Backend Developer Job Trends

Backend Developer
UK

The median Backend Developer salary in the UK is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 April 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 536 540 644
Rank change year-on-year +4 +104 -39
Permanent jobs requiring a Backend Developer 164 107 242
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.26% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.29% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 142 95 212
10th Percentile £45,000 £48,750 £37,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% +4.00% -9.19%
75th Percentile £97,500 £77,375 £87,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year - +14.29% -8.70%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 79,058 36,853 88,284
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.58% 89.53% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 50,594 23,309 65,653
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Backend Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Backend Developer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Backend Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Backend Developer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Backend Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Backend Developer job vacancies in the UK

Backend Developer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Backend Developer over the 6 months to 15 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Backend Developer in the UK

Backend Developer
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Backend Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 15 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
England +15 161 £80,000 +23.08% 23
London +37 87 £95,000 +18.75% 9
UK excluding London -78 67 £60,000 - 15
Work from Home 0 57 £80,000 +33.33% 11
South East -10 34 £60,000 +4.35% 3
North of England -63 19 £60,000 +4.35% 6
North West -19 13 £60,000 +4.35% 6
South West -49 11 £42,500 -34.62% 2
Yorkshire -59 5 £35,000 -39.91%
West Midlands -36 3 £52,000 -13.33% 2
Midlands -69 3 £52,000 -13.33% 3
East of England -33 2 £43,250 -34.76%
North East - 1 £40,000 -

Backend Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 April 2026, Backend Developer 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 featuring Backend Developer in the job title.

1 56 (34.15%) Python
2 42 (25.61%) CI/CD
3 40 (24.39%) AWS
4 39 (23.78%) Problem-Solving
5 35 (21.34%) Clean Code
6 34 (20.73%) Docker
7 33 (20.12%) Software Engineering
8 32 (19.51%) Microservices
9 30 (18.29%) RESTful
10 29 (17.68%) Kubernetes
11 28 (17.07%) Java
12 27 (16.46%) PHP
13 26 (15.85%) AI
14 25 (15.24%) Containerisation
14 25 (15.24%) TDD
15 24 (14.63%) OOP
16 22 (13.41%) Insurtech
17 20 (12.20%) MySQL
18 19 (11.59%) Agile
18 19 (11.59%) Computer Science
19 18 (10.98%) Degree
19 18 (10.98%) GCP
19 18 (10.98%) Node.js
19 18 (10.98%) Spring
20 17 (10.37%) DevOps
20 17 (10.37%) Django
20 17 (10.37%) FastAPI
20 17 (10.37%) Spring Boot
21 16 (9.76%) Flask
22 15 (9.15%) Laravel

Backend Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 8 (4.88%) Apache
1 8 (4.88%) Apache Airflow
2 4 (2.44%) nginx
3 1 (0.61%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.61%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 40 (24.39%) AWS
2 18 (10.98%) GCP
3 13 (7.93%) Azure
3 13 (7.93%) SaaS
4 11 (6.71%) GitHub
5 9 (5.49%) Amazon SQS
6 6 (3.66%) Serverless
7 4 (2.44%) Amazon ECS
7 4 (2.44%) Amazon EKS
7 4 (2.44%) AWS Lambda
8 2 (1.22%) Cloud Functions
8 2 (1.22%) Cloud Run
8 2 (1.22%) Figma
8 2 (1.22%) GitHub Copilot
9 1 (0.61%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.61%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.27%) Broadband
2 3 (1.83%) VPN
3 1 (0.61%) AMQP
3 1 (0.61%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (12.20%) MySQL
2 12 (7.32%) MongoDB
3 11 (6.71%) NoSQL
4 9 (5.49%) Relational Database
5 7 (4.27%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (4.27%) Redis
6 4 (2.44%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.61%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.61%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.61%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 14 (8.54%) Git
2 5 (3.05%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.22%) CircleCI
3 2 (1.22%) Cypress.io
3 2 (1.22%) JIRA
3 2 (1.22%) PHPUnit
3 2 (1.22%) Selenium
4 1 (0.61%) GitLab
4 1 (0.61%) JUnit
General
1 15 (9.15%) Social Skills
2 11 (6.71%) Finance
3 7 (4.27%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (4.27%) Public Sector
4 2 (1.22%) Back Office
4 2 (1.22%) Digital Health
4 2 (1.22%) Marketing
4 2 (1.22%) Retail
5 1 (0.61%) Automotive
5 1 (0.61%) Banking
5 1 (0.61%) Electronics
5 1 (0.61%) Games
5 1 (0.61%) Manufacturing
5 1 (0.61%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (18.29%) RESTful
2 18 (10.98%) Node.js
2 18 (10.98%) Spring
3 17 (10.37%) Django
3 17 (10.37%) FastAPI
3 17 (10.37%) Spring Boot
4 16 (9.76%) Flask
5 15 (9.15%) Laravel
6 12 (7.32%) .NET
6 12 (7.32%) Kafka
7 11 (6.71%) .NET Core
7 11 (6.71%) JPA
8 8 (4.88%) Hibernate
8 8 (4.88%) Pandas
8 8 (4.88%) RabbitMQ
8 8 (4.88%) React
8 8 (4.88%) REST
9 7 (4.27%) NestJS
10 5 (3.05%) gRPC
10 5 (3.05%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.24%) Distributed Systems
2 14 (8.54%) Cloud Native
3 13 (7.93%) Algorithms
3 13 (7.93%) Data Structures
4 10 (6.10%) Distributed Architecture
4 10 (6.10%) Legacy Systems
5 5 (3.05%) Data Centre
5 5 (3.05%) Over-the-Top Content
5 5 (3.05%) Video\Live Streaming
6 4 (2.44%) Blockchain
6 4 (2.44%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 4 (2.44%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (1.83%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.22%) AI Agents
9 1 (0.61%) Sports Betting
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (25.61%) CI/CD
2 39 (23.78%) Problem-Solving
3 35 (21.34%) Clean Code
4 33 (20.12%) Software Engineering
5 32 (19.51%) Microservices
6 26 (15.85%) AI
7 25 (15.24%) Containerisation
7 25 (15.24%) TDD
8 24 (14.63%) OOP
9 22 (13.41%) Insurtech
10 19 (11.59%) Agile
10 19 (11.59%) Computer Science
11 17 (10.37%) DevOps
12 15 (9.15%) Migration
13 12 (7.32%) Roadmaps
13 12 (7.32%) Technology Roadmap
14 11 (6.71%) Code Quality
15 10 (6.10%) Fintech
15 10 (6.10%) Full-Stack Development
15 10 (6.10%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 56 (34.15%) Python
2 28 (17.07%) Java
3 27 (16.46%) PHP
4 14 (8.54%) C#
4 14 (8.54%) SQL
5 10 (6.10%) TypeScript
6 7 (4.27%) JavaScript
7 6 (3.66%) Scala
8 5 (3.05%) Go
9 3 (1.83%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 18 (10.98%) Degree
2 11 (6.71%) Security Cleared
3 10 (6.10%) Computer Science Degree
3 10 (6.10%) SC Cleared
4 1 (0.61%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (0.61%) QA
System Software
1 34 (20.73%) Docker
Systems Management
1 29 (17.68%) Kubernetes
2 4 (2.44%) Terraform
3 3 (1.83%) Ansible
3 3 (1.83%) Kibana
4 2 (1.22%) Podman
Vendors
1 9 (5.49%) Google
2 5 (3.05%) Oracle
2 5 (3.05%) Typelevel
3 3 (1.83%) AppDynamics
3 3 (1.83%) IBM
4 1 (0.61%) Atlassian
4 1 (0.61%) Red Hat
4 1 (0.61%) SAP