Master's Degree Job Trends

Master's Degree
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for Master's Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 82 173
Rank change year-on-year +56 +91 -111
Permanent jobs citing Master's Degree 4,681 1,483 1,579
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 5.60% 3.62% 1.71%
As % of the Qualifications category 21.61% 9.23% 6.33%
Number of salaries quoted 241 452 827
10th Percentile £43,750 £40,000 £34,650
25th Percentile £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £69,315 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.20% +2.69% +8.00%
75th Percentile £93,634 £95,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £112,500 £125,000 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £66,250 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +20.45% - +4.76%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

Master's Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 21,659 16,067 24,963
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 25.91% 39.17% 27.01%
Number of salaries quoted 8,772 7,605 17,062
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £28,250
25th Percentile £39,000 £42,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,553 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.09% +4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £71,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £92,500 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.19% +5.20% -

Master's Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Master's Degree relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Master's Degree job vacancy trend in the UK

Master's Degree
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Master's Degree.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Master's Degree

Master's Degree
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Master's Degree within the UK over the 6 months to 11 April 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 +56 4,596 £75,000 +7.14% 319
UK excluding London +93 3,954 £66,250 +20.45% 220
North of England +64 1,674 £60,000 -5.74% 38
North West +46 1,522 £46,000 -29.23% 15
Midlands +146 1,079 £55,000 +77.42% 42
West Midlands +141 939 £55,000 +139.13% 23
South East +75 720 £75,000 +34.98% 79
London -10 658 £85,000 -5.56% 148
East of England +40 389 £59,450 -0.92% 30
East Midlands +38 152 £30,000 -55.56% 19
Yorkshire +8 144 £87,431 +94.29% 15
Work from Home -123 140 £85,000 +41.67% 156
South West -32 55 £45,000 -10.00% 22
Wales -16 33 - - 5
Channel Islands +1 8 - - 1
North East -28 8 £82,500 +161.90% 10
Scotland -50 6 £72,500 +61.11% 14
Northern Ireland -42 2 £62,500 -34.21% 2

Master's Degree
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 28 (0.60%) SharePoint
2 11 (0.23%) SAS
3 8 (0.17%) Confluence
4 7 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (0.15%) Apache Spark
4 7 (0.15%) WordPress
5 6 (0.13%) CMS
6 5 (0.11%) IIS
6 5 (0.11%) Kinematics
7 3 (0.064%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.043%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.021%) Apache
9 1 (0.021%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.021%) Camunda
9 1 (0.021%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.021%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.021%) Smallworld
Applications
1 42 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.49%) Chatbot
3 15 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
5 11 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 8 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
7 7 (0.15%) MS Visio
8 6 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
8 6 (0.13%) Adobe Premiere
8 6 (0.13%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.043%) Windchill
10 1 (0.021%) Maya
10 1 (0.021%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.021%) Simulink
10 1 (0.021%) Solid Edge
10 1 (0.021%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.021%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.11%) Oracle Payables
2 5 (0.11%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (0.064%) Oracle General Ledger
3 3 (0.064%) Primavera
4 2 (0.043%) Lawson
4 2 (0.043%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.043%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.043%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.043%) SAP QM
4 2 (0.043%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.021%) Misys Equation
5 1 (0.021%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.021%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.021%) SAP IBP
5 1 (0.021%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.021%) SAP MDG-F
5 1 (0.021%) SAP MDG-M
5 1 (0.021%) SAP MDG-S
5 1 (0.021%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 4,079 (87.14%) Cloud Computing
2 111 (2.37%) Azure
3 106 (2.26%) AWS
4 44 (0.94%) Power Platform
5 40 (0.85%) SaaS
6 32 (0.68%) Microsoft 365
7 29 (0.62%) GCP
8 24 (0.51%) Azure AI
9 22 (0.47%) Azure DevOps
9 22 (0.47%) Serverless
9 22 (0.47%) Vertex AI
10 21 (0.45%) Amazon SageMaker
11 19 (0.41%) PowerApps
12 18 (0.38%) PaaS
13 16 (0.34%) GitHub
14 15 (0.32%) Entra ID
15 12 (0.26%) GitHub Actions
15 12 (0.26%) Snowflake
16 10 (0.21%) Veeva
17 8 (0.17%) H2O.ai
Communications & Networking
1 4,042 (86.35%) Internet
2 11 (0.23%) TCP/IP
2 11 (0.23%) Wireless
3 10 (0.21%) Firewall
3 10 (0.21%) VoIP
4 9 (0.19%) LAN
5 8 (0.17%) Profibus
5 8 (0.17%) WAN
5 8 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (0.15%) HTTPS
7 5 (0.11%) Broadband
7 5 (0.11%) HTTP
7 5 (0.11%) SNMP
8 4 (0.085%) MPLS
8 4 (0.085%) Software-Defined Radio
8 4 (0.085%) VPN
9 3 (0.064%) BGP
9 3 (0.064%) Network Security
9 3 (0.064%) OSPF
9 3 (0.064%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (0.83%) Big Data
2 37 (0.79%) Metadata
3 35 (0.75%) Power BI
4 21 (0.45%) NoSQL
5 19 (0.41%) Data Lake
6 16 (0.34%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.23%) Data Mining
8 10 (0.21%) Hadoop
9 8 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 8 (0.17%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.17%) Tableau
10 7 (0.15%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.13%) PostgreSQL
12 5 (0.11%) Couchbase
12 5 (0.11%) MySQL
12 5 (0.11%) Redis
12 5 (0.11%) Semantic Layer
13 3 (0.064%) BigQuery
14 2 (0.043%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.043%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 30 (0.64%) Git
2 15 (0.32%) JIRA
3 10 (0.21%) MLflow
4 8 (0.17%) GitLab
5 7 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
6 6 (0.13%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.11%) Selenium
8 4 (0.085%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.043%) Postman
10 1 (0.021%) Appium
10 1 (0.021%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.021%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.021%) Charles Proxy
10 1 (0.021%) ER Studio
10 1 (0.021%) Gatling
10 1 (0.021%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (0.021%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.021%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.021%) XCUITest
10 1 (0.021%) Zephyr
General
1 4,304 (91.95%) Social Skills
2 4,122 (88.06%) Banking
3 4,105 (87.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 188 (4.02%) Finance
5 141 (3.01%) Analytical Skills
6 87 (1.86%) Marketing
7 53 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
8 50 (1.07%) Retail
9 45 (0.96%) Manufacturing
10 24 (0.51%) Aerospace
10 24 (0.51%) Electronics
10 24 (0.51%) Law
11 22 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
11 22 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
11 22 (0.47%) Telecoms
12 20 (0.43%) Games
12 20 (0.43%) Legal
13 18 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
14 14 (0.30%) Automotive
15 13 (0.28%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 3,163 (67.57%) Lecturer
2 104 (2.22%) Senior
3 102 (2.18%) Lead
4 58 (1.24%) Architect
5 49 (1.05%) Software Engineer
6 40 (0.85%) Solutions Architect
7 31 (0.66%) Graduate
8 28 (0.60%) Analyst
8 28 (0.60%) Consultant
8 28 (0.60%) Developer
9 21 (0.45%) Senior Electrical Engineer
9 21 (0.45%) Trainer
10 20 (0.43%) Associate Director
11 19 (0.41%) Senior Software Engineer
12 17 (0.36%) Instrumentation Engineer
12 17 (0.36%) Presales Solution Architect
12 17 (0.36%) Systems Engineer
13 16 (0.34%) Technical Leader
14 15 (0.32%) Development Engineer
14 15 (0.32%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (0.62%) PyTorch
2 21 (0.45%) Middleware
2 21 (0.45%) TensorFlow
3 15 (0.32%) RESTful
4 14 (0.30%) React
5 12 (0.26%) Keras
6 11 (0.23%) .NET
6 11 (0.23%) REST
6 11 (0.23%) scikit-learn
7 8 (0.17%) .NET Framework
7 8 (0.17%) Entity Framework
8 7 (0.15%) ASP.NET Web API
8 7 (0.15%) ASP.NET Web Forms
8 7 (0.15%) Node.js
8 7 (0.15%) Razor View Engine
9 6 (0.13%) CSS
9 6 (0.13%) FIX Protocol
9 6 (0.13%) HTML
9 6 (0.13%) Kafka
9 6 (0.13%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 4,066 (86.86%) IoT
2 89 (1.90%) Life Science
3 61 (1.30%) Management Information System
4 37 (0.79%) Algorithms
5 27 (0.58%) Data Centre
6 24 (0.51%) Distributed Systems
7 22 (0.47%) Pharmacovigilance
8 16 (0.34%) Cloud Native
9 15 (0.32%) Low-Code
9 15 (0.32%) Onboarding
9 15 (0.32%) Security Posture
10 13 (0.28%) Mobile App
11 12 (0.26%) Driving Licence
11 12 (0.26%) Robotics
12 11 (0.23%) Data Structures
12 11 (0.23%) Hackathon
13 10 (0.21%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (0.21%) Self-Motivation
14 9 (0.19%) AI Agents
14 9 (0.19%) Biopharmaceutical
Operating Systems
1 28 (0.60%) Linux
2 10 (0.21%) Android
3 8 (0.17%) Windows
4 4 (0.085%) Mac OS
4 4 (0.085%) Unix
5 2 (0.043%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.043%) Robot Operating System
6 1 (0.021%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.021%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.021%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.021%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,233 (90.43%) AI
2 4,180 (89.30%) Machine Learning
3 4,108 (87.76%) Cybersecurity
4 4,065 (86.84%) User Experience
4 4,065 (86.84%) Web Development
5 265 (5.66%) Computer Science
6 178 (3.80%) Agile
7 140 (2.99%) Problem-Solving
8 139 (2.97%) Analytics
9 116 (2.48%) Data Science
10 98 (2.09%) Decision-Making
11 90 (1.92%) Roadmaps
12 86 (1.84%) DevOps
13 80 (1.71%) Mentoring
14 78 (1.67%) Project Management
15 72 (1.54%) Continuous Improvement
16 70 (1.50%) Software Engineering
17 68 (1.45%) Use Case
18 65 (1.39%) CI/CD
18 65 (1.39%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 141 (3.01%) Python
2 59 (1.26%) C++
3 53 (1.13%) SQL
4 40 (0.85%) Java
5 35 (0.75%) C#
6 21 (0.45%) VBA
7 18 (0.38%) C
7 18 (0.38%) JavaScript
8 16 (0.34%) Kotlin
9 14 (0.30%) R
9 14 (0.30%) TypeScript
10 12 (0.26%) Rust
10 12 (0.26%) Scala
11 11 (0.23%) Go
12 10 (0.21%) PowerShell
13 7 (0.15%) Bash
14 5 (0.11%) MATLAB
15 4 (0.085%) PL/SQL
16 3 (0.064%) Perl
16 3 (0.064%) PHP
Qualifications
1 4,681 (100.00%) Degree
2 4,158 (88.83%) PhD
3 4,053 (86.58%) Postgraduate
4 145 (3.10%) Computer Science Degree
5 66 (1.41%) MBA
6 41 (0.88%) Security Cleared
7 39 (0.83%) SC Cleared
8 34 (0.73%) BPSS Clearance
9 23 (0.49%) HND
10 21 (0.45%) CISSP
11 19 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
12 16 (0.34%) CISM
13 14 (0.30%) Chartered Engineer
13 14 (0.30%) PMI Certification
14 13 (0.28%) DBS Check
14 13 (0.28%) PMP
15 12 (0.26%) APMP
15 12 (0.26%) Azure Certification
16 11 (0.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 10 (0.21%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (1.05%) Data Quality
2 37 (0.79%) QA
3 33 (0.70%) GDPR
4 31 (0.66%) Accessibility
5 25 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 23 (0.49%) EU AI Act
7 22 (0.47%) HIPAA
8 21 (0.45%) NIST
8 21 (0.45%) PSD2
8 21 (0.45%) Solvency II
9 19 (0.41%) GxP
10 14 (0.30%) IEC 61508
11 9 (0.19%) ISO 26262
12 7 (0.15%) PMO
13 6 (0.13%) IFRS
13 6 (0.13%) NCSC
14 5 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
15 3 (0.064%) Cyber Essentials
15 3 (0.064%) HAZOP
15 3 (0.064%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 15 (0.32%) Active Directory
1 15 (0.32%) Docker
2 4 (0.085%) Firmware
3 1 (0.021%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.021%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.021%) Xen
Systems Management
1 18 (0.38%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.32%) Functional Safety
3 14 (0.30%) Terraform
4 8 (0.17%) Ansible
5 4 (0.085%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (0.085%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.064%) Kubeflow
7 2 (0.043%) Grafana
7 2 (0.043%) MOM
8 1 (0.021%) HP Fortify
8 1 (0.021%) OpenView
8 1 (0.021%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 56 (1.20%) Microsoft
2 33 (0.70%) Google
3 25 (0.53%) Dell
4 23 (0.49%) SAP
5 22 (0.47%) Databricks
6 21 (0.45%) PayPal
7 18 (0.38%) Oracle
8 16 (0.34%) Salesforce
9 11 (0.23%) Adobe
9 11 (0.23%) EMC
10 10 (0.21%) Software AG
11 9 (0.19%) Cisco
11 9 (0.19%) NVIDIA
12 7 (0.15%) HubSpot
13 6 (0.13%) Pardot
14 5 (0.11%) BT
15 4 (0.085%) Cognizant
15 4 (0.085%) Cognos
15 4 (0.085%) Palo Alto
15 4 (0.085%) ServiceNow