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 25 April 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 58 17
Rank change year-on-year +16 -41 +49
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 2,600 1,123 5,841
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.04% 4.18% 8.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.35% 4.73% 9.12%
Number of salaries quoted 2,030 888 3,068
10th Percentile £45,000 £41,250 £38,750
25th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +18.18% -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,063 £77,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £80,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.45% +20.83% -13.60%

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 59,834 23,734 64,068
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.08% 88.24% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 38,126 14,698 46,931
10th Percentile £29,500 £28,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%

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 25 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 25 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
South East +42 657 £65,000 - 217
North of England +19 631 £65,000 - 130
South West +21 509 £65,000 +8.33% 104
North West +28 368 £67,500 - 76
East of England +4 272 £70,000 +5.73% 89
Midlands +42 244 £65,000 +8.33% 67
Scotland +3 212 £65,000 +4.00% 36
Yorkshire +4 188 £62,500 -7.41% 34
West Midlands +36 132 £65,000 +8.33% 38
East Midlands +6 112 £60,000 +11.63% 29
North East -17 75 £70,000 +27.27% 20
Wales -6 57 £40,000 -39.62% 15
Northern Ireland -26 19 £90,000 - 10
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 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 2,573 (98.96%) Software Engineering
2 377 (14.50%) C++
3 326 (12.54%) C#
4 313 (12.04%) Python
5 298 (11.46%) Agile
6 272 (10.46%) Full-Stack Development
7 266 (10.23%) AWS
8 260 (10.00%) Java
9 251 (9.65%) .NET
10 244 (9.38%) Security Cleared
11 202 (7.77%) CI/CD
12 188 (7.23%) C
13 187 (7.19%) Degree
14 186 (7.15%) DevOps
14 186 (7.15%) JavaScript
15 173 (6.65%) Azure
16 170 (6.54%) TypeScript
17 163 (6.27%) React
18 148 (5.69%) SQL
19 147 (5.65%) Linux
20 137 (5.27%) Continuous Improvement
20 137 (5.27%) SC Cleared
21 126 (4.85%) Problem-Solving
22 125 (4.81%) SaaS
23 122 (4.69%) Microservices
24 121 (4.65%) AI
25 116 (4.46%) Firmware
26 115 (4.42%) Mentoring
27 109 (4.19%) Computer Science
28 107 (4.12%) Test Automation

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 (0.50%) Apache
2 7 (0.27%) Apache Spark
3 6 (0.23%) CMS
4 5 (0.19%) Confluence
5 4 (0.15%) Apache Solr
5 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
5 4 (0.15%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.077%) WordPress
7 1 (0.038%) ArchestrA
7 1 (0.038%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.038%) IIS
7 1 (0.038%) Kinematics
7 1 (0.038%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.038%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.038%) WinCC
Applications
1 4 (0.15%) EngageOne
2 3 (0.12%) CANalyzer
3 2 (0.077%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.077%) EPLAN
3 2 (0.077%) Simulink
4 1 (0.038%) Adobe XD
4 1 (0.038%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.038%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.038%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 10 (0.38%) Magento
2 2 (0.077%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.038%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 266 (10.23%) AWS
2 173 (6.65%) Azure
3 125 (4.81%) SaaS
4 50 (1.92%) Serverless
5 48 (1.85%) GCP
6 25 (0.96%) GitHub
7 23 (0.88%) AWS Lambda
8 21 (0.81%) Azure AKS
9 17 (0.65%) Amazon EKS
9 17 (0.65%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (0.62%) Amazon S3
11 9 (0.35%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (0.31%) OpenShift
12 8 (0.31%) Stripe
13 7 (0.27%) Anthropic Claude
14 6 (0.23%) Figma
14 6 (0.23%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (0.19%) Amazon ECS
15 5 (0.19%) Azure Functions
16 4 (0.15%) Amazon OpenSearch
Communications & Networking
1 38 (1.46%) Wireless
2 28 (1.08%) Ethernet
3 21 (0.81%) RS-232
4 14 (0.54%) Bluetooth
5 13 (0.50%) Modbus
6 8 (0.31%) Network Security
7 7 (0.27%) Broadband
8 6 (0.23%) HTTP
8 6 (0.23%) Profibus
9 5 (0.19%) AMQP
9 5 (0.19%) LTE
9 5 (0.19%) TCP/IP
9 5 (0.19%) ZigBee
10 4 (0.15%) DNS
10 4 (0.15%) RS-485
10 4 (0.15%) SMTP
10 4 (0.15%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (0.12%) ATM
11 3 (0.12%) Software-Defined Radio
12 2 (0.077%) RTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (2.04%) SQL Server
2 50 (1.92%) NoSQL
3 39 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
4 30 (1.15%) MongoDB
5 26 (1.00%) Elasticsearch
6 22 (0.85%) MySQL
7 13 (0.50%) Neo4j
8 12 (0.46%) Big Data
8 12 (0.46%) Relational Database
9 11 (0.42%) DynamoDB
10 7 (0.27%) Hadoop
10 7 (0.27%) Redis
11 6 (0.23%) Geospatial Data
12 5 (0.19%) Cloudera CDH
12 5 (0.19%) DocumentDB
12 5 (0.19%) FileMaker
13 4 (0.15%) GIS
13 4 (0.15%) QGIS
14 3 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
14 3 (0.12%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 88 (3.38%) Git
2 28 (1.08%) GitLab
3 19 (0.73%) Visual Studio Code
4 16 (0.62%) Jenkins
5 12 (0.46%) Claude Code
5 12 (0.46%) JIRA
6 11 (0.42%) JUnit
7 9 (0.35%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.27%) Subversion
9 6 (0.23%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.19%) Bitbucket
10 5 (0.19%) Eclipse
10 5 (0.19%) Gradle
10 5 (0.19%) Selenium
10 5 (0.19%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.15%) Cypress.io
11 4 (0.15%) Postman
12 3 (0.12%) CANoe
12 3 (0.12%) Maven
13 2 (0.077%) LabVIEW
General
1 117 (4.50%) Social Skills
2 111 (4.27%) Manufacturing
3 95 (3.65%) Electronics
4 71 (2.73%) Finance
5 60 (2.31%) Aerospace
5 60 (2.31%) Automotive
6 42 (1.62%) Public Sector
7 41 (1.58%) Pharmaceutical
8 35 (1.35%) Analytical Skills
9 21 (0.81%) Games
10 20 (0.77%) Retail
11 14 (0.54%) Tech for Good
12 13 (0.50%) Aviation
13 11 (0.42%) Military
14 10 (0.38%) Health Technology
15 8 (0.31%) Telecoms
16 7 (0.27%) Aeronautics
16 7 (0.27%) Financial Institution
16 7 (0.27%) Marketing
17 5 (0.19%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 251 (9.65%) .NET
2 163 (6.27%) React
3 87 (3.35%) Node.js
4 74 (2.85%) AngularJS
5 66 (2.54%) REST
6 64 (2.46%) Vue
7 50 (1.92%) RESTful
8 47 (1.81%) Spring
9 46 (1.77%) .NET Core
10 42 (1.62%) HTML
11 39 (1.50%) Spring Boot
12 34 (1.31%) .NET Framework
12 34 (1.31%) CSS
13 27 (1.04%) Web Services
14 24 (0.92%) Django
15 21 (0.81%) Qt
16 20 (0.77%) ASP.NET
17 19 (0.73%) WPF
18 15 (0.58%) Entity Framework
18 15 (0.58%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 110 (4.23%) Cloud Native
2 77 (2.96%) Embedded Systems
3 54 (2.08%) Algorithms
4 48 (1.85%) IoT
5 43 (1.65%) Product Ownership
6 41 (1.58%) Robotics
7 36 (1.38%) Distributed Systems
8 20 (0.77%) Smart Energy
9 19 (0.73%) Device Driver
9 19 (0.73%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (0.69%) Hedge funds
11 17 (0.65%) Client/Server
11 17 (0.65%) Self-Motivation
12 15 (0.58%) CAN bus
12 15 (0.58%) Distributed Computing
12 15 (0.58%) e-Learning
13 14 (0.54%) Industry 4.0
13 14 (0.54%) Mobile App
14 12 (0.46%) Driving Licence
15 10 (0.38%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 147 (5.65%) Linux
2 38 (1.46%) Embedded Linux
3 33 (1.27%) Android
4 23 (0.88%) Windows
5 19 (0.73%) FreeRTOS
6 5 (0.19%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.19%) CentOS
6 5 (0.19%) Debian
6 5 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.19%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.12%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.077%) SafeRTOS
8 2 (0.077%) VxWorks
8 2 (0.077%) zOS
9 1 (0.038%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.038%) ThreadX
9 1 (0.038%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,573 (98.96%) Software Engineering
2 298 (11.46%) Agile
3 272 (10.46%) Full-Stack Development
4 202 (7.77%) CI/CD
5 186 (7.15%) DevOps
6 137 (5.27%) Continuous Improvement
7 126 (4.85%) Problem-Solving
8 122 (4.69%) Microservices
9 121 (4.65%) AI
10 115 (4.42%) Mentoring
11 109 (4.19%) Computer Science
12 107 (4.12%) Test Automation
13 105 (4.04%) SDLC
14 104 (4.00%) Scrum
15 87 (3.35%) Containerisation
16 79 (3.04%) TDD
17 71 (2.73%) Software Testing
18 70 (2.69%) Embedded Software Development
19 59 (2.27%) Technical Leadership
20 56 (2.15%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 377 (14.50%) C++
2 326 (12.54%) C#
3 313 (12.04%) Python
4 260 (10.00%) Java
5 188 (7.23%) C
6 186 (7.15%) JavaScript
7 170 (6.54%) TypeScript
8 148 (5.69%) SQL
9 59 (2.27%) Rust
10 51 (1.96%) Embedded C
11 49 (1.88%) PHP
12 23 (0.88%) Go
13 22 (0.85%) Kotlin
14 19 (0.73%) Embedded C++
15 17 (0.65%) COBOL
16 15 (0.58%) Ada
17 13 (0.50%) PL/SQL
18 11 (0.42%) Bash
19 10 (0.38%) Ruby
20 8 (0.31%) Scala
Qualifications
1 244 (9.38%) Security Cleared
2 187 (7.19%) Degree
3 137 (5.27%) SC Cleared
4 87 (3.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 77 (2.96%) DV Cleared
6 31 (1.19%) Master's Degree
7 14 (0.54%) DBS Check
7 14 (0.54%) PhD
8 7 (0.27%) Chartered Engineer
8 7 (0.27%) HND
9 6 (0.23%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.23%) HNC
10 3 (0.12%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.12%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.077%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (0.077%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.038%) CEH
12 1 (0.038%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 1 (0.038%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (2.15%) QA
2 17 (0.65%) IEC 61508
3 16 (0.62%) MISRA
3 16 (0.62%) MISRA C
4 13 (0.50%) Accessibility
5 6 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 4 (0.15%) ECSS
6 4 (0.15%) GDPR
6 4 (0.15%) IEC 61131
6 4 (0.15%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.038%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.038%) DO-254
7 1 (0.038%) HAZOP
7 1 (0.038%) IEC 62304
7 1 (0.038%) ISO 26262
7 1 (0.038%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 116 (4.46%) Firmware
2 100 (3.85%) Docker
3 37 (1.42%) Embedded Firmware
4 13 (0.50%) Hyper-V
4 13 (0.50%) KVM
4 13 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.077%) QEMU
6 2 (0.077%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 99 (3.81%) Kubernetes
2 57 (2.19%) Terraform
3 13 (0.50%) Functional Safety
4 12 (0.46%) Ansible
5 6 (0.23%) Grafana
6 5 (0.19%) Kibana
6 5 (0.19%) Puppet
7 4 (0.15%) logstash
8 3 (0.12%) SCCM
8 3 (0.12%) SCOM
8 3 (0.12%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.077%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.077%) Packer
9 2 (0.077%) Podman
9 2 (0.077%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.038%) Plesk
Vendors
1 21 (0.81%) Oracle
2 20 (0.77%) Microsoft
3 18 (0.69%) Siemens
4 15 (0.58%) Google
4 15 (0.58%) VMware
5 14 (0.54%) Rockwell
6 13 (0.50%) Adobe
7 8 (0.31%) HubSpot
8 6 (0.23%) Allen-Bradley
8 6 (0.23%) Salesforce
9 5 (0.19%) Red Hat
9 5 (0.19%) SaltStack
9 5 (0.19%) Xamarin
10 4 (0.15%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.15%) Atmel
11 3 (0.12%) OpenAI
11 3 (0.12%) Typelevel
11 3 (0.12%) Wonderware
12 2 (0.077%) Databricks
12 2 (0.077%) Pega