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 April 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 188 213 167
Rank change year-on-year +25 -46 +107
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 894 614 1,596
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.13% 1.50% 1.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.22% 1.67% 1.88%
Number of salaries quoted 676 528 1,151
10th Percentile £58,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year - +15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £118,125 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -3.85%

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 73,166 36,757 84,704
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.18% 89.95% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 46,994 23,163 63,811
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,550
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -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 1 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Software Engineer in the UK

Senior Software Engineer
Top 16 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 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 +32 759 £75,000 - 239
UK excluding London +23 568 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +26 279 £100,000 +8.11% 82
Work from Home -48 263 £73,750 +1.72% 116
South East +14 131 £70,000 +7.69% 62
South West +37 121 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -52 111 £75,000 +15.38% 32
Scotland -2 87 £67,500 +3.85% 18
East of England -17 59 £70,000 +3.70% 21
North West -31 58 £75,000 +15.38% 19
Midlands +7 48 £65,000 -10.34% 22
Yorkshire -33 40 £75,000 -12.03% 10
West Midlands +3 26 £65,000 -7.14% 17
East Midlands -22 22 £65,000 -13.33% 5
North East -28 13 £75,000 +36.36% 3
Wales -23 11 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 1 April 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.

1 876 (97.99%) Software Engineering
2 154 (17.23%) Java
3 141 (15.77%) AWS
4 133 (14.88%) Agile
5 126 (14.09%) .NET
6 115 (12.86%) C++
7 114 (12.75%) C#
8 106 (11.86%) Full-Stack Development
9 104 (11.63%) CI/CD
10 95 (10.63%) Microservices
11 91 (10.18%) Python
12 88 (9.84%) Azure
13 87 (9.73%) Mentoring
14 83 (9.28%) Kubernetes
15 78 (8.72%) DevOps
16 77 (8.61%) React
17 74 (8.28%) Linux
18 70 (7.83%) SaaS
19 68 (7.61%) Test Automation
20 66 (7.38%) TypeScript
21 61 (6.82%) SQL
22 60 (6.71%) Fintech
23 56 (6.26%) GCP
23 56 (6.26%) JavaScript
24 55 (6.15%) AI
25 54 (6.04%) Computer Science
25 54 (6.04%) Degree
25 54 (6.04%) Problem-Solving
26 49 (5.48%) Docker
27 47 (5.26%) C

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 3 (0.34%) Apache
1 3 (0.34%) Apache Solr
1 3 (0.34%) CMS
2 2 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 141 (15.77%) AWS
2 88 (9.84%) Azure
3 70 (7.83%) SaaS
4 56 (6.26%) GCP
5 36 (4.03%) GitHub
6 18 (2.01%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (1.90%) Azure AKS
8 13 (1.45%) GitHub Copilot
9 11 (1.23%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 11 (1.23%) Serverless
10 10 (1.12%) Anthropic Claude
10 10 (1.12%) Azure Event Grid
11 8 (0.89%) Stripe
12 6 (0.67%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.56%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.45%) Amazon S3
15 3 (0.34%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 3 (0.34%) AWS Lambda
15 3 (0.34%) Firebase
15 3 (0.34%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.57%) Multicast
2 13 (1.45%) Ethernet
2 13 (1.45%) HTTP
2 13 (1.45%) RS-232
3 5 (0.56%) Broadband
4 4 (0.45%) Wireless
5 2 (0.22%) Modbus
6 1 (0.11%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.11%) LTE
6 1 (0.11%) Profibus
6 1 (0.11%) RS-485
6 1 (0.11%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (3.80%) SQL Server
2 24 (2.68%) NoSQL
3 20 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.57%) MongoDB
5 12 (1.34%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.12%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.78%) MySQL
8 6 (0.67%) Redis
9 4 (0.45%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.34%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.34%) Big Data
10 3 (0.34%) DocumentDB
10 3 (0.34%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.34%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.22%) Apache Arrow
11 2 (0.22%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.22%) Apache Ignite
11 2 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.22%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.22%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 29 (3.24%) Git
2 23 (2.57%) JIRA
3 20 (2.24%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.12%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.12%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.78%) GitLab
6 4 (0.45%) JUnit
7 3 (0.34%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.34%) JBehave
7 3 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.22%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.22%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.22%) GDB
8 2 (0.22%) Xcode
9 1 (0.11%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.11%) Gradle
9 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.11%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.11%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 155 (17.34%) Finance
2 64 (7.16%) Banking
3 38 (4.25%) Social Skills
4 26 (2.91%) Retail
5 24 (2.68%) Financial Institution
6 21 (2.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 20 (2.24%) Law
8 18 (2.01%) Games
9 17 (1.90%) Back Office
10 13 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (1.34%) Public Sector
11 12 (1.34%) Tech for Good
12 11 (1.23%) Automotive
13 10 (1.12%) Manufacturing
14 8 (0.89%) Electronics
15 7 (0.78%) Analytical Skills
16 6 (0.67%) Pharmaceutical
17 5 (0.56%) Aerospace
17 5 (0.56%) Telecoms
18 4 (0.45%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (14.09%) .NET
2 77 (8.61%) React
3 40 (4.47%) Node.js
4 38 (4.25%) REST
5 36 (4.03%) RESTful
6 27 (3.02%) React Native
7 26 (2.91%) .NET Core
8 19 (2.13%) .NET Framework
9 15 (1.68%) GraphQL
10 14 (1.57%) Boost C++ Libraries
10 14 (1.57%) FIX Protocol
10 14 (1.57%) pytest
11 13 (1.45%) Django
11 13 (1.45%) Ruby on Rails
11 13 (1.45%) Spring
12 12 (1.34%) Entity Framework
12 12 (1.34%) Yocto
13 11 (1.23%) Dapper ORM
13 11 (1.23%) Spring Boot
14 10 (1.12%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 77 (8.61%) Cloud Native
2 31 (3.47%) Distributed Systems
3 26 (2.91%) Algorithms
4 24 (2.68%) Embedded Systems
5 17 (1.90%) Derivative
6 16 (1.79%) Equities
6 16 (1.79%) Fixed Income
7 14 (1.57%) IoT
7 14 (1.57%) Public Cloud
8 12 (1.34%) Device Driver
8 12 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
8 12 (1.34%) Robotics
9 11 (1.23%) CAN bus
10 10 (1.12%) Legacy Code
11 9 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.01%) Sports Betting
12 7 (0.78%) Blog
13 6 (0.67%) Hedge funds
14 5 (0.56%) Data Structures
14 5 (0.56%) Mobile Payment
Operating Systems
1 74 (8.28%) Linux
2 24 (2.68%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.01%) Android
4 6 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.45%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.11%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 876 (97.99%) Software Engineering
2 133 (14.88%) Agile
3 106 (11.86%) Full-Stack Development
4 104 (11.63%) CI/CD
5 95 (10.63%) Microservices
6 87 (9.73%) Mentoring
7 78 (8.72%) DevOps
8 68 (7.61%) Test Automation
9 60 (6.71%) Fintech
10 55 (6.15%) AI
11 54 (6.04%) Computer Science
11 54 (6.04%) Problem-Solving
12 47 (5.26%) Containerisation
12 47 (5.26%) Technical Leadership
13 45 (5.03%) SDLC
14 38 (4.25%) Low Latency
14 38 (4.25%) Scrum
15 35 (3.91%) Continuous Improvement
16 32 (3.58%) Clean Code
17 31 (3.47%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 154 (17.23%) Java
2 115 (12.86%) C++
3 114 (12.75%) C#
4 91 (10.18%) Python
5 66 (7.38%) TypeScript
6 61 (6.82%) SQL
7 56 (6.26%) JavaScript
8 47 (5.26%) C
9 31 (3.47%) Rust
10 27 (3.02%) Go
11 19 (2.13%) Kotlin
12 17 (1.90%) PHP
13 13 (1.45%) Ruby
14 12 (1.34%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.56%) Delphi
16 4 (0.45%) Scala
16 4 (0.45%) VB
17 3 (0.34%) Swift
18 2 (0.22%) Assembly Language
18 2 (0.22%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 54 (6.04%) Degree
2 31 (3.47%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.68%) Computer Science Degree
4 23 (2.57%) SC Cleared
5 18 (2.01%) Master's Degree
6 9 (1.01%) PhD
7 8 (0.89%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.11%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (2.68%) QA
2 14 (1.57%) IEC 61508
2 14 (1.57%) MISRA
2 14 (1.57%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.67%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.11%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.11%) ECSS
4 1 (0.11%) GDPR
4 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 49 (5.48%) Docker
2 18 (2.01%) Firmware
3 5 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (0.34%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.22%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.22%) KVM
6 2 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 83 (9.28%) Kubernetes
2 38 (4.25%) Terraform
3 18 (2.01%) Grafana
4 12 (1.34%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.22%) Ansible
5 2 (0.22%) Argo
5 2 (0.22%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 12 (1.34%) Google
2 11 (1.23%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.89%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.22%) Adobe
4 2 (0.22%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.22%) SAP
4 2 (0.22%) VMware
5 1 (0.11%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.11%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.11%) New Relic