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 March 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 40 27
Rank change year-on-year -14 -13 +31
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,879 1,537 4,325
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.60% 5.46% 7.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.91% 6.04% 7.87%
Number of salaries quoted 1,459 887 2,497
10th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,750
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £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 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £93,778 £82,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% -11.11%

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 47,997 25,462 54,981
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.85% 90.43% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 30,316 14,202 41,970
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £26,700
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £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 £64,750
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 March 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 March 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 -4 457 £65,000 +4.00% 155
South East -7 451 £65,000 +8.33% 193
South West +12 385 £65,000 +8.33% 150
North West +5 236 £65,000 - 76
East of England -13 193 £70,000 +5.70% 94
Scotland -2 172 £65,000 +13.04% 70
Midlands +19 163 £62,500 +13.64% 102
Yorkshire 0 158 £62,500 +8.70% 61
East Midlands -6 84 £60,000 +9.09% 56
West Midlands +9 81 £63,750 +15.91% 45
North East +2 63 £70,000 +27.27% 18
Wales -16 44 £40,000 -40.74% 23
Northern Ireland -25 14 £90,000 - 9
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 March 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 1,866 (99.31%) Software Engineering
2 242 (12.88%) C++
3 238 (12.67%) C#
4 231 (12.29%) Agile
5 230 (12.24%) Java
6 224 (11.92%) .NET
7 223 (11.87%) AWS
8 204 (10.86%) Python
9 199 (10.59%) Full-Stack Development
10 181 (9.63%) Security Cleared
11 175 (9.31%) Azure
12 169 (8.99%) CI/CD
13 157 (8.36%) DevOps
13 157 (8.36%) JavaScript
14 151 (8.04%) React
15 149 (7.93%) Degree
16 144 (7.66%) SQL
17 138 (7.34%) TypeScript
18 122 (6.49%) C
19 114 (6.07%) Linux
20 109 (5.80%) Microservices
21 106 (5.64%) Mentoring
21 106 (5.64%) Problem-Solving
22 99 (5.27%) Kubernetes
23 98 (5.22%) Continuous Improvement
24 97 (5.16%) SC Cleared
25 91 (4.84%) SaaS
26 90 (4.79%) Computer Science
27 87 (4.63%) Docker
28 80 (4.26%) AI

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 (0.64%) Apache
1 12 (0.64%) IIS
2 7 (0.37%) Apache Spark
3 4 (0.21%) CMS
4 3 (0.16%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.16%) Confluence
4 3 (0.16%) GeoServer
5 2 (0.11%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.053%) Kinematics
6 1 (0.053%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 4 (0.21%) EngageOne
2 2 (0.11%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.11%) AutoCAD
2 2 (0.11%) EPLAN
2 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.11%) Sketch
3 1 (0.053%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.053%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.53%) Magento
2 2 (0.11%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.053%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 223 (11.87%) AWS
2 175 (9.31%) Azure
3 91 (4.84%) SaaS
4 47 (2.50%) GCP
5 46 (2.45%) Serverless
6 32 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (1.60%) AWS Lambda
8 23 (1.22%) Amazon EKS
8 23 (1.22%) Amazon S3
9 21 (1.12%) Azure AKS
10 20 (1.06%) GitHub
11 10 (0.53%) Amazon ECS
11 10 (0.53%) OpenShift
12 8 (0.43%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (0.43%) Stripe
13 7 (0.37%) Amazon EC2
14 5 (0.27%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (0.27%) AWS Fargate
14 5 (0.27%) Figma
15 4 (0.21%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 26 (1.38%) Wireless
2 16 (0.85%) RS-232
3 9 (0.48%) Bluetooth
3 9 (0.48%) Ethernet
4 7 (0.37%) Modbus
5 6 (0.32%) HTTP
5 6 (0.32%) Network Security
5 6 (0.32%) Software-Defined Radio
5 6 (0.32%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.27%) AMQP
6 5 (0.27%) Broadband
7 4 (0.21%) DNS
7 4 (0.21%) LTE
7 4 (0.21%) SMTP
7 4 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.16%) ATM
9 2 (0.11%) 3G
9 2 (0.11%) GPRS
9 2 (0.11%) GSM
9 2 (0.11%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (2.98%) SQL Server
2 44 (2.34%) NoSQL
2 44 (2.34%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (1.38%) MongoDB
4 24 (1.28%) Elasticsearch
5 23 (1.22%) MySQL
6 17 (0.90%) Relational Database
7 13 (0.69%) DynamoDB
8 12 (0.64%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.59%) Big Data
10 10 (0.53%) Neo4j
11 8 (0.43%) Redis
12 7 (0.37%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.27%) Cloudera CDH
13 5 (0.27%) Geospatial Data
14 4 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (0.21%) GIS
15 3 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
15 3 (0.16%) Oracle Database
15 3 (0.16%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 55 (2.93%) Git
2 16 (0.85%) GitLab
3 14 (0.75%) Jenkins
3 14 (0.75%) JIRA
4 12 (0.64%) Visual Studio
5 11 (0.59%) JUnit
6 7 (0.37%) Claude Code
6 7 (0.37%) Cypress.io
6 7 (0.37%) Subversion
7 5 (0.27%) Selenium
8 4 (0.21%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.21%) Oracle APEX
9 3 (0.16%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.16%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.16%) Gradle
9 3 (0.16%) Postman
9 3 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.11%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.11%) Appium
10 2 (0.11%) Vagrant
General
1 109 (5.80%) Social Skills
2 89 (4.74%) Finance
3 71 (3.78%) Manufacturing
4 57 (3.03%) Electronics
5 38 (2.02%) Aerospace
6 33 (1.76%) Automotive
6 33 (1.76%) Public Sector
7 32 (1.70%) Pharmaceutical
8 25 (1.33%) Analytical Skills
9 24 (1.28%) Games
10 16 (0.85%) Tech for Good
11 15 (0.80%) Retail
12 9 (0.48%) Health Technology
12 9 (0.48%) Military
13 8 (0.43%) Financial Institution
14 7 (0.37%) Aeronautics
14 7 (0.37%) Law
14 7 (0.37%) Marketing
14 7 (0.37%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.21%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 224 (11.92%) .NET
2 151 (8.04%) React
3 78 (4.15%) Node.js
4 63 (3.35%) AngularJS
5 54 (2.87%) RESTful
6 50 (2.66%) REST
7 47 (2.50%) .NET Core
7 47 (2.50%) Spring
8 45 (2.39%) .NET Framework
9 43 (2.29%) Spring Boot
10 36 (1.92%) HTML
10 36 (1.92%) Vue
11 32 (1.70%) CSS
12 28 (1.49%) ASP.NET
13 27 (1.44%) Entity Framework
13 27 (1.44%) Qt
14 20 (1.06%) Django
15 19 (1.01%) Next.js
16 18 (0.96%) Web Services
17 13 (0.69%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 87 (4.63%) Cloud Native
2 54 (2.87%) Embedded Systems
3 37 (1.97%) IoT
4 32 (1.70%) Robotics
5 30 (1.60%) Distributed Systems
6 20 (1.06%) Algorithms
7 18 (0.96%) Smart Energy
8 17 (0.90%) Product Ownership
9 16 (0.85%) Hedge funds
9 16 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (0.80%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (0.75%) Client/Server
11 14 (0.75%) Industry 4.0
12 12 (0.64%) Mobile App
13 11 (0.59%) CAN bus
14 10 (0.53%) Driving Licence
15 9 (0.48%) Device Driver
16 8 (0.43%) e-Learning
17 7 (0.37%) Enterprise Software
18 6 (0.32%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 114 (6.07%) Linux
2 31 (1.65%) Embedded Linux
3 28 (1.49%) Windows
4 26 (1.38%) Android
5 5 (0.27%) Apple iOS
5 5 (0.27%) CentOS
5 5 (0.27%) Debian
5 5 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.27%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.21%) Unix
7 2 (0.11%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.11%) VxWorks
8 1 (0.053%) Fedora
8 1 (0.053%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,866 (99.31%) Software Engineering
2 231 (12.29%) Agile
3 199 (10.59%) Full-Stack Development
4 169 (8.99%) CI/CD
5 157 (8.36%) DevOps
6 109 (5.80%) Microservices
7 106 (5.64%) Mentoring
7 106 (5.64%) Problem-Solving
8 98 (5.22%) Continuous Improvement
9 90 (4.79%) Computer Science
10 80 (4.26%) AI
11 79 (4.20%) Scrum
12 75 (3.99%) Containerisation
13 70 (3.73%) Test Automation
14 68 (3.62%) SDLC
15 66 (3.51%) TDD
16 46 (2.45%) Embedded Software Development
17 45 (2.39%) Collaborative Culture
18 44 (2.34%) Clean Code
18 44 (2.34%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 242 (12.88%) C++
2 238 (12.67%) C#
3 230 (12.24%) Java
4 204 (10.86%) Python
5 157 (8.36%) JavaScript
6 144 (7.66%) SQL
7 138 (7.34%) TypeScript
8 122 (6.49%) C
9 47 (2.50%) PHP
10 37 (1.97%) Rust
11 30 (1.60%) Embedded C
12 26 (1.38%) Kotlin
13 19 (1.01%) Embedded C++
13 19 (1.01%) Ruby
13 19 (1.01%) T-SQL
14 17 (0.90%) PL/SQL
15 16 (0.85%) Ada
16 15 (0.80%) Scala
17 13 (0.69%) Go
18 11 (0.59%) Bash
Qualifications
1 181 (9.63%) Security Cleared
2 149 (7.93%) Degree
3 97 (5.16%) SC Cleared
4 72 (3.83%) Computer Science Degree
5 49 (2.61%) DV Cleared
6 22 (1.17%) Master's Degree
7 9 (0.48%) PhD
8 7 (0.37%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.37%) DBS Check
9 6 (0.32%) Chartered Engineer
10 3 (0.16%) HND
11 2 (0.11%) HNC
11 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.11%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (0.11%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (2.02%) QA
2 13 (0.69%) MISRA
3 11 (0.59%) IEC 61508
3 11 (0.59%) MISRA C
4 6 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 5 (0.27%) Accessibility
6 4 (0.21%) ECSS
6 4 (0.21%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.16%) GDPR
8 1 (0.053%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.053%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 87 (4.63%) Docker
2 70 (3.73%) Firmware
3 23 (1.22%) Embedded Firmware
4 11 (0.59%) Hyper-V
4 11 (0.59%) KVM
4 11 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 99 (5.27%) Kubernetes
2 45 (2.39%) Terraform
3 11 (0.59%) Functional Safety
4 6 (0.32%) Ansible
4 6 (0.32%) Grafana
4 6 (0.32%) Kibana
5 5 (0.27%) Puppet
6 2 (0.11%) Packer
6 2 (0.11%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.11%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.053%) logstash
7 1 (0.053%) Podman
Vendors
1 23 (1.22%) Oracle
2 20 (1.06%) Microsoft
3 15 (0.80%) Xamarin
4 13 (0.69%) Google
5 12 (0.64%) Adobe
5 12 (0.64%) Sage
6 11 (0.59%) VMware
7 8 (0.43%) HubSpot
8 7 (0.37%) Siemens
9 6 (0.32%) Red Hat
10 5 (0.27%) Salesforce
10 5 (0.27%) SaltStack
10 5 (0.27%) Zoho
11 4 (0.21%) Atmel
11 4 (0.21%) Rockwell
12 3 (0.16%) Atlassian
12 3 (0.16%) SAP
13 2 (0.11%) Allen-Bradley
13 2 (0.11%) Palantir
13 2 (0.11%) Wonderware