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 1 July 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 195 128
Rank change year-on-year +60 -67 +165
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,383 796 2,206
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.71% 2.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.52% 1.90% 2.21%
Number of salaries quoted 1,128 460 1,606
10th Percentile £56,250 £52,950 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £63,250 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £80,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +23.08% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £105,000 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% -7.69%

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 90,787 41,821 99,953
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.11% 89.76% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 62,361 24,209 72,015
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £56,673 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.95% +7.95% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -5.87%

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 1 July 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 1 July 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 +62 1,222 £75,000 -7.41% 370
UK excluding London +86 983 £70,000 +3.70% 244
London -12 327 £100,000 - 155
Work from Home -33 311 £70,000 -12.50% 134
South East +140 251 £75,000 +15.38% 63
North of England -17 238 £75,000 +0.67% 45
South West +49 162 £70,000 -6.67% 43
North West -28 144 £75,000 - 32
East of England +73 129 £70,000 +18.64% 48
Midlands +48 111 £65,000 -10.34% 28
West Midlands +23 69 £68,403 -8.80% 10
Scotland +19 66 £67,500 +4.25% 9
Yorkshire +11 63 £70,000 -12.50% 1
East Midlands +11 42 £65,000 -7.14% 18
North East -37 31 £90,000 +63.64% 12
Wales -33 23 £56,250 -13.46% 8
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 7

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

For the 6 months to 1 July 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 1,378 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 231 (16.70%) C++
3 230 (16.63%) C#
4 214 (15.47%) Python
5 201 (14.53%) AWS
6 193 (13.96%) Java
7 190 (13.74%) Agile
8 176 (12.73%) .NET
9 152 (10.99%) Full-Stack Development
10 143 (10.34%) CI/CD
11 123 (8.89%) Mentoring
12 118 (8.53%) Microservices
13 114 (8.24%) Azure
14 112 (8.10%) AI
15 110 (7.95%) React
16 109 (7.88%) Linux
17 107 (7.74%) TypeScript
18 103 (7.45%) DevOps
19 100 (7.23%) SaaS
20 96 (6.94%) JavaScript
21 94 (6.80%) Security Cleared
22 90 (6.51%) SQL
23 88 (6.36%) Test Automation
24 84 (6.07%) C
25 83 (6.00%) Computer Science
25 83 (6.00%) Degree
26 82 (5.93%) SDLC
27 81 (5.86%) Kubernetes
28 77 (5.57%) Node.js
29 74 (5.35%) Docker

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 (1.16%) SharePoint Server
2 3 (0.22%) Apache
2 3 (0.22%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
2 3 (0.22%) WinCC
3 2 (0.14%) CMS
3 2 (0.14%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (0.22%) Blender
1 3 (0.22%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 201 (14.53%) AWS
2 114 (8.24%) Azure
3 100 (7.23%) SaaS
4 54 (3.90%) GCP
5 36 (2.60%) GitHub
6 32 (2.31%) Serverless
7 24 (1.74%) Amazon EKS
8 17 (1.23%) Anthropic Claude
9 16 (1.16%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 14 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (0.94%) Azure AKS
12 11 (0.80%) GitHub Copilot
13 7 (0.51%) Azure Event Grid
14 6 (0.43%) Amazon S3
14 6 (0.43%) AWS Lambda
14 6 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (0.36%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.36%) Pulumi
16 4 (0.29%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.29%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.74%) RS-232
2 17 (1.23%) Ethernet
2 17 (1.23%) Multicast
3 14 (1.01%) Modbus
4 13 (0.94%) Bluetooth
5 12 (0.87%) Profibus
5 12 (0.87%) Wireless
6 9 (0.65%) Broadband
6 9 (0.65%) HTTP
6 9 (0.65%) RS-485
6 9 (0.65%) ZigBee
7 1 (0.072%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (1.95%) PostgreSQL
2 26 (1.88%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.74%) MySQL
4 21 (1.52%) NoSQL
5 13 (0.94%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (0.51%) Big Data
7 7 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (0.43%) Redis
8 6 (0.43%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.29%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.22%) DocumentDB
11 3 (0.22%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.22%) Neo4j
12 1 (0.072%) BigQuery
12 1 (0.072%) Db2
Development Applications
1 59 (4.27%) Git
2 31 (2.24%) JIRA
3 25 (1.81%) GitLab
4 20 (1.45%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.23%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.94%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.65%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.22%) Eclipse
8 3 (0.22%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.14%) Eclipse RCP
9 2 (0.14%) GDB
9 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.14%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.072%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.072%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.072%) JUnit
10 1 (0.072%) LabVIEW
10 1 (0.072%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 139 (10.05%) Finance
2 65 (4.70%) Social Skills
3 59 (4.27%) Banking
4 52 (3.76%) Electronics
5 36 (2.60%) Manufacturing
6 34 (2.46%) Public Sector
7 33 (2.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 29 (2.10%) Analytical Skills
9 21 (1.52%) Retail
10 20 (1.45%) Automotive
10 20 (1.45%) Law
11 14 (1.01%) Back Office
11 14 (1.01%) Financial Institution
12 12 (0.87%) Aerospace
12 12 (0.87%) Tech for Good
13 10 (0.72%) Games
13 10 (0.72%) Military
14 9 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
14 9 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
15 7 (0.51%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (12.73%) .NET
2 110 (7.95%) React
3 77 (5.57%) Node.js
4 42 (3.04%) WPF
5 36 (2.60%) Spring
6 35 (2.53%) RESTful
7 34 (2.46%) REST
8 27 (1.95%) Spring Boot
9 22 (1.59%) Next.js
10 21 (1.52%) .NET Core
11 18 (1.30%) AngularJS
11 18 (1.30%) React Native
12 17 (1.23%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 17 (1.23%) FIX Protocol
12 17 (1.23%) pytest
12 17 (1.23%) Ruby on Rails
13 15 (1.08%) .NET Framework
13 15 (1.08%) Vue
13 15 (1.08%) Yocto
14 13 (0.94%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 97 (7.01%) Cloud Native
2 54 (3.90%) Algorithms
3 49 (3.54%) Legacy Systems
4 37 (2.68%) Distributed Systems
4 37 (2.68%) Embedded Systems
5 30 (2.17%) Greenfield Project
6 20 (1.45%) Robotics
7 18 (1.30%) Derivative
8 17 (1.23%) Equities
8 17 (1.23%) Fixed Income
9 16 (1.16%) Device Driver
9 16 (1.16%) IoT
10 14 (1.01%) Product Ownership
11 13 (0.94%) AI Agents
12 10 (0.72%) Client/Server
13 9 (0.65%) CAN bus
13 9 (0.65%) Public Cloud
13 9 (0.65%) Sports Betting
14 8 (0.58%) Legacy Applications
14 8 (0.58%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 109 (7.88%) Linux
2 33 (2.39%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.37%) FreeRTOS
4 10 (0.72%) Windows
5 7 (0.51%) Android
6 3 (0.22%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.072%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,378 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 190 (13.74%) Agile
3 152 (10.99%) Full-Stack Development
4 143 (10.34%) CI/CD
5 123 (8.89%) Mentoring
6 118 (8.53%) Microservices
7 112 (8.10%) AI
8 103 (7.45%) DevOps
9 88 (6.36%) Test Automation
10 83 (6.00%) Computer Science
11 82 (5.93%) SDLC
12 66 (4.77%) Problem-Solving
13 61 (4.41%) Fintech
14 59 (4.27%) Technical Leadership
15 57 (4.12%) Code Quality
16 56 (4.05%) Containerisation
17 53 (3.83%) Continuous Improvement
18 47 (3.40%) Mathematics
19 41 (2.96%) Low Latency
19 41 (2.96%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 231 (16.70%) C++
2 230 (16.63%) C#
3 214 (15.47%) Python
4 193 (13.96%) Java
5 107 (7.74%) TypeScript
6 96 (6.94%) JavaScript
7 90 (6.51%) SQL
8 84 (6.07%) C
9 50 (3.62%) Rust
10 26 (1.88%) Go
11 20 (1.45%) Embedded C
12 18 (1.30%) PHP
13 17 (1.23%) Ruby
14 13 (0.94%) Scala
15 10 (0.72%) F#
15 10 (0.72%) Haskell
15 10 (0.72%) Julia
15 10 (0.72%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.72%) VB
16 8 (0.58%) R
Qualifications
1 94 (6.80%) Security Cleared
2 83 (6.00%) Degree
3 69 (4.99%) SC Cleared
4 41 (2.96%) DV Cleared
5 24 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (1.52%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.01%) PhD
8 3 (0.22%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.072%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (2.53%) QA
2 12 (0.87%) Accessibility
3 10 (0.72%) IEC 61508
3 10 (0.72%) MISRA
3 10 (0.72%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.36%) GDPR
5 3 (0.22%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.22%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.072%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 74 (5.35%) Docker
2 49 (3.54%) Firmware
3 22 (1.59%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.14%) KVM
4 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.072%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 81 (5.86%) Kubernetes
2 45 (3.25%) Terraform
3 21 (1.52%) Grafana
4 7 (0.51%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.43%) Ansible
6 5 (0.36%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.22%) Plesk
Vendors
1 12 (0.87%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.58%) Siemens
3 6 (0.43%) Google
3 6 (0.43%) Splunk
4 5 (0.36%) OpenAI
5 4 (0.29%) Databricks
5 4 (0.29%) Foundry
6 3 (0.22%) HubSpot
6 3 (0.22%) Intel
6 3 (0.22%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.14%) ADVA
7 2 (0.14%) VMware
8 1 (0.072%) Palantir
8 1 (0.072%) TOWER Software