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 6 January 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 35 33
Rank change year-on-year -38 -2 +19
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,172 2,071 2,072
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.78% 5.67% 6.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.08% 6.10% 6.73%
Number of salaries quoted 898 1,000 1,245
10th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £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 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -3.70%

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 38,055 33,958 30,791
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.42% 92.95% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 23,081 16,702 23,207
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 £65,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £58,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -2.50%

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 6 January 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 6 January 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 -40 282 £65,000 +8.33% 396
North of England -22 265 £65,000 +6.56% 265
South West -4 253 £65,000 +18.18% 197
East of England -24 129 £70,000 +3.70% 185
North West -9 118 £67,500 +8.00% 125
Yorkshire -15 113 £58,750 -2.08% 89
Midlands -22 107 £60,000 +4.35% 128
Scotland -34 107 £60,000 +4.35% 86
West Midlands -16 61 £60,000 - 40
East Midlands -23 49 £65,000 +30.00% 86
North East -24 34 £70,000 +14.75% 52
Wales -34 19 £75,000 - 63
Northern Ireland -26 11 £85,000 +3.03% 23
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 6 January 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 1,170 (99.83%) Software Engineering
2 187 (15.96%) Agile
3 181 (15.44%) C#
4 178 (15.19%) C++
5 157 (13.40%) Java
6 156 (13.31%) .NET
7 152 (12.97%) AWS
8 142 (12.12%) CI/CD
9 139 (11.86%) Security Cleared
10 135 (11.52%) React
11 131 (11.18%) DevOps
11 131 (11.18%) Full-Stack Development
12 129 (11.01%) Python
13 126 (10.75%) Azure
14 117 (9.98%) Degree
15 116 (9.90%) JavaScript
16 111 (9.47%) Mentoring
17 100 (8.53%) SQL
18 98 (8.36%) TypeScript
19 97 (8.28%) C
19 97 (8.28%) Linux
20 92 (7.85%) Microservices
21 86 (7.34%) Problem-Solving
22 76 (6.48%) SC Cleared
23 73 (6.23%) Kubernetes
24 72 (6.14%) AI
24 72 (6.14%) Computer Science
25 62 (5.29%) Docker
26 60 (5.12%) Firmware
27 55 (4.69%) 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 (1.02%) IIS
2 11 (0.94%) Apache
3 6 (0.51%) 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 (0.085%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.085%) Kinematics
Applications
1 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.17%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.17%) Sketch
3 1 (0.085%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.085%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 8 (0.68%) Magento
2 2 (0.17%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.085%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 152 (12.97%) AWS
2 126 (10.75%) Azure
3 41 (3.50%) SaaS
4 36 (3.07%) Serverless
5 34 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
6 28 (2.39%) AWS Lambda
7 23 (1.96%) GCP
8 22 (1.88%) Amazon S3
8 22 (1.88%) GitHub
9 18 (1.54%) Amazon EKS
10 14 (1.19%) Amazon ECS
11 8 (0.68%) Azure AKS
11 8 (0.68%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (0.68%) OpenShift
12 7 (0.60%) Amazon EC2
12 7 (0.60%) Stripe
13 6 (0.51%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (0.43%) Amazon EventBridge
14 5 (0.43%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.99%) Wireless
2 17 (1.45%) RS-232
3 16 (1.37%) Software-Defined Radio
4 15 (1.28%) Bluetooth
5 6 (0.51%) HTTP
5 6 (0.51%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.43%) DNS
6 5 (0.43%) Modbus
7 4 (0.34%) AMQP
7 4 (0.34%) 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 33 (2.82%) PostgreSQL
1 33 (2.82%) SQL Server
2 22 (1.88%) NoSQL
3 21 (1.79%) Elasticsearch
4 18 (1.54%) Relational Database
5 16 (1.37%) MongoDB
5 16 (1.37%) MySQL
6 13 (1.11%) DynamoDB
7 12 (1.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (0.77%) Redis
9 7 (0.60%) Neo4j
10 5 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.43%) Big Data
10 5 (0.43%) Hadoop
11 4 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.34%) Apache Cassandra
11 4 (0.34%) GIS
12 3 (0.26%) Cloudera CDH
12 3 (0.26%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.26%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 50 (4.27%) Git
2 16 (1.37%) GitLab
2 16 (1.37%) Visual Studio
3 15 (1.28%) JIRA
4 12 (1.02%) JUnit
5 10 (0.85%) Jenkins
6 8 (0.68%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.43%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.43%) Selenium
8 4 (0.34%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.17%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.17%) Maven
9 2 (0.17%) PROIV
9 2 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.17%) TestRail
10 1 (0.085%) Gatling
10 1 (0.085%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (0.085%) Postman
10 1 (0.085%) Rational Statemate
10 1 (0.085%) REST Assured
General
1 98 (8.36%) Social Skills
2 76 (6.48%) Finance
3 44 (3.75%) Electronics
4 41 (3.50%) Manufacturing
5 21 (1.79%) Aerospace
6 19 (1.62%) Analytical Skills
6 19 (1.62%) Games
7 18 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
7 18 (1.54%) Public Sector
8 17 (1.45%) Automotive
9 15 (1.28%) Retail
10 12 (1.02%) Tech for Good
11 9 (0.77%) Financial Institution
12 8 (0.68%) Law
13 7 (0.60%) Aeronautics
13 7 (0.60%) Marketing
13 7 (0.60%) Military
14 6 (0.51%) Legal
15 5 (0.43%) Health Technology
16 4 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 156 (13.31%) .NET
2 135 (11.52%) React
3 55 (4.69%) AngularJS
4 48 (4.10%) Node.js
5 39 (3.33%) Spring
6 37 (3.16%) Spring Boot
7 36 (3.07%) RESTful
8 31 (2.65%) .NET Core
9 29 (2.47%) HTML
10 28 (2.39%) .NET Framework
10 28 (2.39%) ASP.NET
10 28 (2.39%) CSS
10 28 (2.39%) REST
10 28 (2.39%) Vue
11 20 (1.71%) Qt
12 19 (1.62%) Entity Framework
13 17 (1.45%) Next.js
14 16 (1.37%) WinForms
15 13 (1.11%) Kafka
16 12 (1.02%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 67 (5.72%) Cloud Native
2 60 (5.12%) Embedded Systems
3 25 (2.13%) Distributed Systems
4 24 (2.05%) IoT
5 20 (1.71%) Robotics
6 18 (1.54%) e-Learning
7 15 (1.28%) Algorithms
8 14 (1.19%) Product Ownership
8 14 (1.19%) RISC-V
9 12 (1.02%) Manufacturing Execution System
9 12 (1.02%) MicroBlaze
9 12 (1.02%) Smart Energy
10 11 (0.94%) Driving Licence
10 11 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (0.68%) CAN bus
12 8 (0.68%) Hedge funds
12 8 (0.68%) Renewable Energy
13 7 (0.60%) AI Agents
13 7 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 97 (8.28%) Linux
2 34 (2.90%) Embedded Linux
2 34 (2.90%) Windows
3 13 (1.11%) Android
4 6 (0.51%) Unix
5 3 (0.26%) CentOS
5 3 (0.26%) Debian
5 3 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
5 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.17%) Mac OS X
6 2 (0.17%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.085%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.085%) Fedora
7 1 (0.085%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.085%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,170 (99.83%) Software Engineering
2 187 (15.96%) Agile
3 142 (12.12%) CI/CD
4 131 (11.18%) DevOps
4 131 (11.18%) Full-Stack Development
5 111 (9.47%) Mentoring
6 92 (7.85%) Microservices
7 86 (7.34%) Problem-Solving
8 72 (6.14%) AI
8 72 (6.14%) Computer Science
9 53 (4.52%) Continuous Improvement
10 46 (3.92%) Containerisation
11 45 (3.84%) Coaching
11 45 (3.84%) Scrum
12 42 (3.58%) SDLC
13 41 (3.50%) Machine Learning
14 35 (2.99%) Fintech
14 35 (2.99%) Test Automation
15 34 (2.90%) TDD
16 33 (2.82%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 181 (15.44%) C#
2 178 (15.19%) C++
3 157 (13.40%) Java
4 129 (11.01%) Python
5 116 (9.90%) JavaScript
6 100 (8.53%) SQL
7 98 (8.36%) TypeScript
8 97 (8.28%) C
9 36 (3.07%) PHP
10 24 (2.05%) Ada
11 21 (1.79%) Kotlin
12 19 (1.62%) Embedded C++
12 19 (1.62%) T-SQL
13 18 (1.54%) Ruby
14 14 (1.19%) Ada 95
15 13 (1.11%) PL/SQL
16 12 (1.02%) Embedded C
16 12 (1.02%) Rust
17 11 (0.94%) Scala
18 9 (0.77%) Bash
Qualifications
1 139 (11.86%) Security Cleared
2 117 (9.98%) Degree
3 76 (6.48%) SC Cleared
4 49 (4.18%) Computer Science Degree
5 41 (3.50%) DV Cleared
6 16 (1.37%) Master's Degree
7 15 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
7 15 (1.28%) Chartered Engineer
8 11 (0.94%) PhD
9 4 (0.34%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.17%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.17%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.17%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.17%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (1.62%) QA
2 14 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 10 (0.85%) IEC 61508
3 10 (0.85%) MISRA
4 8 (0.68%) MISRA C
5 4 (0.34%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.26%) ECSS
6 3 (0.26%) GDPR
6 3 (0.26%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.26%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.17%) ISO 9000
7 2 (0.17%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.17%) JTAG
7 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.085%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.085%) Data Quality
System Software
1 62 (5.29%) Docker
2 60 (5.12%) Firmware
3 36 (3.07%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.17%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.085%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 73 (6.23%) Kubernetes
2 31 (2.65%) Terraform
3 8 (0.68%) Functional Safety
3 8 (0.68%) Kibana
4 7 (0.60%) Grafana
5 3 (0.26%) Ansible
5 3 (0.26%) Puppet
6 2 (0.17%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.085%) Istio
Vendors
1 19 (1.62%) Microsoft
2 16 (1.37%) Oracle
3 14 (1.19%) Xamarin
4 12 (1.02%) Sage
5 10 (0.85%) Adobe
5 10 (0.85%) Google
6 8 (0.68%) Atlassian
7 6 (0.51%) Guidewire
7 6 (0.51%) HubSpot
8 5 (0.43%) Zoho
9 4 (0.34%) Databricks
9 4 (0.34%) Red Hat
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%) VMware
12 1 (0.085%) Salesforce