%) Network Security
6 6 (0.28%) Broadband
6 6 (0.28%) HTTP
7 5 (0.23%) AMQP
7 5 (0.23%) LTE
7 5 (0.23%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.18%) DNS
8 4 (0.18%) SMTP
8 4 (0.18%) Software-Defined Radio
8 4 (0.18%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (0.14%) ATM
10 2 (0.092%) Profibus
10 2 (0.092%) RTP
10 2 (0.092%) SpaceWire
10 2 (0.092%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (2.44%) SQL Server
2 47 (2.17%) NoSQL
3 41 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
4 30 (1.38%) MongoDB
5 24 (1.11%) Elasticsearch
5 24 (1.11%) MySQL
6 16 (0.74%) Relational Database
7 13 (0.60%) DynamoDB
8 12 (0.55%) Neo4j
9 11 (0.51%) Big Data
10 8 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 7 (0.32%) Hadoop
11 7 (0.32%) Redis
12 6 (0.28%) Geospatial Data
13 5 (0.23%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.18%) DocumentDB
14 4 (0.18%) GIS
14 4 (0.18%) QGIS
15 3 (0.14%) Azure SQL Database
15 3 (0.14%) FileMaker
Development Applications
1 62 (2.86%) Git
2 16 (0.74%) GitLab
3 13 (0.60%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.60%) JIRA
4 11 (0.51%) Visual Studio
5 10 (0.46%) JUnit
6 9 (0.41%) Claude Code
7 7 (0.32%) Subversion
8 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.23%) Selenium
9 4 (0.18%) Cucumber
9 4 (0.18%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.18%) Postman
9 4 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
10 3 (0.14%) CANoe
10 3 (0.14%) Gradle
11 2 (0.092%) Android Studio
11 2 (0.092%) SpecFlow
11 2 (0.092%) Vagrant
General
1 112 (5.16%) Social Skills
2 87 (4.01%) Finance
3 81 (3.73%) Manufacturing
4 72 (3.32%) Electronics
5 47 (2.17%) Aerospace
6 43 (1.98%) Automotive
7 42 (1.94%) Public Sector
8 38 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
9 31 (1.43%) Analytical Skills
10 27 (1.24%) Games
11 18 (0.83%) Retail
12 15 (0.69%) Tech for Good
13 11 (0.51%) Health Technology
13 11 (0.51%) Military
14 8 (0.37%) Marketing
14 8 (0.37%) Telecoms
15 7 (0.32%) Aeronautics
15 7 (0.32%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.23%) Aviation
17 4 (0.18%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 231 (10.65%) .NET
2 158 (7.28%) React
3 85 (3.92%) Node.js
4 66 (3.04%) AngularJS
5 62 (2.86%) REST
6 53 (2.44%) RESTful
7 52 (2.40%) Vue
8 46 (2.12%) .NET Core
9 45 (2.07%) Spring
10 42 (1.94%) .NET Framework
10 42 (1.94%) HTML
11 38 (1.75%) Spring Boot
12 33 (1.52%) CSS
13 27 (1.24%) ASP.NET
14 25 (1.15%) Django
15 24 (1.11%) Qt
16 23 (1.06%) Entity Framework
17 22 (1.01%) Web Services
18 18 (0.83%) Next.js
19 15 (0.69%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 93 (4.29%) Cloud Native
2 59 (2.72%) Embedded Systems
3 41 (1.89%) IoT
4 37 (1.71%) Robotics
5 35 (1.61%) Distributed Systems
6 23 (1.06%) Algorithms
7 22 (1.01%) Product Ownership
8 20 (0.92%) Smart Energy
9 19 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (0.83%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (0.78%) Client/Server
11 17 (0.78%) Hedge funds
12 14 (0.65%) Industry 4.0
13 13 (0.60%) Device Driver
13 13 (0.60%) Mobile App
14 12 (0.55%) Driving Licence
15 11 (0.51%) CAN bus
16 10 (0.46%) Distributed Computing
16 10 (0.46%) e-Learning
17 8 (0.37%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 127 (5.86%) Linux
2 33 (1.52%) Embedded Linux
3 26 (1.20%) Android
3 26 (1.20%) Windows
4 9 (0.41%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.23%) Apple iOS
5 5 (0.23%) CentOS
5 5 (0.23%) Debian
5 5 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.23%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.092%) SafeRTOS
6 2 (0.092%) VxWorks
6 2 (0.092%) zOS
7 1 (0.046%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.046%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.046%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,148 (99.03%) Software Engineering
2 263 (12.13%) Agile
3 224 (10.33%) Full-Stack Development
4 179 (8.25%) CI/CD
5 165 (7.61%) DevOps
6 121 (5.58%) Continuous Improvement
7 118 (5.44%) Problem-Solving
8 117 (5.39%) Microservices
9 112 (5.16%) Mentoring
10 99 (4.56%) Computer Science
11 95 (4.38%) AI
12 89 (4.10%) Test Automation
13 88 (4.06%) SDLC
14 85 (3.92%) Scrum
15 82 (3.78%) Containerisation
16 76 (3.50%) TDD
17 55 (2.54%) Embedded Software Development
17 55 (2.54%) Software Testing
18 54 (2.49%) Technical Leadership
19 49 (2.26%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 298 (13.74%) C++
2 268 (12.36%) C#
3 258 (11.89%) Java
4 246 (11.34%) Python
5 178 (8.21%) JavaScript
6 155 (7.15%) C
7 150 (6.92%) SQL
8 148 (6.82%) TypeScript
9 51 (2.35%) PHP
10 47 (2.17%) Rust
11 42 (1.94%) Embedded C
12 26 (1.20%) Kotlin
13 20 (0.92%) Ruby
14 18 (0.83%) Embedded C++
15 17 (0.78%) Go
15 17 (0.78%) Scala
16 16 (0.74%) Ada
16 16 (0.74%) PL/SQL
17 13 (0.60%) COBOL
17 13 (0.60%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 200 (9.22%) Security Cleared
2 166 (7.65%) Degree
3 108 (4.98%) SC Cleared
4 81 (3.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 57 (2.63%) DV Cleared
6 22 (1.01%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.46%) PhD
8 9 (0.41%) DBS Check
9 7 (0.32%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (0.32%) Chartered Engineer
9 7 (0.32%) HND
10 6 (0.28%) HNC
11 2 (0.092%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.092%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (0.092%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (2.26%) QA
2 15 (0.69%) IEC 61508
3 14 (0.65%) MISRA
3 14 (0.65%) MISRA C
4 12 (0.55%) Accessibility
5 6 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 4 (0.18%) ECSS
6 4 (0.18%) GDPR
6 4 (0.18%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.046%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.046%) DO-254
7 1 (0.046%) HAZOP
7 1 (0.046%) IEC 61131
7 1 (0.046%) IEC 62304
7 1 (0.046%) ISO 26262
7 1 (0.046%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 89 (4.10%) Docker
2 84 (3.87%) Firmware
3 22 (1.01%) Embedded Firmware
4 13 (0.60%) Hyper-V
4 13 (0.60%) KVM
4 13 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.092%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.046%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 99 (4.56%) Kubernetes
2 55 (2.54%) Terraform
3 12 (0.55%) Functional Safety
4 7 (0.32%) Ansible
5 5 (0.23%) Grafana
5 5 (0.23%) Puppet
6 4 (0.18%) Kibana
7 2 (0.092%) logstash
7 2 (0.092%) Packer
7 2 (0.092%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.046%) Podman
8 1 (0.046%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 22 (1.01%) Oracle
2 16 (0.74%) Microsoft
3 14 (0.65%) Google
4 13 (0.60%) Adobe
4 13 (0.60%) VMware
5 12 (0.55%) Siemens
6 11 (0.51%) Xamarin
7 8 (0.37%) HubSpot
7 8 (0.37%) Sage
8 7 (0.32%) Rockwell
9 6 (0.28%) Salesforce
10 5 (0.23%) Atlassian
10 5 (0.23%) Red Hat
10 5 (0.23%) SaltStack
11 4 (0.18%) Allen-Bradley
11 4 (0.18%) Atmel
12 3 (0.14%) SAP
12 3 (0.14%) Typelevel
12 3 (0.14%) Wonderware
12 3 (0.14%) Zoho