Senior Software Engineer Job Trends

Senior Software Engineer
UK

The median Senior Software Engineer salary in the UK is £75,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 28 September 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 123 226 118
Rank change year-on-year +103 -108 +178
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,795 674 1,634
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.53% 1.37% 2.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.64% 1.52% 2.26%
Number of salaries quoted 1,398 352 1,090
10th Percentile £59,625 £58,875 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £90,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +28.57% +7.69%
75th Percentile £90,000 £115,000 £95,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £122,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,000 £68,750 £60,000
% change year-on-year +4.73% +14.58% -4.00%

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 109,191 44,243 72,281
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.96% 89.71% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 74,643 25,711 42,130
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,500
25th Percentile £40,750 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,598 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.54% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,750 £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%

Senior Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Senior Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior Software Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

Senior Software Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Senior Software Engineer over the 6 months to 28 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Software Engineer in the UK

Senior Software Engineer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Software Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 28 September 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 +101 1,612 £75,000 -16.67% 1,147
UK excluding London +121 1,276 £72,000 +4.73% 627
London +24 437 £95,000 -13.64% 606
North of England +15 335 £75,000 +7.14% 149
Work from Home -52 317 £80,000 -27.27% 496
South East +129 254 £80,000 +14.29% 111
South West +63 238 £70,000 +7.69% 81
North West -10 209 £75,000 +7.14% 99
East of England +106 198 £70,000 +7.69% 94
Midlands +73 144 £70,000 -6.67% 66
West Midlands +31 78 £70,000 -6.67% 29
Yorkshire +33 75 £70,000 +7.69% 32
East Midlands +23 66 £60,000 -14.29% 37
Scotland +20 56 £75,000 +16.28% 83
North East -26 51 £80,000 +700.00% 18
Wales -16 46 £70,000 - 13
Northern Ireland - 5 £75,000 - 37

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

For the 6 months to 28 September 2026, Senior 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 Senior Software Engineer in the job title.

1 1,792 (99.83%) Software Engineering
2 284 (15.82%) Python
3 254 (14.15%) Agile
4 249 (13.87%) C#
5 235 (13.09%) C++
6 231 (12.87%) AWS
7 229 (12.76%) Java
8 210 (11.70%) AI
9 204 (11.36%) CI/CD
10 180 (10.03%) Mentoring
11 169 (9.42%) Full-Stack Development
12 163 (9.08%) .NET
13 150 (8.36%) TypeScript
14 128 (7.13%) Microservices
14 128 (7.13%) React
15 127 (7.08%) DevOps
16 107 (5.96%) Azure
17 106 (5.91%) Security Cleared
18 103 (5.74%) Linux
18 103 (5.74%) Test Automation
19 95 (5.29%) Code Quality
19 95 (5.29%) SDLC
20 90 (5.01%) Kubernetes
21 88 (4.90%) Problem-Solving
22 87 (4.85%) Technical Leadership
23 86 (4.79%) JavaScript
24 82 (4.57%) Degree
25 81 (4.51%) Node.js
26 80 (4.46%) Docker
27 79 (4.40%) Continuous Improvement

Senior 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 16 (0.89%) SharePoint Server
2 7 (0.39%) Apache
3 4 (0.22%) Confluence
4 3 (0.17%) CMS
4 3 (0.17%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.17%) WinCC
5 2 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.11%) Apache Solr
5 2 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.056%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.056%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.17%) Blender
1 3 (0.17%) Maya
2 1 (0.056%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 231 (12.87%) AWS
2 107 (5.96%) Azure
3 72 (4.01%) SaaS
4 70 (3.90%) GCP
5 46 (2.56%) Serverless
6 37 (2.06%) GitHub
7 24 (1.34%) Amazon EKS
8 19 (1.06%) GitHub Copilot
9 16 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (0.78%) Anthropic Claude
11 12 (0.67%) AWS Lambda
12 10 (0.56%) Amazon S3
12 10 (0.56%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (0.45%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 6 (0.33%) Amazon SQS
14 6 (0.33%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (0.33%) Supabase
15 5 (0.28%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.28%) Dynamics 365
16 4 (0.22%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 15 (0.84%) RS-232
2 14 (0.78%) Ethernet
3 13 (0.72%) Modbus
4 12 (0.67%) Bluetooth
5 11 (0.61%) Profibus
6 9 (0.50%) Multicast
6 9 (0.50%) TCP/IP
6 9 (0.50%) Wireless
7 8 (0.45%) Broadband
7 8 (0.45%) Internet
7 8 (0.45%) RS-485
7 8 (0.45%) ZigBee
8 7 (0.39%) HTTP
9 4 (0.22%) Firewall
10 2 (0.11%) MQTT
10 2 (0.11%) RS-422
11 1 (0.056%) BGP
11 1 (0.056%) DNS
11 1 (0.056%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (3.57%) PostgreSQL
2 31 (1.73%) MySQL
3 28 (1.56%) Relational Database
4 18 (1.00%) Redis
5 17 (0.95%) MongoDB
6 15 (0.84%) NoSQL
7 14 (0.78%) SQL Server
8 10 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
8 10 (0.56%) DynamoDB
9 7 (0.39%) Big Data
10 6 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (0.28%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.22%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.17%) MariaDB
14 2 (0.11%) DocumentDB
14 2 (0.11%) Flink
14 2 (0.11%) Neo4j
14 2 (0.11%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 57 (3.18%) Git
2 26 (1.45%) JIRA
3 25 (1.39%) GitLab
4 17 (0.95%) TeamCity
5 14 (0.78%) Claude Code
6 10 (0.56%) Visual Studio Code
7 8 (0.45%) Jenkins
8 6 (0.33%) Mocha
8 6 (0.33%) Selenium
9 5 (0.28%) Jasmine
9 5 (0.28%) NUnit
9 5 (0.28%) Visual Studio
10 4 (0.22%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.22%) Rational Rhapsody
11 3 (0.17%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.17%) Eclipse RCP
11 3 (0.17%) JUnit
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
12 2 (0.11%) Appium
12 2 (0.11%) CMake
General
1 145 (8.08%) Finance
2 125 (6.96%) Social Skills
3 66 (3.68%) Electronics
4 55 (3.06%) Banking
4 55 (3.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 44 (2.45%) Public Sector
6 40 (2.23%) Analytical Skills
7 39 (2.17%) Manufacturing
8 37 (2.06%) Law
9 27 (1.50%) Aerospace
10 21 (1.17%) Retail
11 17 (0.95%) Marketing
12 14 (0.78%) Financial Institution
12 14 (0.78%) Military
13 13 (0.72%) Front Office
14 12 (0.67%) Games
15 11 (0.61%) Automotive
16 9 (0.50%) Health Technology
16 9 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.50%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (9.08%) .NET
2 128 (7.13%) React
3 81 (4.51%) Node.js
4 67 (3.73%) Terraform
5 66 (3.68%) Spring
6 47 (2.62%) WPF
7 45 (2.51%) RESTful
8 43 (2.40%) Spring Boot
9 42 (2.34%) Kafka
10 30 (1.67%) Next.js
11 26 (1.45%) REST
12 25 (1.39%) AngularJS
13 21 (1.17%) FastAPI
14 20 (1.11%) Vue
15 16 (0.89%) Django
16 15 (0.84%) React Native
17 13 (0.72%) CSS
18 11 (0.61%) .NET Core
18 11 (0.61%) FIX Protocol
18 11 (0.61%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 119 (6.63%) Cloud Native
2 58 (3.23%) Distributed Systems
3 55 (3.06%) Legacy Systems
4 48 (2.67%) Robotics
5 45 (2.51%) Algorithms
6 37 (2.06%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.62%) Greenfield Project
8 26 (1.45%) Product Ownership
9 25 (1.39%) AI Agents
10 22 (1.23%) Public Cloud
11 19 (1.06%) Blog
12 18 (1.00%) Cyber Threat
13 13 (0.72%) Blockchain
13 13 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
14 12 (0.67%) Derivative
14 12 (0.67%) Device Driver
14 12 (0.67%) Virtual Team
15 11 (0.61%) Legacy Applications
16 10 (0.56%) Fixed Income
17 9 (0.50%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 103 (5.74%) Linux
2 29 (1.62%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.00%) FreeRTOS
3 18 (1.00%) Windows
4 9 (0.50%) Apple iOS
5 8 (0.45%) Android
5 8 (0.45%) Unix
6 2 (0.11%) VxWorks
7 1 (0.056%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,792 (99.83%) Software Engineering
2 254 (14.15%) Agile
3 210 (11.70%) AI
4 204 (11.36%) CI/CD
5 180 (10.03%) Mentoring
6 169 (9.42%) Full-Stack Development
7 128 (7.13%) Microservices
8 127 (7.08%) DevOps
9 103 (5.74%) Test Automation
10 95 (5.29%) Code Quality
10 95 (5.29%) SDLC
11 88 (4.90%) Problem-Solving
12 87 (4.85%) Technical Leadership
13 79 (4.40%) Continuous Improvement
14 69 (3.84%) Computer Science
15 68 (3.79%) Fintech
16 60 (3.34%) Event-Driven
17 57 (3.18%) Machine Learning
18 56 (3.12%) Containerisation
18 56 (3.12%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 284 (15.82%) Python
2 249 (13.87%) C#
3 235 (13.09%) C++
4 229 (12.76%) Java
5 150 (8.36%) TypeScript
6 86 (4.79%) JavaScript
7 78 (4.35%) SQL
8 71 (3.96%) C
9 40 (2.23%) Rust
10 34 (1.89%) Go
11 18 (1.00%) Embedded C
12 16 (0.89%) PHP
12 16 (0.89%) Scala
13 14 (0.78%) Kotlin
13 14 (0.78%) Ruby
14 13 (0.72%) F#
14 13 (0.72%) Haskell
14 13 (0.72%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.56%) Julia
16 8 (0.45%) R
Qualifications
1 106 (5.91%) Security Cleared
2 82 (4.57%) Degree
3 71 (3.96%) SC Cleared
4 51 (2.84%) DV Cleared
5 23 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (0.84%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (0.50%) PhD
9 6 (0.33%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.22%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.11%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.11%) Chartered Engineer
11 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.056%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.056%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (2.06%) QA
2 18 (1.00%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.33%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.28%) GDPR
5 4 (0.22%) DO-178B
6 3 (0.17%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.17%) IEC 61508
6 3 (0.17%) MISRA
6 3 (0.17%) MISRA C
7 2 (0.11%) SLA
8 1 (0.056%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 80 (4.46%) Docker
2 49 (2.73%) Firmware
3 21 (1.17%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.056%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 90 (5.01%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.00%) Grafana
3 11 (0.61%) Ansible
4 4 (0.22%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.17%) Plesk
6 2 (0.11%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.11%) kaniko
6 2 (0.11%) Puppet
7 1 (0.056%) Argo
7 1 (0.056%) Istio
7 1 (0.056%) Kibana
7 1 (0.056%) Podman
Vendors
1 22 (1.23%) Microsoft
2 17 (0.95%) Salesforce
3 11 (0.61%) RedGate
4 10 (0.56%) Google
5 9 (0.50%) Splunk
6 8 (0.45%) Sage
6 8 (0.45%) Siemens
7 7 (0.39%) Databricks
7 7 (0.39%) Foundry
8 6 (0.33%) Oracle
9 5 (0.28%) Intel
9 5 (0.28%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.17%) Atlassian
10 3 (0.17%) New Relic
10 3 (0.17%) Revolut
10 3 (0.17%) Rockwell
11 2 (0.11%) ADVA
11 2 (0.11%) Okta
11 2 (0.11%) Thales
12 1 (0.056%) Virgin Media