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 22 May 2026.

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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 157 205 145
Rank change year-on-year +48 -60 +135
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,209 728 1,902
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.31% 1.70% 1.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.40% 1.90% 2.07%
Number of salaries quoted 967 466 1,376
10th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £61,250 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £77,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% +19.23% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £97,528 £80,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £130,000 £102,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -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 86,286 38,345 92,039
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.36% 89.33% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 57,161 21,611 67,433
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -6.17%

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 22 May 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 22 May 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 +42 1,044 £77,500 -1.66% 291
UK excluding London +61 818 £70,000 +7.69% 219
London +32 319 £95,000 - 100
Work from Home -37 305 £72,500 -3.33% 136
South East +104 215 £72,500 +11.54% 67
North of England -74 168 £75,000 +11.11% 48
South West +50 150 £70,000 - 24
East of England +39 100 £72,500 +19.34% 28
North West -60 99 £75,000 +7.14% 24
Midlands +35 85 £65,000 -10.34% 32
Scotland +16 81 £67,500 +8.00% 11
West Midlands +21 58 £67,500 -6.90% 20
Yorkshire -11 54 £70,000 -11.84% 11
East Midlands -11 27 £65,000 - 12
Wales -25 18 £57,500 -11.54% 3
North East -39 15 £80,000 +45.45% 14
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 7

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

For the 6 months to 22 May 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 1,197 (99.01%) Software Engineering
2 192 (15.88%) C++
3 182 (15.05%) C#
4 181 (14.97%) Java
5 171 (14.14%) Agile
6 164 (13.56%) AWS
7 163 (13.48%) .NET
8 162 (13.40%) Python
9 139 (11.50%) Full-Stack Development
10 125 (10.34%) CI/CD
11 114 (9.43%) Mentoring
12 108 (8.93%) Microservices
13 103 (8.52%) Azure
14 95 (7.86%) DevOps
15 94 (7.78%) Linux
16 92 (7.61%) React
17 87 (7.20%) JavaScript
18 86 (7.11%) SaaS
19 82 (6.78%) TypeScript
20 77 (6.37%) AI
21 76 (6.29%) SDLC
21 76 (6.29%) Test Automation
22 75 (6.20%) Kubernetes
23 74 (6.12%) C
23 74 (6.12%) Security Cleared
23 74 (6.12%) SQL
24 73 (6.04%) Degree
25 72 (5.96%) Computer Science
26 65 (5.38%) Problem-Solving
27 63 (5.21%) 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 15 (1.24%) SharePoint Server
2 4 (0.33%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.25%) Apache
3 3 (0.25%) CMS
3 3 (0.25%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.25%) WinCC
4 2 (0.17%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (0.083%) Blender
1 1 (0.083%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 164 (13.56%) AWS
2 103 (8.52%) Azure
3 86 (7.11%) SaaS
4 55 (4.55%) GCP
5 39 (3.23%) GitHub
6 27 (2.23%) Serverless
7 19 (1.57%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 17 (1.41%) Amazon EKS
9 16 (1.32%) Anthropic Claude
9 16 (1.32%) GitHub Copilot
10 15 (1.24%) Azure AKS
11 12 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
12 10 (0.83%) Azure Event Grid
13 7 (0.58%) Stripe
14 5 (0.41%) Amazon S3
15 4 (0.33%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 4 (0.33%) Amazon SQS
15 4 (0.33%) IaaS
16 3 (0.25%) AWS Lambda
16 3 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.57%) RS-232
2 16 (1.32%) Ethernet
2 16 (1.32%) Multicast
3 14 (1.16%) HTTP
4 10 (0.83%) Modbus
5 9 (0.74%) Bluetooth
6 8 (0.66%) Profibus
6 8 (0.66%) Wireless
7 5 (0.41%) Broadband
7 5 (0.41%) RS-485
7 5 (0.41%) ZigBee
8 1 (0.083%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (2.65%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.65%) NoSQL
3 19 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.16%) MySQL
5 11 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
5 11 (0.91%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (0.58%) Big Data
8 6 (0.50%) BigQuery
9 5 (0.41%) Redis
10 4 (0.33%) DocumentDB
10 4 (0.33%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.25%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.25%) Relational Database
12 2 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.17%) DynamoDB
12 2 (0.17%) Geospatial Data
13 1 (0.083%) Amazon Athena
13 1 (0.083%) DB2
13 1 (0.083%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 50 (4.14%) Git
2 23 (1.90%) JIRA
3 19 (1.57%) TeamCity
4 18 (1.49%) GitLab
5 16 (1.32%) Claude Code
6 13 (1.08%) Visual Studio Code
7 10 (0.83%) Jenkins
8 4 (0.33%) JUnit
9 3 (0.25%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.25%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.17%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.17%) GDB
10 2 (0.17%) JBehave
10 2 (0.17%) Selenium
10 2 (0.17%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.17%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.17%) Xcode
11 1 (0.083%) NUnit
11 1 (0.083%) WinDbg
General
1 145 (11.99%) Finance
2 66 (5.46%) Banking
3 48 (3.97%) Social Skills
4 38 (3.14%) Electronics
5 29 (2.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 26 (2.15%) Public Sector
7 24 (1.99%) Manufacturing
8 22 (1.82%) Retail
9 20 (1.65%) Automotive
10 16 (1.32%) Analytical Skills
10 16 (1.32%) Law
11 15 (1.24%) Financial Institution
11 15 (1.24%) Tech for Good
12 14 (1.16%) Back Office
12 14 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
13 12 (0.99%) Games
14 11 (0.91%) Aerospace
15 7 (0.58%) Agriculture
15 7 (0.58%) Military
15 7 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (13.48%) .NET
2 92 (7.61%) React
3 59 (4.88%) Node.js
4 41 (3.39%) REST
5 33 (2.73%) RESTful
6 29 (2.40%) WPF
7 26 (2.15%) .NET Core
8 25 (2.07%) React Native
9 23 (1.90%) Spring
10 21 (1.74%) Spring Boot
11 17 (1.41%) .NET Framework
12 16 (1.32%) AngularJS
12 16 (1.32%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 16 (1.32%) FIX Protocol
12 16 (1.32%) pytest
12 16 (1.32%) Ruby on Rails
13 14 (1.16%) Yocto
14 13 (1.08%) Vue
15 12 (0.99%) Entity Framework
16 11 (0.91%) Dapper ORM
Miscellaneous
1 88 (7.28%) Cloud Native
2 52 (4.30%) Algorithms
3 35 (2.89%) Embedded Systems
4 27 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
5 24 (1.99%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (1.49%) Derivative
6 18 (1.49%) IoT
7 16 (1.32%) Equities
7 16 (1.32%) Fixed Income
8 15 (1.24%) CAN bus
9 14 (1.16%) Device Driver
9 14 (1.16%) Public Cloud
9 14 (1.16%) Robotics
10 12 (0.99%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (0.74%) Sports Betting
12 8 (0.66%) AI Agents
12 8 (0.66%) Client/Server
12 8 (0.66%) Legacy Applications
13 7 (0.58%) FMCG
13 7 (0.58%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 94 (7.78%) Linux
2 29 (2.40%) Embedded Linux
3 15 (1.24%) FreeRTOS
4 13 (1.08%) Android
5 6 (0.50%) Windows
6 4 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.083%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,197 (99.01%) Software Engineering
2 171 (14.14%) Agile
3 139 (11.50%) Full-Stack Development
4 125 (10.34%) CI/CD
5 114 (9.43%) Mentoring
6 108 (8.93%) Microservices
7 95 (7.86%) DevOps
8 77 (6.37%) AI
9 76 (6.29%) SDLC
9 76 (6.29%) Test Automation
10 72 (5.96%) Computer Science
11 65 (5.38%) Problem-Solving
12 62 (5.13%) Fintech
13 57 (4.71%) Containerisation
13 57 (4.71%) Technical Leadership
14 48 (3.97%) Continuous Improvement
15 47 (3.89%) Embedded Software Development
16 46 (3.80%) Low Latency
17 44 (3.64%) Scrum
18 40 (3.31%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 192 (15.88%) C++
2 182 (15.05%) C#
3 181 (14.97%) Java
4 162 (13.40%) Python
5 87 (7.20%) JavaScript
6 82 (6.78%) TypeScript
7 74 (6.12%) C
7 74 (6.12%) SQL
8 40 (3.31%) Rust
9 27 (2.23%) Go
10 19 (1.57%) Embedded C
10 19 (1.57%) PHP
11 16 (1.32%) Ruby
12 12 (0.99%) Kotlin
12 12 (0.99%) Scala
13 8 (0.66%) F#
13 8 (0.66%) Haskell
14 6 (0.50%) MATLAB
15 5 (0.41%) Julia
16 4 (0.33%) R
Qualifications
1 74 (6.12%) Security Cleared
2 73 (6.04%) Degree
3 58 (4.80%) SC Cleared
4 27 (2.23%) DV Cleared
5 22 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (1.74%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.91%) PhD
8 3 (0.25%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.25%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.17%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.083%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (2.23%) QA
2 16 (1.32%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.32%) MISRA
2 16 (1.32%) MISRA C
3 11 (0.91%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.25%) DO-178B
4 3 (0.25%) GDPR
4 3 (0.25%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.083%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.083%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 63 (5.21%) Docker
2 42 (3.47%) Firmware
3 18 (1.49%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.17%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.17%) KVM
4 2 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.083%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 75 (6.20%) Kubernetes
2 37 (3.06%) Terraform
3 20 (1.65%) Grafana
4 13 (1.08%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.41%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.25%) Plesk
7 1 (0.083%) Ansible
7 1 (0.083%) Argo
Vendors
1 9 (0.74%) Google
1 9 (0.74%) Microsoft
2 7 (0.58%) HubSpot
3 6 (0.50%) Siemens
4 3 (0.25%) Rockwell
5 2 (0.17%) Adobe
5 2 (0.17%) OpenAI
5 2 (0.17%) VMware
6 1 (0.083%) New Relic
6 1 (0.083%) Palantir
6 1 (0.083%) Splunk
6 1 (0.083%) TOWER Software