Graduate Software Engineer Job Trends

Graduate Software Engineer
UK

The median Graduate Software Engineer salary in the UK is £29,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 October 2026.

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

 6 months to
1 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 685 662 700
Rank change year-on-year -23 +38 +15
Permanent jobs requiring a Graduate Software Engineer 113 10 70
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.096% 0.020% 0.094%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.10% 0.023% 0.098%
Number of salaries quoted 104 9 42
10th Percentile - £28,600 £24,325
25th Percentile £24,000 £31,250 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £29,000 £42,750 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -32.16% +31.54% -7.14%
75th Percentile £35,000 £44,375 £37,500
90th Percentile £65,250 £45,250 £42,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £29,000 £32,000 £32,500
% change year-on-year -9.38% -1.54% -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 109,576 44,426 71,253
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.91% 89.79% 95.29%
Number of salaries quoted 74,908 25,599 41,366
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,750
25th Percentile £40,875 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £74,258 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

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 1 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Graduate Software Engineer in the UK

Graduate Software Engineer
Top 15 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 1 October 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 -29 99 £31,000 -4.62% 45
UK excluding London -47 87 £29,000 -9.38% 25
Work from Home +8 55 £24,000 -23.81% 28
North of England -47 29 £32,500 +15.04% 11
Midlands -31 16 £26,000 -
London -45 15 £50,000 +5.26% 28
East of England -16 14 £47,500 +48.44% 1
South East - 14 £29,000 - 1
East Midlands - 13 £26,000 -
Yorkshire -23 12 £35,000 +7.69% 4
South West - 11 £24,000 - 2
North West -21 10 £24,000 - 6
North East - 7 £35,000 - 1
West Midlands -45 3 £24,000 -
Scotland - 3 £24,000 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 1 October 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.

1 113 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 55 (48.67%) Computer Science
3 48 (42.48%) C#
4 43 (38.05%) Azure
4 43 (38.05%) SQL
5 40 (35.40%) PHP
6 33 (29.20%) Degree
7 22 (19.47%) C++
8 20 (17.70%) Agile
8 20 (17.70%) Computer Science Degree
8 20 (17.70%) Java
9 19 (16.81%) Python
9 19 (16.81%) SQL Server
10 14 (12.39%) Linux
10 14 (12.39%) Problem-Solving
11 13 (11.50%) OOP
12 11 (9.73%) AI
13 10 (8.85%) E-Commerce
13 10 (8.85%) Logistics
13 10 (8.85%) Mentoring
14 8 (7.08%) JavaScript
14 8 (7.08%) Mathematics
15 7 (6.19%) C
15 7 (6.19%) Cybersecurity
15 7 (6.19%) Rust
16 5 (4.42%) AWS
16 5 (4.42%) CSS
16 5 (4.42%) Fintech
16 5 (4.42%) MVC
16 5 (4.42%) React

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 (0.88%) Apache
1 1 (0.88%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 1 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 43 (38.05%) Azure
2 5 (4.42%) AWS
3 3 (2.65%) GitHub
3 3 (2.65%) SaaS
4 1 (0.88%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (16.81%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.54%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 4 (3.54%) Git
2 3 (2.65%) JIRA
2 3 (2.65%) Visual Studio
3 1 (0.88%) Cypress.io
General
1 26 (23.01%) Finance
2 14 (12.39%) Manufacturing
3 10 (8.85%) Pharmaceutical
3 10 (8.85%) Retail
3 10 (8.85%) Social Skills
4 5 (4.42%) Banking
5 3 (2.65%) Electronics
6 2 (1.77%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.77%) Retail Banking
7 1 (0.88%) Military
7 1 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.42%) CSS
1 5 (4.42%) React
2 4 (3.54%) jQuery
3 3 (2.65%) .NET
4 2 (1.77%) HTML
5 1 (0.88%) Ajax
5 1 (0.88%) AngularJS
5 1 (0.88%) CSS3
5 1 (0.88%) FastAPI
5 1 (0.88%) Flask
5 1 (0.88%) HTML5
5 1 (0.88%) Jest
5 1 (0.88%) JSON
5 1 (0.88%) Next.js
5 1 (0.88%) Redux
5 1 (0.88%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.19%) Algorithms
2 6 (5.31%) Hedge funds
3 4 (3.54%) RISC-V
4 3 (2.65%) Clustering
4 3 (2.65%) Cyber Threat
4 3 (2.65%) Data Structures
4 3 (2.65%) Driving Licence
5 2 (1.77%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.77%) Mobile Banking
6 1 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (0.88%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (0.88%) FPGA
6 1 (0.88%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 14 (12.39%) Linux
2 3 (2.65%) Debian
2 3 (2.65%) Gentoo
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 55 (48.67%) Computer Science
3 20 (17.70%) Agile
4 14 (12.39%) Problem-Solving
5 13 (11.50%) OOP
6 11 (9.73%) AI
7 10 (8.85%) E-Commerce
7 10 (8.85%) Logistics
7 10 (8.85%) Mentoring
8 8 (7.08%) Mathematics
9 7 (6.19%) Cybersecurity
10 5 (4.42%) Fintech
10 5 (4.42%) MVC
11 4 (3.54%) Electronic Design Automation
11 4 (3.54%) Open Source
11 4 (3.54%) Physics
11 4 (3.54%) Web Development
12 3 (2.65%) Configuration Management
12 3 (2.65%) OO
12 3 (2.65%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 48 (42.48%) C#
2 43 (38.05%) SQL
3 40 (35.40%) PHP
4 22 (19.47%) C++
5 20 (17.70%) Java
6 19 (16.81%) Python
7 8 (7.08%) JavaScript
8 7 (6.19%) C
8 7 (6.19%) Rust
9 4 (3.54%) Go
9 4 (3.54%) TypeScript
10 3 (2.65%) Bash
10 3 (2.65%) PL/SQL
10 3 (2.65%) Ruby
11 2 (1.77%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 33 (29.20%) Degree
2 20 (17.70%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (1.77%) Azure Certification
3 2 (1.77%) Security Cleared
4 1 (0.88%) BPSS Clearance
System Software
1 4 (3.54%) Firmware
1 4 (3.54%) QEMU
2 3 (2.65%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (2.65%) Ansible
1 3 (2.65%) Podman
Vendors
1 2 (1.77%) Google
2 1 (0.88%) Microsoft
2 1 (0.88%) Revolut
55 Graduate Software Engineer jobs Nationwide