Graduate Software Engineer Job Trends

Graduate Software Engineer
UK

The median Graduate Software Engineer salary in the UK is £30,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 659 660 794
Rank change year-on-year +1 +134 +22
Permanent jobs requiring a Graduate Software Engineer 103 20 85
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.041% 0.087%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.045% 0.091%
Number of salaries quoted 97 19 57
10th Percentile - £26,250 £25,750
25th Percentile £24,000 £29,000 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £32,500 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £35,000 £41,438 £38,500
90th Percentile £52,000 £44,375 £46,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £30,000 £31,500 £32,500
% change year-on-year -4.76% -3.08% -7.14%

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 93,213 44,199 93,038
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.22% 89.97% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 63,958 26,129 66,038
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,390
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,550
Median % change year-on-year - +4.66% -12.42%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

Graduate Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Graduate Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Graduate Software Engineer
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for Graduate Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Graduate Software Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Graduate Software Engineer over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Graduate Software Engineer in the UK

Graduate Software Engineer
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Graduate Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 17 July 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 -7 88 £30,000 -4.76% 18
UK excluding London 0 84 £30,000 -4.76% 20
Work from Home +17 40 £24,000 -23.81% 9
North of England - 21 £30,000 - 6
South East -11 18 £30,000 -10.45% 1
Midlands -20 16 £27,500 -8.33% 4
East Midlands - 14 £27,500 - 4
East of England -2 12 £44,500 +39.06% 7
London -12 12 £57,500 +21.05% 1
North East - 11 £32,500 - 2
South West - 9 £28,000 - 1
North West - 8 £24,000 -
Wales - 7 £30,000 -
West Midlands -23 2 £24,000 -20.00%
Yorkshire - 2 £24,000 - 4
Scotland - 1 £24,000 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 17 July 2026, Graduate 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 Graduate Software Engineer in the job title.

1 101 (98.06%) Software Engineering
2 49 (47.57%) Computer Science
3 42 (40.78%) C#
4 37 (35.92%) Degree
5 33 (32.04%) SQL
6 31 (30.10%) Azure
7 30 (29.13%) C++
8 29 (28.16%) PHP
9 20 (19.42%) Agile
10 17 (16.50%) Computer Science Degree
10 17 (16.50%) Python
11 15 (14.56%) OOP
11 15 (14.56%) Problem-Solving
12 13 (12.62%) Java
13 11 (10.68%) JavaScript
13 11 (10.68%) Mathematics
14 10 (9.71%) AI
15 9 (8.74%) Mentoring
16 8 (7.77%) C
16 8 (7.77%) HTML
16 8 (7.77%) SQL Server
17 7 (6.80%) Fintech
17 7 (6.80%) Git
17 7 (6.80%) Physics
18 6 (5.83%) .NET
18 6 (5.83%) AWS
18 6 (5.83%) Rust
19 5 (4.85%) CSS
19 5 (4.85%) Cybersecurity
19 5 (4.85%) Firmware

Graduate 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 (0.97%) Apache
1 1 (0.97%) Apache Spark
1 1 (0.97%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 1 (0.97%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 31 (30.10%) Azure
2 6 (5.83%) AWS
3 3 (2.91%) GitHub
3 3 (2.91%) SaaS
4 1 (0.97%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (7.77%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.88%) MySQL
3 1 (0.97%) Geospatial Data
3 1 (0.97%) GIS
3 1 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 7 (6.80%) Git
2 3 (2.91%) JIRA
2 3 (2.91%) Visual Studio
General
1 28 (27.18%) Finance
2 10 (9.71%) Electronics
2 10 (9.71%) Manufacturing
3 7 (6.80%) Aerospace
3 7 (6.80%) Automotive
4 6 (5.83%) Social Skills
5 4 (3.88%) Military
6 3 (2.91%) Banking
6 3 (2.91%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.97%) Financial Institution
7 1 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (7.77%) HTML
2 6 (5.83%) .NET
3 5 (4.85%) CSS
3 5 (4.85%) React
4 4 (3.88%) jQuery
5 1 (0.97%) .NET Core
5 1 (0.97%) Ajax
5 1 (0.97%) CSS3
5 1 (0.97%) FastAPI
5 1 (0.97%) Flask
5 1 (0.97%) HTML5
5 1 (0.97%) JSON
5 1 (0.97%) Leaflet
5 1 (0.97%) MapLibre
5 1 (0.97%) OpenLayers
5 1 (0.97%) PostGIS
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.71%) Algorithms
1 10 (9.71%) Hedge funds
2 3 (2.91%) Client/Server
2 3 (2.91%) Clustering
2 3 (2.91%) Data Structures
2 3 (2.91%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (1.94%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (1.94%) RISC-V
4 1 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
4 1 (0.97%) e-Learning
4 1 (0.97%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (0.97%) FPGA
4 1 (0.97%) NHS
4 1 (0.97%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 4 (3.88%) Linux
2 3 (2.91%) Debian
2 3 (2.91%) Gentoo
3 1 (0.97%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (98.06%) Software Engineering
2 49 (47.57%) Computer Science
3 20 (19.42%) Agile
4 15 (14.56%) OOP
4 15 (14.56%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (10.68%) Mathematics
6 10 (9.71%) AI
7 9 (8.74%) Mentoring
8 7 (6.80%) Fintech
8 7 (6.80%) Physics
9 5 (4.85%) Cybersecurity
9 5 (4.85%) OO
9 5 (4.85%) Web Development
10 4 (3.88%) Investment Management
10 4 (3.88%) MVC
10 4 (3.88%) Open Source
10 4 (3.88%) SDLC
11 3 (2.91%) Configuration Management
11 3 (2.91%) Design Patterns
11 3 (2.91%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 42 (40.78%) C#
2 33 (32.04%) SQL
3 30 (29.13%) C++
4 29 (28.16%) PHP
5 17 (16.50%) Python
6 13 (12.62%) Java
7 11 (10.68%) JavaScript
8 8 (7.77%) C
9 6 (5.83%) Rust
10 4 (3.88%) TypeScript
11 3 (2.91%) Bash
11 3 (2.91%) Ruby
12 2 (1.94%) Go
Qualifications
1 37 (35.92%) Degree
2 17 (16.50%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (2.91%) Security Cleared
4 1 (0.97%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (0.97%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.91%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 5 (4.85%) Firmware
2 3 (2.91%) Docker
3 2 (1.94%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 3 (2.91%) Ansible
1 3 (2.91%) Podman
Vendors
1 2 (1.94%) Microsoft
2 1 (0.97%) ESRI