C++ Software Engineer Job Trends

Software Engineer - C++
UK

The median Software Engineer - C++ salary in the UK is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 5 March 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 503 590 583
Rank change year-on-year +87 -7 +124
Permanent jobs requiring a C++ Software Engineer 175 79 239
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.24% 0.17% 0.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.27% 0.19% 0.32%
Number of salaries quoted 132 42 190
10th Percentile £58,875 £50,000 £41,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £60,625 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £72,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.34% +20.83% +4.35%
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £110,750 £111,250 £82,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% +9.09%

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 65,777 41,647 74,342
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.60% 91.11% 94.66%
Number of salaries quoted 41,594 22,804 57,442
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,000 £39,073
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,624
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -5.66%

C++ Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'C++ Software Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

C++ Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for C++ Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for C++ Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing C++ Software Engineer over the 6 months to 5 March 2026.

Salary histogram for C++ Software Engineer in the UK

C++ Software Engineer
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing C++ Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 5 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
England +111 172 £80,000 +10.34% 48
UK excluding London +58 120 £70,000 - 40
South East +17 61 £70,000 +7.69% 18
London +74 53 £100,000 -4.76% 10
South West 0 28 £65,000 - 8
Work from Home +19 25 £100,000 +54.46% 24
East of England +16 13 £75,000 +7.14% 8
Midlands - 9 £53,750 - 4
North of England -22 8 £45,000 -30.77% 1
East Midlands - 7 - - 2
Yorkshire - 6 £45,000 -
North West -11 2 £100,000 +100.00% 1
West Midlands - 2 £53,750 - 2
Scotland -13 1 - - 1

C++ Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 March 2026, C++ 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 featuring C++ Software Engineer in the job title.

1 175 (100.00%) C++
1 175 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 40 (22.86%) Python
3 38 (21.71%) Linux
4 26 (14.86%) Degree
4 26 (14.86%) Multithreading
5 25 (14.29%) Low Latency
6 24 (13.71%) Agile
6 24 (13.71%) Qt
7 23 (13.14%) SDLC
8 21 (12.00%) Computer Science
9 20 (11.43%) C#
9 20 (11.43%) Mathematics
9 20 (11.43%) Technical Leadership
10 18 (10.29%) Git
10 18 (10.29%) Rust
10 18 (10.29%) SC Cleared
10 18 (10.29%) Security Cleared
11 17 (9.71%) Windows
12 14 (8.00%) Continuous Integration
12 14 (8.00%) JIRA
13 13 (7.43%) AI
13 13 (7.43%) OOP
13 13 (7.43%) QA
14 12 (6.86%) Boost C++ Libraries
14 12 (6.86%) FIX Protocol
14 12 (6.86%) GitHub
14 12 (6.86%) Multicast
14 12 (6.86%) Process Improvement
14 12 (6.86%) pytest

C++ Software Engineer 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 1 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 1 (0.57%) Photoshop
Cloud Services
1 12 (6.86%) GitHub
2 4 (2.29%) AWS
3 2 (1.14%) Azure
4 1 (0.57%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.86%) Multicast
2 8 (4.57%) Wireless
3 6 (3.43%) TCP/IP
4 4 (2.29%) DNS
4 4 (2.29%) HTTP
4 4 (2.29%) SMTP
5 3 (1.71%) ATM
6 2 (1.14%) 3G
6 2 (1.14%) GPRS
6 2 (1.14%) GSM
6 2 (1.14%) Modbus
6 2 (1.14%) RS-232
6 2 (1.14%) RS-485
6 2 (1.14%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.57%) GIS
Development Applications
1 18 (10.29%) Git
2 14 (8.00%) JIRA
3 6 (3.43%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.57%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.57%) TestRail
General
1 29 (16.57%) Finance
2 12 (6.86%) Banking
3 9 (5.14%) Aerospace
4 8 (4.57%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (3.43%) Manufacturing
6 4 (2.29%) Aeronautics
6 4 (2.29%) Automotive
6 4 (2.29%) Social Skills
7 2 (1.14%) Games
7 2 (1.14%) Military
7 2 (1.14%) Tech for Good
8 1 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (13.71%) Qt
2 12 (6.86%) Boost C++ Libraries
2 12 (6.86%) FIX Protocol
2 12 (6.86%) pytest
2 12 (6.86%) Unreal Engine
3 4 (2.29%) Middleware
3 4 (2.29%) ZeroMQ
4 1 (0.57%) Blazor
4 1 (0.57%) React
4 1 (0.57%) WebRTC
4 1 (0.57%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 27 (15.43%) Algorithms
2 13 (7.43%) Fixed Income
3 12 (6.86%) Derivative
3 12 (6.86%) Equities
3 12 (6.86%) Robotics
4 9 (5.14%) Data Structures
5 8 (4.57%) Distributed Systems
6 4 (2.29%) GNSS
6 4 (2.29%) Satnav
6 4 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.71%) CUDA
8 2 (1.14%) 3D Graphics
Operating Systems
1 38 (21.71%) Linux
2 17 (9.71%) Windows
3 3 (1.71%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.14%) Embedded Linux
4 2 (1.14%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 26 (14.86%) Multithreading
3 25 (14.29%) Low Latency
4 24 (13.71%) Agile
5 23 (13.14%) SDLC
6 21 (12.00%) Computer Science
7 20 (11.43%) Mathematics
7 20 (11.43%) Technical Leadership
8 14 (8.00%) Continuous Integration
9 13 (7.43%) AI
9 13 (7.43%) OOP
10 12 (6.86%) Process Improvement
10 12 (6.86%) Workflow
11 10 (5.71%) Problem-Solving
12 9 (5.14%) Digital Signal Processing
12 9 (5.14%) Mentoring
12 9 (5.14%) Signal Processing
13 8 (4.57%) Quantitative Finance
14 7 (4.00%) Robotic Control
14 7 (4.00%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 175 (100.00%) C++
2 40 (22.86%) Python
3 20 (11.43%) C#
4 18 (10.29%) Rust
5 11 (6.29%) Embedded C++
6 8 (4.57%) C
7 6 (3.43%) SQL
8 5 (2.86%) Bash
9 3 (1.71%) JavaScript
10 2 (1.14%) Java
10 2 (1.14%) Julia
10 2 (1.14%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.57%) Erlang
11 1 (0.57%) OCaml
11 1 (0.57%) Perl
11 1 (0.57%) VBA
Qualifications
1 26 (14.86%) Degree
2 18 (10.29%) SC Cleared
2 18 (10.29%) Security Cleared
3 9 (5.14%) Computer Science Degree
4 7 (4.00%) Master's Degree
5 6 (3.43%) PhD
6 2 (1.14%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.43%) QA
2 2 (1.14%) MISRA
System Software
1 8 (4.57%) Embedded Firmware
1 8 (4.57%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 1 (0.57%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (1.71%) Apple
2 1 (0.57%) Foundry
2 1 (0.57%) Palantir