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 29 May 2026.

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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 561 560 651
Rank change year-on-year -1 +91 -37
Permanent jobs requiring a Backend Developer 176 91 255
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.21% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.24% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 153 81 223
10th Percentile £49,000 £50,000 £37,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% +8.33% -14.29%
75th Percentile £97,500 £85,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £97,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +20.00% -16.67%

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 87,064 38,294 94,653
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.44% 89.31% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 57,954 21,519 69,253
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.90% +1.93% -6.54%

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 29 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Backend Developer in the UK

Backend Developer
Top 11 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 29 May 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 +13 168 £80,000 +23.08% 20
London +43 96 £95,000 +18.75% 6
UK excluding London -53 68 £60,000 - 17
Work from Home +25 58 £80,000 +33.33% 6
South East -1 34 £60,000 -14.29% 5
North of England -37 22 £60,000 +4.35% 10
North West -1 13 £60,000 +4.35% 7
South West -47 13 £42,500 -34.62%
Yorkshire -48 8 £65,000 - 3
East of England -29 1 £62,500 -5.73%
North East - 1 £40,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 29 May 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 50 (28.41%) Python
2 41 (23.30%) CI/CD
3 39 (22.16%) AWS
3 39 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
4 38 (21.59%) Microservices
5 37 (21.02%) Docker
6 35 (19.89%) Java
7 33 (18.75%) Clean Code
8 32 (18.18%) Kubernetes
9 30 (17.05%) Software Engineering
10 26 (14.77%) Agile
10 26 (14.77%) AI
10 26 (14.77%) RESTful
11 24 (13.64%) Node.js
12 23 (13.07%) Containerisation
13 22 (12.50%) Computer Science
13 22 (12.50%) Degree
14 21 (11.93%) PHP
14 21 (11.93%) TDD
15 20 (11.36%) TypeScript
16 19 (10.80%) Spring
17 18 (10.23%) Computer Science Degree
17 18 (10.23%) Git
17 18 (10.23%) OOP
18 17 (9.66%) DevOps
18 17 (9.66%) SQL
19 16 (9.09%) GCP
19 16 (9.09%) Laravel
19 16 (9.09%) Spring Boot
20 15 (8.52%) Azure

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 4 (2.27%) nginx
2 3 (1.70%) Apache
2 3 (1.70%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.57%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.57%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 39 (22.16%) AWS
2 16 (9.09%) GCP
3 15 (8.52%) Azure
4 11 (6.25%) SaaS
5 9 (5.11%) GitHub
6 8 (4.55%) Serverless
7 5 (2.84%) Amazon ECS
7 5 (2.84%) Amazon SQS
8 4 (2.27%) Amazon EKS
8 4 (2.27%) AWS Lambda
8 4 (2.27%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (1.70%) Azure AKS
9 3 (1.70%) GitHub Copilot
10 2 (1.14%) Azure App Service
10 2 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (1.14%) Azure Functions
10 2 (1.14%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.14%) Cloud Functions
10 2 (1.14%) Cloud Run
10 2 (1.14%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.98%) Broadband
2 3 (1.70%) VPN
3 1 (0.57%) AMQP
3 1 (0.57%) HTTP
3 1 (0.57%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (8.52%) MySQL
2 14 (7.95%) NoSQL
3 11 (6.25%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (5.11%) MongoDB
5 6 (3.41%) Apache Cassandra
5 6 (3.41%) Relational Database
6 4 (2.27%) Redis
7 2 (1.14%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.57%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.57%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 18 (10.23%) Git
2 8 (4.55%) Jenkins
3 5 (2.84%) JUnit
4 2 (1.14%) CircleCI
4 2 (1.14%) Cucumber
4 2 (1.14%) Cypress.io
4 2 (1.14%) GitLab
4 2 (1.14%) JIRA
4 2 (1.14%) JMeter
4 2 (1.14%) Liquibase
4 2 (1.14%) Mockito
4 2 (1.14%) PHPUnit
4 2 (1.14%) Selenium
5 1 (0.57%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 14 (7.95%) Social Skills
2 7 (3.98%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (3.98%) Public Sector
3 5 (2.84%) Finance
4 4 (2.27%) Advertising
4 4 (2.27%) Digital Health
5 3 (1.70%) Retail
6 2 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.57%) Banking
7 1 (0.57%) Games
7 1 (0.57%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (14.77%) RESTful
2 24 (13.64%) Node.js
3 19 (10.80%) Spring
4 16 (9.09%) Laravel
4 16 (9.09%) Spring Boot
5 12 (6.82%) FastAPI
6 11 (6.25%) .NET
6 11 (6.25%) .NET Core
6 11 (6.25%) Django
6 11 (6.25%) Kafka
7 10 (5.68%) Flask
8 9 (5.11%) REST
9 8 (4.55%) RabbitMQ
9 8 (4.55%) React
10 6 (3.41%) JPA
11 5 (2.84%) gRPC
11 5 (2.84%) Java EE
12 4 (2.27%) Elastic Stack
12 4 (2.27%) LAMP
12 4 (2.27%) Vert.x
Miscellaneous
1 33 (18.75%) Distributed Systems
2 14 (7.95%) Algorithms
2 14 (7.95%) Data Structures
3 13 (7.39%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.98%) PropTech
5 5 (2.84%) Data Centre
5 5 (2.84%) Distributed Architecture
5 5 (2.84%) Legacy Systems
5 5 (2.84%) Over-the-Top Content
5 5 (2.84%) Video\Live Streaming
6 4 (2.27%) Blockchain
6 4 (2.27%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 4 (2.27%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (1.70%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.14%) AI Agents
9 1 (0.57%) Sports Betting
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (23.30%) CI/CD
2 39 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (21.59%) Microservices
4 33 (18.75%) Clean Code
5 30 (17.05%) Software Engineering
6 26 (14.77%) Agile
6 26 (14.77%) AI
7 23 (13.07%) Containerisation
8 22 (12.50%) Computer Science
9 21 (11.93%) TDD
10 18 (10.23%) OOP
11 17 (9.66%) DevOps
12 15 (8.52%) Event-Driven
13 14 (7.95%) Insurtech
14 13 (7.39%) OO
14 13 (7.39%) OOD
14 13 (7.39%) Refactoring
15 11 (6.25%) Migration
15 11 (6.25%) Scrum
16 10 (5.68%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 50 (28.41%) Python
2 35 (19.89%) Java
3 21 (11.93%) PHP
4 20 (11.36%) TypeScript
5 17 (9.66%) SQL
6 14 (7.95%) C#
7 9 (5.11%) Go
7 9 (5.11%) JavaScript
8 6 (3.41%) Scala
9 3 (1.70%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.57%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 22 (12.50%) Degree
2 18 (10.23%) Computer Science Degree
3 15 (8.52%) Security Cleared
4 11 (6.25%) SC Cleared
5 4 (2.27%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.14%) QA
System Software
1 37 (21.02%) Docker
Systems Management
1 32 (18.18%) Kubernetes
2 5 (2.84%) Kibana
3 3 (1.70%) Ansible
3 3 (1.70%) Terraform
4 2 (1.14%) Grafana
4 2 (1.14%) Podman
Vendors
1 10 (5.68%) Oracle
2 8 (4.55%) Google
3 5 (2.84%) Typelevel
4 3 (1.70%) AppDynamics
4 3 (1.70%) IBM
5 2 (1.14%) Atlassian
5 2 (1.14%) Microsoft
5 2 (1.14%) Splunk
6 1 (0.57%) Foundry
6 1 (0.57%) Red Hat