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 14 February 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 35 28
Rank change year-on-year -22 -7 +26
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,594 1,838 3,452
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.34% 5.63% 6.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.67% 6.15% 7.27%
Number of salaries quoted 1,255 874 2,156
10th Percentile £42,500 £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 43,407 29,892 47,468
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.08% 91.63% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 27,114 14,631 36,882
10th Percentile £28,027 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £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 14 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 14 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 -2 391 £65,000 +6.56% 151
South East -23 371 £65,000 +8.33% 172
South West -3 326 £65,000 +13.16% 115
North West +10 188 £66,250 +1.92% 92
East of England -16 174 £70,000 +5.65% 76
Scotland -14 149 £65,000 +16.78% 87
Yorkshire -11 146 £61,250 +2.31% 36
Midlands -3 138 £60,000 +11.63% 78
East Midlands -14 72 £60,000 +20.00% 42
West Midlands +9 69 £61,250 +11.36% 36
North East -5 57 £70,000 +27.27% 23
Wales -21 32 £60,000 -11.11% 18
Northern Ireland -32 13 £85,000 -5.56% 4
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 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 1,585 (99.44%) Software Engineering
2 225 (14.12%) C#
3 213 (13.36%) C++
4 211 (13.24%) AWS
5 208 (13.05%) Java
6 202 (12.67%) .NET
7 196 (12.30%) Agile
8 182 (11.42%) Full-Stack Development
9 177 (11.10%) Python
10 168 (10.54%) Security Cleared
11 165 (10.35%) CI/CD
12 161 (10.10%) Azure
13 159 (9.97%) React
14 155 (9.72%) DevOps
15 140 (8.78%) JavaScript
16 134 (8.41%) Degree
17 133 (8.34%) SQL
18 129 (8.09%) TypeScript
19 112 (7.03%) Microservices
20 109 (6.84%) C
21 108 (6.78%) Mentoring
22 103 (6.46%) Linux
23 102 (6.40%) Problem-Solving
24 92 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
24 92 (5.77%) Kubernetes
25 85 (5.33%) Computer Science
25 85 (5.33%) SC Cleared
26 79 (4.96%) AI
27 75 (4.71%) Docker
28 74 (4.64%) 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 (0.82%) Apache
2 12 (0.75%) IIS
3 7 (0.44%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.31%) CMS
5 4 (0.25%) Confluence
6 3 (0.19%) Apache Solr
7 2 (0.13%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.063%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.063%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.063%) Kinematics
8 1 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) EngageOne
1 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.13%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.13%) Sketch
3 1 (0.063%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.063%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.63%) Magento
2 2 (0.13%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.063%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 211 (13.24%) AWS
2 161 (10.10%) Azure
3 74 (4.64%) SaaS
4 45 (2.82%) Serverless
5 37 (2.32%) Azure DevOps
5 37 (2.32%) GCP
6 34 (2.13%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (1.63%) Amazon S3
8 25 (1.57%) Amazon EKS
9 17 (1.07%) Azure AKS
10 15 (0.94%) Amazon ECS
11 14 (0.88%) GitHub
12 10 (0.63%) OpenShift
13 8 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (0.50%) Stripe
14 7 (0.44%) Amazon EC2
15 5 (0.31%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 5 (0.31%) Amazon SQS
15 5 (0.31%) AWS Fargate
16 4 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.69%) Wireless
2 16 (1.00%) RS-232
3 12 (0.75%) Bluetooth
4 7 (0.44%) Modbus
5 6 (0.38%) Ethernet
5 6 (0.38%) HTTP
5 6 (0.38%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.31%) AMQP
6 5 (0.31%) Software-Defined Radio
7 4 (0.25%) DNS
7 4 (0.25%) LTE
7 4 (0.25%) SMTP
7 4 (0.25%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.19%) ATM
8 3 (0.19%) Broadband
9 2 (0.13%) 3G
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 (3.14%) SQL Server
2 44 (2.76%) PostgreSQL
3 37 (2.32%) NoSQL
4 24 (1.51%) Elasticsearch
5 23 (1.44%) MySQL
6 20 (1.25%) MongoDB
7 18 (1.13%) Relational Database
8 15 (0.94%) DynamoDB
9 12 (0.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 9 (0.56%) Neo4j
11 8 (0.50%) Big Data
11 8 (0.50%) Redis
12 7 (0.44%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.31%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
15 3 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
15 3 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
15 3 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
15 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
15 3 (0.19%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 53 (3.32%) Git
2 18 (1.13%) GitLab
3 17 (1.07%) Visual Studio
4 12 (0.75%) Jenkins
4 12 (0.75%) JIRA
5 11 (0.69%) JUnit
6 7 (0.44%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.31%) Selenium
7 5 (0.31%) Subversion
8 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.25%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
9 3 (0.19%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.19%) Gradle
9 3 (0.19%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.13%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.13%) PROIV
10 2 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.13%) Vagrant
General
1 106 (6.65%) Social Skills
2 89 (5.58%) Finance
3 56 (3.51%) Electronics
4 50 (3.14%) Manufacturing
5 29 (1.82%) Aerospace
6 28 (1.76%) Public Sector
7 25 (1.57%) Pharmaceutical
8 24 (1.51%) Automotive
9 23 (1.44%) Analytical Skills
9 23 (1.44%) Games
10 15 (0.94%) Tech for Good
11 14 (0.88%) Retail
12 9 (0.56%) Financial Institution
12 9 (0.56%) Military
13 8 (0.50%) Health Technology
13 8 (0.50%) Law
13 8 (0.50%) Marketing
14 7 (0.44%) Aeronautics
15 5 (0.31%) Telecoms
16 4 (0.25%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 202 (12.67%) .NET
2 159 (9.97%) React
3 68 (4.27%) Node.js
4 67 (4.20%) AngularJS
5 53 (3.32%) Spring
6 52 (3.26%) RESTful
7 49 (3.07%) Spring Boot
8 45 (2.82%) REST
9 41 (2.57%) .NET Core
10 37 (2.32%) .NET Framework
11 34 (2.13%) Vue
12 31 (1.94%) HTML
13 30 (1.88%) CSS
14 28 (1.76%) ASP.NET
15 26 (1.63%) Qt
16 23 (1.44%) Entity Framework
17 21 (1.32%) Next.js
18 15 (0.94%) Web Services
18 15 (0.94%) WinForms
19 14 (0.88%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 82 (5.14%) Cloud Native
2 50 (3.14%) Embedded Systems
3 30 (1.88%) IoT
4 29 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
5 27 (1.69%) Robotics
6 21 (1.32%) Algorithms
7 16 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (0.88%) Smart Energy
9 13 (0.82%) Hedge funds
10 12 (0.75%) Product Ownership
10 12 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (0.69%) CAN bus
12 10 (0.63%) Client/Server
13 9 (0.56%) Driving Licence
14 8 (0.50%) e-Learning
14 8 (0.50%) Mobile App
14 8 (0.50%) Renewable Energy
15 7 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
16 6 (0.38%) AI Agents
16 6 (0.38%) Device Driver
Operating Systems
1 103 (6.46%) Linux
2 33 (2.07%) Windows
3 28 (1.76%) Embedded Linux
4 24 (1.51%) Android
5 6 (0.38%) Unix
6 5 (0.31%) CentOS
6 5 (0.31%) Debian
6 5 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.31%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.25%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.13%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.13%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.063%) Fedora
9 1 (0.063%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,585 (99.44%) Software Engineering
2 196 (12.30%) Agile
3 182 (11.42%) Full-Stack Development
4 165 (10.35%) CI/CD
5 155 (9.72%) DevOps
6 112 (7.03%) Microservices
7 108 (6.78%) Mentoring
8 102 (6.40%) Problem-Solving
9 92 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
10 85 (5.33%) Computer Science
11 79 (4.96%) AI
12 67 (4.20%) Scrum
13 65 (4.08%) SDLC
14 60 (3.76%) Containerisation
15 55 (3.45%) TDD
15 55 (3.45%) Test Automation
16 42 (2.63%) Coaching
17 41 (2.57%) Collaborative Culture
17 41 (2.57%) Machine Learning
18 40 (2.51%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 225 (14.12%) C#
2 213 (13.36%) C++
3 208 (13.05%) Java
4 177 (11.10%) Python
5 140 (8.78%) JavaScript
6 133 (8.34%) SQL
7 129 (8.09%) TypeScript
8 109 (6.84%) C
9 45 (2.82%) PHP
10 25 (1.57%) Kotlin
11 23 (1.44%) Embedded C
12 22 (1.38%) Rust
13 20 (1.25%) T-SQL
14 19 (1.19%) Embedded C++
15 16 (1.00%) Ada
15 16 (1.00%) Ruby
16 13 (0.82%) Bash
16 13 (0.82%) PL/SQL
16 13 (0.82%) Scala
17 12 (0.75%) Go
Qualifications
1 168 (10.54%) Security Cleared
2 134 (8.41%) Degree
3 85 (5.33%) SC Cleared
4 64 (4.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 45 (2.82%) DV Cleared
6 19 (1.19%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.63%) PhD
8 7 (0.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.44%) Chartered Engineer
8 7 (0.44%) DBS Check
9 2 (0.13%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.13%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.13%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.063%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (1.94%) QA
2 13 (0.82%) MISRA
3 11 (0.69%) IEC 61508
3 11 (0.69%) MISRA C
4 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 4 (0.25%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.25%) ECSS
5 4 (0.25%) 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 (0.063%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.063%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.063%) IEC 61131
8 1 (0.063%) ISO 9000
8 1 (0.063%) JTAG
System Software
1 75 (4.71%) Docker
2 66 (4.14%) Firmware
3 28 (1.76%) Embedded Firmware
4 7 (0.44%) Hyper-V
4 7 (0.44%) KVM
4 7 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.063%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 92 (5.77%) Kubernetes
2 45 (2.82%) Terraform
3 11 (0.69%) Functional Safety
4 7 (0.44%) Kibana
5 6 (0.38%) Ansible
5 6 (0.38%) Grafana
6 5 (0.31%) Puppet
7 2 (0.13%) Packer
7 2 (0.13%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.13%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.063%) Istio
8 1 (0.063%) logstash
8 1 (0.063%) Podman
Vendors
1 20 (1.25%) Oracle
2 17 (1.07%) Microsoft
3 15 (0.94%) Xamarin
4 12 (0.75%) Adobe
4 12 (0.75%) Google
4 12 (0.75%) Sage
5 8 (0.50%) HubSpot
6 7 (0.44%) VMware
7 6 (0.38%) Red Hat
8 5 (0.31%) SaltStack
8 5 (0.31%) Zoho
9 4 (0.25%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.25%) Atmel
10 3 (0.19%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.19%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.19%) SAP
11 2 (0.13%) Databricks
11 2 (0.13%) Palantir
11 2 (0.13%) Siemens
12 1 (0.063%) New Relic