Graduate Software Engineer Job Trends

Graduate Software Engineer
UK

The median Graduate Software Engineer salary in the UK is £28,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 13 October 2026.

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

 6 months to
13 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 692 657 699
Rank change year-on-year -35 +42 +3
Permanent jobs requiring a Graduate Software Engineer 117 10 66
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.099% 0.020% 0.092%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.023% 0.097%
Number of salaries quoted 100 9 40
10th Percentile - £28,600 £24,225
25th Percentile £24,000 £31,250 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £28,500 £42,750 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -33.33% +31.54% -7.14%
75th Percentile £35,000 £44,375 £37,750
90th Percentile £60,875 £45,250 £42,600
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 109,503 44,040 68,088
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 89.76% 95.37%
Number of salaries quoted 74,366 25,685 38,800
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,000 £35,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,750 £53,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.81% -2.73% -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,250 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +19.57% -8.00% -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 13 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 13 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 -41 102 £30,000 -7.69% 40
UK excluding London -60 93 £29,000 -9.38% 31
Work from Home +9 62 £24,000 -23.81% 29
North of England -32 34 £32,500 +15.04% 13
Midlands -38 16 £26,000 -
Yorkshire -21 14 £35,000 +7.69% 6
East of England -24 14 £47,500 +48.44% 3
North West -21 13 £24,000 - 7
London -42 13 £50,000 +5.26% 16
South West - 13 £24,000 - 1
East Midlands - 13 £26,000 -
South East - 12 £29,000 - 5
North East - 7 £35,000 -
Scotland - 4 £24,000 - 6
West Midlands -39 3 £24,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 13 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.

1 117 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 51 (43.59%) Azure
3 49 (41.88%) Computer Science
4 48 (41.03%) C#
5 42 (35.90%) SQL
6 40 (34.19%) PHP
7 30 (25.64%) Degree
8 25 (21.37%) Java
9 24 (20.51%) Python
10 20 (17.09%) Agile
11 19 (16.24%) AI
11 19 (16.24%) C++
11 19 (16.24%) SQL Server
12 17 (14.53%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (12.82%) Rust
14 14 (11.97%) Linux
15 12 (10.26%) OOP
15 12 (10.26%) TypeScript
16 11 (9.40%) Go
16 11 (9.40%) Machine Learning
16 11 (9.40%) Problem-Solving
17 10 (8.55%) Azure Certification
17 10 (8.55%) Data Science
17 10 (8.55%) E-Commerce
17 10 (8.55%) Google
17 10 (8.55%) Kotlin
17 10 (8.55%) Logistics
17 10 (8.55%) Test Automation
18 9 (7.69%) Cybersecurity
18 9 (7.69%) Mentoring

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:

Applications
1 1 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 51 (43.59%) Azure
2 5 (4.27%) AWS
3 3 (2.56%) GitHub
4 2 (1.71%) SaaS
5 1 (0.85%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (16.24%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.42%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 3 (2.56%) Git
1 3 (2.56%) JIRA
1 3 (2.56%) Visual Studio
2 1 (0.85%) Cypress.io
General
1 32 (27.35%) Finance
2 14 (11.97%) Manufacturing
3 13 (11.11%) Banking
4 10 (8.55%) Pharmaceutical
4 10 (8.55%) Retail
4 10 (8.55%) Retail Banking
5 9 (7.69%) Social Skills
6 2 (1.71%) Financial Institution
7 1 (0.85%) Military
7 1 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.27%) CSS
1 5 (4.27%) React
2 4 (3.42%) jQuery
3 3 (2.56%) .NET
4 1 (0.85%) Ajax
4 1 (0.85%) AngularJS
4 1 (0.85%) CSS3
4 1 (0.85%) HTML
4 1 (0.85%) HTML5
4 1 (0.85%) Jest
4 1 (0.85%) JSON
4 1 (0.85%) Next.js
4 1 (0.85%) Redux
4 1 (0.85%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 10 (8.55%) Mobile Banking
2 6 (5.13%) Hedge funds
3 4 (3.42%) Algorithms
3 4 (3.42%) RISC-V
4 3 (2.56%) Clustering
4 3 (2.56%) Cyber Threat
4 3 (2.56%) Data Structures
4 3 (2.56%) Driving Licence
5 2 (1.71%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.85%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (0.85%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (0.85%) FPGA
6 1 (0.85%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 14 (11.97%) Linux
2 3 (2.56%) Debian
2 3 (2.56%) Gentoo
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 49 (41.88%) Computer Science
3 20 (17.09%) Agile
4 19 (16.24%) AI
5 12 (10.26%) OOP
6 11 (9.40%) Machine Learning
6 11 (9.40%) Problem-Solving
7 10 (8.55%) Data Science
7 10 (8.55%) E-Commerce
7 10 (8.55%) Logistics
7 10 (8.55%) Test Automation
8 9 (7.69%) Cybersecurity
8 9 (7.69%) Mentoring
9 5 (4.27%) Fintech
9 5 (4.27%) Mathematics
9 5 (4.27%) MVC
10 4 (3.42%) Electronic Design Automation
10 4 (3.42%) Open Source
10 4 (3.42%) Physics
10 4 (3.42%) Web Development
Programming Languages
1 48 (41.03%) C#
2 42 (35.90%) SQL
3 40 (34.19%) PHP
4 25 (21.37%) Java
5 24 (20.51%) Python
6 19 (16.24%) C++
7 15 (12.82%) Rust
8 12 (10.26%) TypeScript
9 11 (9.40%) Go
10 10 (8.55%) Kotlin
11 7 (5.98%) C
11 7 (5.98%) JavaScript
12 3 (2.56%) Bash
12 3 (2.56%) PL/SQL
12 3 (2.56%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 30 (25.64%) Degree
2 17 (14.53%) Computer Science Degree
3 10 (8.55%) Azure Certification
4 1 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
System Software
1 4 (3.42%) Firmware
1 4 (3.42%) QEMU
2 3 (2.56%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (2.56%) Ansible
1 3 (2.56%) Podman
Vendors
1 10 (8.55%) Google
2 1 (0.85%) Microsoft
2 1 (0.85%) Revolut
51 Graduate Software Engineer jobs Nationwide