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 26 January 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 35 29
Rank change year-on-year -28 -6 +23
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,422 1,993 3,080
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.20% 5.67% 7.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.54% 6.14% 7.34%
Number of salaries quoted 1,099 924 1,897
10th Percentile £42,385 £40,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £52,250 £47,500 £46,250
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 £71,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £93,375 £82,548
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -3.80%

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 40,220 32,437 41,947
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.57% 92.31% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 24,735 15,632 32,451
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,748 £35,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -5.25%
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% -9.09%

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 26 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 26 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 -21 344 £65,000 +8.33% 427
North of England -8 334 £65,000 +6.56% 256
South West -1 293 £65,000 +13.16% 223
East of England -22 157 £70,000 +5.59% 189
North West +8 155 £65,000 +4.00% 135
Yorkshire -7 131 £60,000 -4.00% 82
Scotland -21 130 £60,000 +6.18% 105
Midlands -12 127 £60,000 +9.09% 125
East Midlands -17 67 £60,000 +20.00% 83
West Midlands -2 63 £60,000 +2.13% 41
North East -10 48 £70,000 +16.67% 40
Wales -20 26 £65,000 -3.70% 73
Northern Ireland -33 12 £85,000 -5.56% 21
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 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 1,414 (99.44%) Software Engineering
2 204 (14.35%) C#
3 192 (13.50%) C++
4 191 (13.43%) Agile
5 183 (12.87%) AWS
6 177 (12.45%) Java
7 176 (12.38%) .NET
8 161 (11.32%) Full-Stack Development
9 157 (11.04%) CI/CD
10 156 (10.97%) Security Cleared
11 153 (10.76%) DevOps
11 153 (10.76%) React
12 152 (10.69%) Python
13 141 (9.92%) Azure
14 132 (9.28%) JavaScript
15 123 (8.65%) Degree
16 119 (8.37%) TypeScript
17 118 (8.30%) SQL
18 110 (7.74%) Mentoring
19 105 (7.38%) Problem-Solving
20 100 (7.03%) C
21 99 (6.96%) Linux
22 98 (6.89%) Microservices
23 80 (5.63%) Kubernetes
24 79 (5.56%) Computer Science
24 79 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
25 78 (5.49%) SC Cleared
26 73 (5.13%) AI
27 67 (4.71%) Docker
28 64 (4.50%) 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 13 (0.91%) Apache
2 12 (0.84%) IIS
3 7 (0.49%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.35%) Confluence
5 4 (0.28%) CMS
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Solr
7 2 (0.14%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.14%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.14%) NServiceBus
7 2 (0.14%) WinCC
8 1 (0.070%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.070%) Kinematics
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.14%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.14%) EngageOne
2 2 (0.14%) Sketch
3 1 (0.070%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.070%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.70%) Magento
2 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.070%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 183 (12.87%) AWS
2 141 (9.92%) Azure
3 62 (4.36%) SaaS
4 43 (3.02%) Serverless
5 35 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
6 34 (2.39%) AWS Lambda
7 33 (2.32%) GCP
8 26 (1.83%) Amazon S3
9 25 (1.76%) Amazon EKS
10 18 (1.27%) GitHub
11 15 (1.05%) Amazon ECS
12 11 (0.77%) Azure AKS
13 10 (0.70%) OpenShift
14 9 (0.63%) Stripe
15 8 (0.56%) AWS CloudFormation
16 7 (0.49%) Amazon EC2
17 6 (0.42%) Amazon SQS
17 6 (0.42%) GitHub Actions
18 5 (0.35%) Amazon EventBridge
18 5 (0.35%) AWS Fargate
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.04%) Wireless
2 16 (1.13%) RS-232
3 14 (0.98%) Bluetooth
4 10 (0.70%) Software-Defined Radio
5 7 (0.49%) Modbus
6 6 (0.42%) HTTP
6 6 (0.42%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.35%) AMQP
7 5 (0.35%) DNS
8 4 (0.28%) Ethernet
8 4 (0.28%) SMTP
9 3 (0.21%) ATM
10 2 (0.14%) 3G
10 2 (0.14%) Broadband
10 2 (0.14%) GPRS
10 2 (0.14%) GSM
10 2 (0.14%) Profibus
10 2 (0.14%) RS-485
10 2 (0.14%) SpaceWire
10 2 (0.14%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (2.88%) SQL Server
2 35 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (1.90%) NoSQL
4 22 (1.55%) Elasticsearch
5 19 (1.34%) Relational Database
6 16 (1.13%) DynamoDB
7 14 (0.98%) MySQL
8 12 (0.84%) MongoDB
8 12 (0.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 9 (0.63%) Neo4j
10 8 (0.56%) Redis
11 7 (0.49%) Big Data
11 7 (0.49%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.35%) Cloudera CDH
13 4 (0.28%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
14 3 (0.21%) GIS
14 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.21%) Oracle Database
15 2 (0.14%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 52 (3.66%) Git
2 17 (1.20%) Visual Studio
3 16 (1.13%) GitLab
4 13 (0.91%) JIRA
5 12 (0.84%) Jenkins
6 11 (0.77%) JUnit
7 8 (0.56%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.35%) Selenium
9 4 (0.28%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.28%) Maven
9 4 (0.28%) Oracle APEX
10 3 (0.21%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.21%) Gradle
10 3 (0.21%) Subversion
11 2 (0.14%) Android Studio
11 2 (0.14%) Eclipse
11 2 (0.14%) PROIV
11 2 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.14%) Xcode
12 1 (0.070%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 107 (7.52%) Social Skills
2 87 (6.12%) Finance
3 53 (3.73%) Electronics
4 49 (3.45%) Manufacturing
5 26 (1.83%) Aerospace
6 22 (1.55%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (1.55%) Pharmaceutical
7 20 (1.41%) Automotive
7 20 (1.41%) Games
8 17 (1.20%) Public Sector
9 14 (0.98%) Retail
10 13 (0.91%) Tech for Good
11 9 (0.63%) Financial Institution
11 9 (0.63%) Law
11 9 (0.63%) Military
12 7 (0.49%) Aeronautics
12 7 (0.49%) Marketing
13 6 (0.42%) Health Technology
14 4 (0.28%) Billing
14 4 (0.28%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (12.38%) .NET
2 153 (10.76%) React
3 64 (4.50%) AngularJS
4 62 (4.36%) Node.js
5 48 (3.38%) Spring
6 44 (3.09%) Spring Boot
7 42 (2.95%) REST
7 42 (2.95%) RESTful
8 35 (2.46%) .NET Core
9 33 (2.32%) Vue
10 30 (2.11%) .NET Framework
11 29 (2.04%) CSS
11 29 (2.04%) HTML
12 27 (1.90%) ASP.NET
13 24 (1.69%) Qt
14 19 (1.34%) Entity Framework
15 17 (1.20%) Next.js
16 15 (1.05%) Web Services
16 15 (1.05%) WinForms
17 14 (0.98%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 69 (4.85%) Cloud Native
2 56 (3.94%) Embedded Systems
3 27 (1.90%) IoT
4 25 (1.76%) Distributed Systems
5 22 (1.55%) Robotics
6 18 (1.27%) Algorithms
7 15 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (0.98%) e-Learning
8 14 (0.98%) Smart Energy
9 13 (0.91%) Product Ownership
10 12 (0.84%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 11 (0.77%) Driving Licence
11 11 (0.77%) Hedge funds
11 11 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (0.70%) CAN bus
12 10 (0.70%) Renewable Energy
13 8 (0.56%) Mobile App
14 7 (0.49%) AI Agents
14 7 (0.49%) Enterprise Software
14 7 (0.49%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 99 (6.96%) Linux
2 35 (2.46%) Windows
3 31 (2.18%) Embedded Linux
4 22 (1.55%) Android
5 6 (0.42%) Unix
6 5 (0.35%) CentOS
6 5 (0.35%) Debian
6 5 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.35%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.14%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.14%) VxWorks
8 2 (0.14%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.070%) Fedora
9 1 (0.070%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,414 (99.44%) Software Engineering
2 191 (13.43%) Agile
3 161 (11.32%) Full-Stack Development
4 157 (11.04%) CI/CD
5 153 (10.76%) DevOps
6 110 (7.74%) Mentoring
7 105 (7.38%) Problem-Solving
8 98 (6.89%) Microservices
9 79 (5.56%) Computer Science
9 79 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
10 73 (5.13%) AI
11 55 (3.87%) Scrum
12 51 (3.59%) Containerisation
13 50 (3.52%) SDLC
14 44 (3.09%) Test Automation
15 43 (3.02%) Coaching
16 40 (2.81%) TDD
17 39 (2.74%) Machine Learning
18 37 (2.60%) Fintech
19 36 (2.53%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 204 (14.35%) C#
2 192 (13.50%) C++
3 177 (12.45%) Java
4 152 (10.69%) Python
5 132 (9.28%) JavaScript
6 119 (8.37%) TypeScript
7 118 (8.30%) SQL
8 100 (7.03%) C
9 41 (2.88%) PHP
10 25 (1.76%) Kotlin
11 19 (1.34%) T-SQL
12 18 (1.27%) Ada
12 18 (1.27%) Embedded C++
12 18 (1.27%) Ruby
13 17 (1.20%) Rust
14 16 (1.13%) Embedded C
15 13 (0.91%) PL/SQL
16 12 (0.84%) Scala
17 11 (0.77%) Bash
18 8 (0.56%) Go
Qualifications
1 156 (10.97%) Security Cleared
2 123 (8.65%) Degree
3 78 (5.49%) SC Cleared
4 57 (4.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 42 (2.95%) DV Cleared
6 15 (1.05%) Master's Degree
7 9 (0.63%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (0.63%) Chartered Engineer
8 8 (0.56%) DBS Check
8 8 (0.56%) PhD
9 2 (0.14%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.14%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.14%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.070%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (1.90%) QA
2 12 (0.84%) IEC 61508
2 12 (0.84%) MISRA
3 10 (0.70%) MISRA C
4 8 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 4 (0.28%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.28%) ECSS
5 4 (0.28%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.21%) GDPR
6 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.21%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.14%) ISO 9000
7 2 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.14%) JTAG
7 2 (0.14%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.070%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.070%) Data Quality
System Software
1 67 (4.71%) Docker
2 63 (4.43%) Firmware
3 32 (2.25%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.42%) Hyper-V
4 6 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.28%) KVM
6 1 (0.070%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 80 (5.63%) Kubernetes
2 41 (2.88%) Terraform
3 10 (0.70%) Functional Safety
4 7 (0.49%) Grafana
4 7 (0.49%) Kibana
5 6 (0.42%) Ansible
6 5 (0.35%) Puppet
7 2 (0.14%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.070%) Istio
8 1 (0.070%) logstash
Vendors
1 17 (1.20%) Microsoft
1 17 (1.20%) Oracle
2 15 (1.05%) Xamarin
3 12 (0.84%) Adobe
3 12 (0.84%) Google
3 12 (0.84%) Sage
4 8 (0.56%) HubSpot
5 6 (0.42%) Atlassian
5 6 (0.42%) Red Hat
5 6 (0.42%) VMware
6 5 (0.35%) SaltStack
6 5 (0.35%) Zoho
7 4 (0.28%) Siemens
8 3 (0.21%) Databricks
8 3 (0.21%) Guidewire
8 3 (0.21%) OpenAI
8 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
8 3 (0.21%) SAP
9 2 (0.14%) Palantir
9 2 (0.14%) Salesforce