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 11 February 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 35 28
Rank change year-on-year -23 -7 +25
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,542 1,839 3,437
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.29% 5.63% 6.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.61% 6.14% 7.30%
Number of salaries quoted 1,215 876 2,152
10th Percentile £41,520 £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 42,716 29,971 47,099
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.06% 91.70% 95.07%
Number of salaries quoted 26,461 14,704 36,626
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 11 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 11 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 -8 372 £65,000 +6.56% 166
South East -25 354 £65,000 +8.33% 191
South West -3 321 £65,000 +13.16% 126
North West +12 176 £66,250 +1.92% 111
East of England -18 169 £70,000 +5.65% 80
Scotland -14 146 £62,500 +13.64% 91
Yorkshire -6 142 £61,250 - 34
Midlands 0 135 £60,000 +14.29% 82
East Midlands -12 72 £60,000 +20.00% 40
West Midlands 0 66 £60,000 +11.63% 42
North East -7 54 £70,000 +27.27% 22
Wales -21 32 £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 11 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 1,533 (99.42%) Software Engineering
2 224 (14.53%) C#
3 206 (13.36%) C++
4 201 (13.04%) .NET
5 198 (12.84%) AWS
6 194 (12.58%) Java
7 186 (12.06%) Agile
8 179 (11.61%) Full-Stack Development
9 171 (11.09%) Python
10 165 (10.70%) Security Cleared
11 163 (10.57%) CI/CD
12 158 (10.25%) React
13 153 (9.92%) Azure
13 153 (9.92%) DevOps
14 141 (9.14%) JavaScript
15 130 (8.43%) Degree
16 127 (8.24%) TypeScript
17 125 (8.11%) SQL
18 106 (6.87%) C
19 103 (6.68%) Problem-Solving
20 101 (6.55%) Microservices
21 100 (6.49%) Linux
21 100 (6.49%) Mentoring
22 90 (5.84%) Kubernetes
23 86 (5.58%) Continuous Improvement
24 82 (5.32%) Computer Science
24 82 (5.32%) SC Cleared
25 75 (4.86%) AI
26 73 (4.73%) Docker
27 72 (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 (0.84%) Apache
2 12 (0.78%) 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 (0.065%) GeoServer
7 1 (0.065%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.065%) Kinematics
7 1 (0.065%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.13%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.13%) EngageOne
2 2 (0.13%) Sketch
3 1 (0.065%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.065%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.65%) Magento
2 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.065%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 198 (12.84%) AWS
2 153 (9.92%) Azure
3 72 (4.67%) SaaS
4 44 (2.85%) Serverless
5 39 (2.53%) Azure DevOps
6 34 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
6 34 (2.20%) GCP
7 26 (1.69%) Amazon S3
8 25 (1.62%) Amazon EKS
9 16 (1.04%) Azure AKS
9 16 (1.04%) GitHub
10 15 (0.97%) Amazon ECS
11 10 (0.65%) OpenShift
12 9 (0.58%) Stripe
13 8 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
14 7 (0.45%) Amazon EC2
15 5 (0.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 5 (0.32%) Amazon SQS
15 5 (0.32%) AWS Fargate
15 5 (0.32%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 25 (1.62%) Wireless
2 16 (1.04%) RS-232
3 14 (0.91%) Bluetooth
4 7 (0.45%) Modbus
5 6 (0.39%) Ethernet
5 6 (0.39%) HTTP
5 6 (0.39%) 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
9 2 (0.13%) 3G
9 2 (0.13%) Broadband
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 (3.24%) SQL Server
2 38 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
3 29 (1.88%) NoSQL
4 24 (1.56%) Elasticsearch
5 19 (1.23%) Relational Database
6 16 (1.04%) MySQL
7 15 (0.97%) DynamoDB
8 13 (0.84%) MongoDB
9 12 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 9 (0.58%) Neo4j
11 8 (0.52%) Big Data
11 8 (0.52%) Redis
12 7 (0.45%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.32%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
15 3 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
15 3 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
15 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
15 3 (0.19%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 54 (3.50%) Git
2 17 (1.10%) GitLab
2 17 (1.10%) Visual Studio
3 13 (0.84%) JIRA
4 12 (0.78%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.71%) 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
1 108 (7.00%) Social Skills
2 90 (5.84%) Finance
3 54 (3.50%) Electronics
4 47 (3.05%) Manufacturing
5 29 (1.88%) Aerospace
6 24 (1.56%) Automotive
7 23 (1.49%) Analytical Skills
7 23 (1.49%) Games
7 23 (1.49%) Pharmaceutical
8 21 (1.36%) Public Sector
9 15 (0.97%) Tech for Good
10 14 (0.91%) Retail
11 9 (0.58%) Financial Institution
11 9 (0.58%) Military
12 8 (0.52%) Law
12 8 (0.52%) Marketing
13 7 (0.45%) Aeronautics
14 6 (0.39%) Health Technology
15 4 (0.26%) Billing
15 4 (0.26%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 201 (13.04%) .NET
2 158 (10.25%) React
3 68 (4.41%) AngularJS
3 68 (4.41%) Node.js
4 51 (3.31%) Spring
5 47 (3.05%) Spring Boot
6 45 (2.92%) REST
6 45 (2.92%) RESTful
7 41 (2.66%) .NET Core
8 36 (2.33%) .NET Framework
9 35 (2.27%) Vue
10 32 (2.08%) HTML
11 31 (2.01%) CSS
12 28 (1.82%) ASP.NET
13 25 (1.62%) Qt
14 23 (1.49%) Entity Framework
15 20 (1.30%) Next.js
16 15 (0.97%) Web Services
16 15 (0.97%) WinForms
17 14 (0.91%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 72 (4.67%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.37%) Embedded Systems
3 30 (1.95%) IoT
4 26 (1.69%) Distributed Systems
5 25 (1.62%) Robotics
6 19 (1.23%) Algorithms
7 16 (1.04%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (0.91%) Hedge funds
8 14 (0.91%) Smart Energy
9 13 (0.84%) Product Ownership
10 12 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (0.71%) CAN bus
12 9 (0.58%) Driving Licence
12 9 (0.58%) e-Learning
13 8 (0.52%) Client/Server
13 8 (0.52%) Mobile App
13 8 (0.52%) Renewable Energy
14 7 (0.45%) Enterprise Software
15 6 (0.39%) AI Agents
15 6 (0.39%) Device Driver
Operating Systems
1 100 (6.49%) Linux
2 33 (2.14%) Windows
3 28 (1.82%) Embedded Linux
4 24 (1.56%) Android
5 6 (0.39%) 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 (0.065%) Fedora
10 1 (0.065%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,533 (99.42%) Software Engineering
2 186 (12.06%) Agile
3 179 (11.61%) Full-Stack Development
4 163 (10.57%) CI/CD
5 153 (9.92%) DevOps
6 103 (6.68%) Problem-Solving
7 101 (6.55%) Microservices
8 100 (6.49%) Mentoring
9 86 (5.58%) Continuous Improvement
10 82 (5.32%) Computer Science
11 75 (4.86%) AI
12 65 (4.22%) Scrum
13 61 (3.96%) SDLC
14 59 (3.83%) Containerisation
15 48 (3.11%) Test Automation
16 47 (3.05%) TDD
17 39 (2.53%) Collaborative Culture
17 39 (2.53%) Fintech
17 39 (2.53%) Machine Learning
18 38 (2.46%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 224 (14.53%) C#
2 206 (13.36%) C++
3 194 (12.58%) Java
4 171 (11.09%) Python
5 141 (9.14%) JavaScript
6 127 (8.24%) TypeScript
7 125 (8.11%) SQL
8 106 (6.87%) C
9 42 (2.72%) PHP
10 25 (1.62%) Kotlin
11 21 (1.36%) Embedded C
12 20 (1.30%) T-SQL
13 19 (1.23%) Rust
14 18 (1.17%) Embedded C++
15 17 (1.10%) Ruby
16 16 (1.04%) Ada
17 13 (0.84%) Bash
17 13 (0.84%) PL/SQL
18 12 (0.78%) Scala
19 10 (0.65%) Go
Qualifications
1 165 (10.70%) Security Cleared
2 130 (8.43%) Degree
3 82 (5.32%) SC Cleared
4 62 (4.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 44 (2.85%) DV Cleared
6 17 (1.10%) Master's Degree
7 9 (0.58%) PhD
8 8 (0.52%) 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
11 1 (0.065%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (1.88%) QA
2 13 (0.84%) MISRA
3 11 (0.71%) IEC 61508
3 11 (0.71%) MISRA C
4 6 (0.39%) 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 (0.065%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.065%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.065%) IEC 61131
8 1 (0.065%) ISO 9000
8 1 (0.065%) JTAG
System Software
1 73 (4.73%) Docker
2 63 (4.09%) Firmware
3 27 (1.75%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (0.32%) Hyper-V
4 5 (0.32%) KVM
4 5 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.065%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 90 (5.84%) Kubernetes
2 44 (2.85%) Terraform
3 11 (0.71%) Functional Safety
4 7 (0.45%) Kibana
5 6 (0.39%) Ansible
5 6 (0.39%) Grafana
6 5 (0.32%) Puppet
7 2 (0.13%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.065%) Istio
8 1 (0.065%) logstash
8 1 (0.065%) Packer
8 1 (0.065%) Podman
8 1 (0.065%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 20 (1.30%) Oracle
2 18 (1.17%) Microsoft
3 15 (0.97%) Xamarin
4 12 (0.78%) Adobe
4 12 (0.78%) Google
4 12 (0.78%) Sage
5 8 (0.52%) HubSpot
6 6 (0.39%) Red Hat
7 5 (0.32%) SaltStack
7 5 (0.32%) VMware
7 5 (0.32%) Zoho
8 4 (0.26%) Atlassian
8 4 (0.26%) Atmel
9 3 (0.19%) Databricks
9 3 (0.19%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.19%) Salesforce
9 3 (0.19%) SAP
10 2 (0.13%) Palantir
10 2 (0.13%) Siemens
11 1 (0.065%) Remedy