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 22 May 2026.

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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 557 563 634
Rank change year-on-year +6 +71 -35
Permanent jobs requiring a Backend Developer 174 93 251
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.22% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.24% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 152 83 220
10th Percentile £48,875 £51,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £65,000 £61,250
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% +6.12% -12.50%
75th Percentile £100,000 £85,000 £77,500
90th Percentile - £90,000 £97,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year - +14.29% -12.50%

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 86,286 38,345 92,039
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.36% 89.33% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 57,161 21,611 67,433
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £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 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -6.17%

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 22 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 22 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 +19 166 £82,500 +26.92% 33
London +30 96 £95,000 +18.75% 15
UK excluding London -31 66 £60,000 - 21
Work from Home +16 58 £80,000 +33.33% 21
South East -7 34 £60,000 -7.69% 3
North of England -23 20 £60,000 +4.35% 9
North West +3 13 £60,000 +4.35% 6
South West -49 13 £42,500 -34.62% 4
Yorkshire -39 6 £65,000 - 3
East of England -24 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 22 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 (28.74%) Python
2 40 (22.99%) CI/CD
2 40 (22.99%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (21.84%) AWS
4 36 (20.69%) Docker
5 35 (20.11%) Microservices
6 34 (19.54%) Clean Code
7 33 (18.97%) Java
8 31 (17.82%) Kubernetes
8 31 (17.82%) Software Engineering
9 27 (15.52%) RESTful
10 26 (14.94%) AI
11 24 (13.79%) Agile
11 24 (13.79%) Node.js
12 23 (13.22%) Containerisation
13 22 (12.64%) PHP
13 22 (12.64%) TDD
14 20 (11.49%) Computer Science
14 20 (11.49%) Degree
14 20 (11.49%) OOP
14 20 (11.49%) TypeScript
15 17 (9.77%) Spring
16 16 (9.20%) Computer Science Degree
16 16 (9.20%) DevOps
16 16 (9.20%) GCP
16 16 (9.20%) Git
16 16 (9.20%) Laravel
16 16 (9.20%) MySQL
17 15 (8.62%) Azure
17 15 (8.62%) Security Cleared

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 (2.30%) nginx
2 3 (1.72%) Apache
2 3 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.57%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.57%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 38 (21.84%) AWS
2 16 (9.20%) GCP
3 15 (8.62%) Azure
4 11 (6.32%) SaaS
5 9 (5.17%) GitHub
6 8 (4.60%) Serverless
7 5 (2.87%) Amazon ECS
7 5 (2.87%) Amazon SQS
8 4 (2.30%) Amazon EKS
8 4 (2.30%) AWS Lambda
9 3 (1.72%) Azure AKS
9 3 (1.72%) GitHub Copilot
10 2 (1.15%) Azure App Service
10 2 (1.15%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (1.15%) Azure Functions
10 2 (1.15%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.15%) Cloud Functions
10 2 (1.15%) Cloud Run
10 2 (1.15%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.02%) Broadband
2 3 (1.72%) VPN
3 1 (0.57%) AMQP
3 1 (0.57%) HTTP
3 1 (0.57%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (9.20%) MySQL
2 12 (6.90%) NoSQL
3 10 (5.75%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (5.17%) MongoDB
5 6 (3.45%) Relational Database
6 5 (2.87%) Apache Cassandra
7 4 (2.30%) Redis
8 1 (0.57%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.57%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.57%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (9.20%) Git
2 7 (4.02%) Jenkins
3 4 (2.30%) JUnit
4 2 (1.15%) CircleCI
4 2 (1.15%) Cypress.io
4 2 (1.15%) GitLab
4 2 (1.15%) JIRA
4 2 (1.15%) Liquibase
4 2 (1.15%) Mockito
4 2 (1.15%) PHPUnit
4 2 (1.15%) Selenium
5 1 (0.57%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.57%) JMeter
5 1 (0.57%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 14 (8.05%) Social Skills
2 7 (4.02%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (4.02%) Public Sector
3 4 (2.30%) Digital Health
3 4 (2.30%) Finance
4 3 (1.72%) Retail
5 2 (1.15%) Advertising
5 2 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (0.57%) Banking
6 1 (0.57%) Games
6 1 (0.57%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (15.52%) RESTful
2 24 (13.79%) Node.js
3 17 (9.77%) Spring
4 16 (9.20%) Laravel
5 14 (8.05%) Spring Boot
6 13 (7.47%) FastAPI
7 12 (6.90%) Django
8 11 (6.32%) .NET
8 11 (6.32%) .NET Core
8 11 (6.32%) Flask
9 9 (5.17%) Kafka
9 9 (5.17%) REST
10 8 (4.60%) RabbitMQ
10 8 (4.60%) React
11 6 (3.45%) JPA
12 5 (2.87%) gRPC
12 5 (2.87%) Java EE
13 4 (2.30%) Elastic Stack
13 4 (2.30%) LAMP
13 4 (2.30%) NestJS
Miscellaneous
1 32 (18.39%) Distributed Systems
2 15 (8.62%) Algorithms
2 15 (8.62%) Data Structures
3 14 (8.05%) Cloud Native
4 7 (4.02%) PropTech
5 5 (2.87%) Data Centre
5 5 (2.87%) Distributed Architecture
5 5 (2.87%) Legacy Systems
5 5 (2.87%) Over-the-Top Content
5 5 (2.87%) Video\Live Streaming
6 4 (2.30%) Blockchain
6 4 (2.30%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 4 (2.30%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (1.72%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.15%) AI Agents
9 1 (0.57%) Sports Betting
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (22.99%) CI/CD
1 40 (22.99%) Problem-Solving
2 35 (20.11%) Microservices
3 34 (19.54%) Clean Code
4 31 (17.82%) Software Engineering
5 26 (14.94%) AI
6 24 (13.79%) Agile
7 23 (13.22%) Containerisation
8 22 (12.64%) TDD
9 20 (11.49%) Computer Science
9 20 (11.49%) OOP
10 16 (9.20%) DevOps
11 14 (8.05%) Event-Driven
11 14 (8.05%) Insurtech
12 13 (7.47%) OO
12 13 (7.47%) OOD
12 13 (7.47%) Refactoring
13 11 (6.32%) Migration
13 11 (6.32%) Roadmaps
13 11 (6.32%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 50 (28.74%) Python
2 33 (18.97%) Java
3 22 (12.64%) PHP
4 20 (11.49%) TypeScript
5 15 (8.62%) SQL
6 14 (8.05%) C#
7 9 (5.17%) JavaScript
8 7 (4.02%) Go
9 6 (3.45%) Scala
10 3 (1.72%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.57%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 20 (11.49%) Degree
2 16 (9.20%) Computer Science Degree
3 15 (8.62%) Security Cleared
4 11 (6.32%) SC Cleared
5 4 (2.30%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.15%) QA
System Software
1 36 (20.69%) Docker
Systems Management
1 31 (17.82%) Kubernetes
2 4 (2.30%) Kibana
3 3 (1.72%) Ansible
3 3 (1.72%) Terraform
4 2 (1.15%) Podman
5 1 (0.57%) Grafana
Vendors
1 9 (5.17%) Oracle
2 8 (4.60%) Google
3 5 (2.87%) Typelevel
4 3 (1.72%) AppDynamics
4 3 (1.72%) IBM
5 2 (1.15%) Atlassian
5 2 (1.15%) Microsoft
6 1 (0.57%) Foundry
6 1 (0.57%) Red Hat
6 1 (0.57%) Splunk