Systems or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies requiring SDLC skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the annual salaries offered in vacancies that cited SDLC over the 6 months leading up to 14 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 110 53 45
Rank change year-on-year -57 -8 +19
Permanent jobs citing SDLC 1,558 4,476 6,141
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 2.83% 4.52% 6.07%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.01% 5.28% 6.35%
Number of salaries quoted 868 1,532 2,939
10th Percentile £41,713 £40,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £48,869 £46,250 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £60,899
Median % change year-on-year - -1.48% -2.56%
75th Percentile £76,250 £77,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year - -4.35% +4.55%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

SDLC falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 51,711 84,738 96,776
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 93.87% 85.57% 95.61%
Number of salaries quoted 26,444 59,708 57,080
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £34,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £40,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £61,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -9.84% +1.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £72,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £92,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,450 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.90% -9.09% +4.76%

SDLC
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing SDLC as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for SDLC in the UK

SDLC
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing SDLC.

Salary trend for SDLC in the UK

SDLC
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing SDLC over the 6 months to 14 May 2025.

Salary histogram for SDLC in the UK

SDLC
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SDLC within the UK over the 6 months to 14 May 2025. 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 +6 1,393 £60,000 -0.83% 1,371
UK excluding London -61 1,148 £55,000 - 922
Work from Home -13 644 £65,000 +8.33% 759
North of England +20 416 £50,055 -12.95% 220
London +11 360 £80,000 - 699
North West +14 350 £50,055 -16.58% 144
Midlands +61 267 £55,000 -4.35% 114
South East -1 209 £60,000 +4.35% 286
West Midlands +55 153 £59,125 +2.83% 66
East Midlands +40 114 £55,000 +10.00% 42
Scotland -68 103 £67,500 +3.85% 105
South West -18 82 £55,000 -8.33% 109
East of England -28 54 £47,500 -5.00% 69
Yorkshire +7 41 £70,000 +40.00% 51
North East +23 25 £60,000 -2.04% 30
Wales -16 20 £65,000 +30.00% 11
Northern Ireland +9 1 - - 29

SDLC
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 194 (12.45%) Confluence
2 35 (2.25%) Apache
3 33 (2.12%) CMS
4 17 (1.09%) Apache Airflow
4 17 (1.09%) SharePoint
5 15 (0.96%) Apache Spark
6 9 (0.58%) Drupal
6 9 (0.58%) WordPress
7 8 (0.51%) OpenStack
7 8 (0.51%) Umbraco
8 5 (0.32%) Liferay
8 5 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
8 5 (0.32%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.26%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.26%) IIS
9 4 (0.26%) Kentico
9 4 (0.26%) Kinematics
10 3 (0.19%) Apache Solr
10 3 (0.19%) Appian
10 3 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 14 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.83%) MS Visio
3 12 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.51%) Trello
6 7 (0.45%) Chatbot
6 7 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 2 (0.13%) Blender
7 2 (0.13%) EngageOne
8 1 (0.064%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.064%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 18 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (0.71%) Endur
3 10 (0.64%) Shopify
4 8 (0.51%) Magento
5 4 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.13%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
7 2 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
7 2 (0.13%) SimCorp Dimension
8 1 (0.064%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.064%) iTrent
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.064%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.064%) SAP GRC
8 1 (0.064%) Sprinklr
8 1 (0.064%) TrackWise
Cloud Services
1 525 (33.70%) Azure
2 430 (27.60%) AWS
3 229 (14.70%) GCP
4 98 (6.29%) Azure DevOps
5 65 (4.17%) Serverless
6 54 (3.47%) Power Platform
7 52 (3.34%) SaaS
8 42 (2.70%) GitHub
9 36 (2.31%) Amazon S3
10 30 (1.93%) Cloud Computing
11 27 (1.73%) PaaS
12 26 (1.67%) Amazon EC2
12 26 (1.67%) Power Automate
13 25 (1.60%) Amazon EKS
13 25 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
14 21 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
15 20 (1.28%) Azure Logic Apps
15 20 (1.28%) PowerApps
16 18 (1.16%) Azure Monitor
17 16 (1.03%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (0.90%) 5G
1 14 (0.90%) Network Security
2 13 (0.83%) HTTP
3 10 (0.64%) SD-WAN
3 10 (0.64%) WAN
4 9 (0.58%) Firewall
4 9 (0.58%) Multicast
5 8 (0.51%) VPN
6 5 (0.32%) Wireless
6 5 (0.32%) ZigBee
7 4 (0.26%) 3GPP
7 4 (0.26%) Internet
7 4 (0.26%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.13%) Broadband
8 2 (0.13%) DNS
8 2 (0.13%) Ethernet
8 2 (0.13%) Modbus
8 2 (0.13%) MQTT
8 2 (0.13%) SAN
8 2 (0.13%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 359 (23.04%) SQL Server
2 50 (3.21%) NoSQL
3 33 (2.12%) Relational Database
4 32 (2.05%) PostgreSQL
5 27 (1.73%) MongoDB
6 22 (1.41%) Power BI
7 15 (0.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 14 (0.90%) Redis
9 13 (0.83%) Amazon Aurora
9 13 (0.83%) RDBMS
10 12 (0.77%) Apache Hive
10 12 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
11 11 (0.71%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
13 8 (0.51%) Data Lake
14 7 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
14 7 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
14 7 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
14 7 (0.45%) MySQL
15 6 (0.39%) DB2
Development Applications
1 381 (24.45%) JIRA
2 297 (19.06%) Selenium
3 274 (17.59%) Cucumber
4 273 (17.52%) GitLab
5 268 (17.20%) Maven
6 264 (16.94%) SonarQube
7 254 (16.30%) Bitbucket
8 248 (15.92%) Sonatype Nexus
9 121 (7.77%) Git
10 74 (4.75%) Jenkins
11 47 (3.02%) JUnit
12 33 (2.12%) Visual Studio
13 29 (1.86%) Eclipse
14 26 (1.67%) Eclipse RCP
14 26 (1.67%) Mockito
15 25 (1.60%) Postman
16 21 (1.35%) Cypress.io
17 18 (1.16%) JMeter
18 14 (0.90%) IntelliJ
19 12 (0.77%) SoapUI
General
1 532 (34.15%) Finance
2 337 (21.63%) Banking
3 315 (20.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 277 (17.78%) Social Skills
5 173 (11.10%) Aerospace
6 137 (8.79%) Retail
7 132 (8.47%) Avionics
8 126 (8.09%) Analytical Skills
9 97 (6.23%) Investment Banking
10 90 (5.78%) Corporate Banking
11 85 (5.46%) Law
12 60 (3.85%) Public Sector
13 53 (3.40%) Marketing
14 27 (1.73%) Legal
14 27 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
15 26 (1.67%) Games
16 21 (1.35%) Telecoms
17 19 (1.22%) Manufacturing
18 14 (0.90%) Financial Institution
19 13 (0.83%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 418 (26.83%) Software Engineer
2 369 (23.68%) Senior
3 232 (14.89%) Developer
4 144 (9.24%) Lead
5 137 (8.79%) Systems Engineer
6 132 (8.47%) Senior Systems Engineer
7 90 (5.78%) Analyst
8 80 (5.13%) Architect
8 80 (5.13%) Principal Engineer
9 69 (4.43%) Senior Developer
10 56 (3.59%) Java Developer
11 52 (3.34%) Senior Software Engineer
12 51 (3.27%) .NET Developer
13 47 (3.02%) Full-Stack Developer
14 44 (2.82%) Software Developer
15 43 (2.76%) Java Engineer
15 43 (2.76%) Software Manager
16 38 (2.44%) C# Developer
17 36 (2.31%) Business Analyst
17 36 (2.31%) Software Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 353 (22.66%) HTML
2 352 (22.59%) React
3 347 (22.27%) CSS
4 324 (20.80%) Spring
5 300 (19.26%) Spring Boot
6 287 (18.42%) Kafka
7 257 (16.50%) Redux
8 255 (16.37%) JPA
9 184 (11.81%) .NET
10 168 (10.78%) Hibernate
11 157 (10.08%) REST
12 124 (7.96%) RESTful
13 102 (6.55%) HTML5
14 100 (6.42%) Sass
15 98 (6.29%) CSS3
16 95 (6.10%) Jest
17 79 (5.07%) Middleware
18 69 (4.43%) AngularJS
19 57 (3.66%) Node.js
20 49 (3.15%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 320 (20.54%) Product Ownership
2 274 (17.59%) Enterprise Software
3 55 (3.53%) Algorithms
4 47 (3.02%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (3.02%) Management Information System
5 40 (2.57%) Mobile App
6 35 (2.25%) Cloud Native
6 35 (2.25%) Security Posture
7 31 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
8 25 (1.60%) Greenfield Project
8 25 (1.60%) Public Cloud
8 25 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
9 23 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
10 21 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
10 21 (1.35%) Reinsurance
11 19 (1.22%) Data Structures
12 18 (1.16%) Onboarding
13 17 (1.09%) Client/Server
14 16 (1.03%) Embedded Systems
15 14 (0.90%) Credit Derivative
Operating Systems
1 119 (7.64%) Linux
2 52 (3.34%) Windows
3 26 (1.67%) Unix
4 13 (0.83%) Android
5 9 (0.58%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.32%) Rocky
7 4 (0.26%) Robot Operating System
7 4 (0.26%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.13%) VMS
9 2 (0.13%) Windows Vista
10 1 (0.064%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.064%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.064%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 870 (55.84%) Agile
2 640 (41.08%) Software Engineering
3 529 (33.95%) DevOps
4 499 (32.03%) CI/CD
5 416 (26.70%) Test Automation
6 367 (23.56%) Microservices
7 366 (23.49%) Continuous Improvement
8 327 (20.99%) Full-Stack Development
9 309 (19.83%) Mentoring
10 307 (19.70%) Containerisation
11 280 (17.97%) Front End Development
12 252 (16.17%) Performance Optimisation
13 227 (14.57%) TDD
14 218 (13.99%) Software Testing
15 212 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
16 183 (11.75%) Computer Science
17 178 (11.42%) Clean Code
18 166 (10.65%) Customer Requirements
19 164 (10.53%) User Experience
20 160 (10.27%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 554 (35.56%) Java
2 522 (33.50%) SQL
3 429 (27.54%) JavaScript
4 250 (16.05%) Python
5 229 (14.70%) C#
6 143 (9.18%) TypeScript
7 76 (4.88%) C++
8 54 (3.47%) C
9 52 (3.34%) Ada
10 46 (2.95%) PowerShell
11 33 (2.12%) Rust
12 29 (1.86%) PHP
13 28 (1.80%) Bash
14 21 (1.35%) Go
15 17 (1.09%) T-SQL
16 15 (0.96%) Shell Script
17 14 (0.90%) PL/SQL
18 13 (0.83%) Scala
19 11 (0.71%) VB
20 10 (0.64%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 533 (34.21%) Degree
2 303 (19.45%) BPSS Clearance
3 90 (5.78%) Computer Science Degree
4 52 (3.34%) Security Cleared
5 51 (3.27%) Master's Degree
6 41 (2.63%) SC Cleared
7 35 (2.25%) Chartered Engineer
8 22 (1.41%) Azure Certification
9 20 (1.28%) DV Cleared
10 18 (1.16%) ISTQB
11 17 (1.09%) PhD
12 15 (0.96%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (0.71%) CISSP
13 11 (0.71%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 11 (0.71%) PMI Certification
14 7 (0.45%) AWS Certification
15 6 (0.39%) CCSP
15 6 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
15 6 (0.39%) PMP
16 5 (0.32%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 348 (22.34%) QA
2 109 (7.00%) Accessibility
3 57 (3.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 45 (2.89%) GDPR
5 44 (2.82%) NIST
6 35 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 12207
7 25 (1.60%) NCSC
8 18 (1.16%) SOC 2
9 17 (1.09%) HIPAA
10 16 (1.03%) PMO
11 7 (0.45%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.45%) Software Quality Assurance
12 6 (0.39%) Data Quality
13 3 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.19%) GRC
13 3 (0.19%) ISO 9001
13 3 (0.19%) PMBOK
13 3 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 2 (0.13%) COBIT
14 2 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 377 (24.20%) Docker
2 13 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (0.58%) Active Directory
4 7 (0.45%) Firmware
5 5 (0.32%) Apache Flume
6 4 (0.26%) vSphere
7 3 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
9 1 (0.064%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.064%) HDFS
9 1 (0.064%) KVM
9 1 (0.064%) Xen
Systems Management
1 377 (24.20%) Kubernetes
2 61 (3.92%) Terraform
3 27 (1.73%) Ansible
4 18 (1.16%) Grafana
5 14 (0.90%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.32%) HP Fortify
6 5 (0.32%) Oozie
6 5 (0.32%) Progress Chef
6 5 (0.32%) Puppet
7 4 (0.26%) CA Endevor
8 3 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
8 3 (0.19%) Kibana
8 3 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.064%) Argo
9 1 (0.064%) CFEngine
9 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.064%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 249 (15.98%) Solace
2 167 (10.72%) Microsoft
3 81 (5.20%) Oracle
4 72 (4.62%) Siemens
5 43 (2.76%) Google
6 23 (1.48%) IBM
7 22 (1.41%) Salesforce
8 18 (1.16%) SAP
9 14 (0.90%) ServiceNow
10 11 (0.71%) OpenLink
10 11 (0.71%) Splunk
11 10 (0.64%) Databricks
11 10 (0.64%) OpenAI
12 9 (0.58%) Dynatrace
12 9 (0.58%) Sybase
13 8 (0.51%) Red Hat
14 6 (0.39%) Alibaba
14 6 (0.39%) Intel
15 5 (0.32%) Tanium
15 5 (0.32%) TIBCO