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 7 February 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 208 189 216
Rank change year-on-year -19 +27 +41
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 679 821 1,059
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.04% 1.62% 1.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.15% 1.76% 1.50%
Number of salaries quoted 536 545 815
10th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,000 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +3.70% -3.57%
75th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £102,500 £122,500 £101,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £68,750 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +5.77% +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 59,224 46,587 70,587
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 91.89% 94.95%
Number of salaries quoted 36,943 24,097 55,321
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,520
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 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 7 February 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 7 February 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 -12 581 £75,000 +7.14% 238
UK excluding London -31 409 £68,750 +5.77% 181
London +18 236 £95,000 +2.70% 95
Work from Home -65 229 £73,750 +5.36% 174
South East -24 101 £70,000 +7.69% 44
South West +22 82 £65,000 +1.96% 28
North of England -40 80 £75,000 +15.38% 39
Scotland -17 65 £67,500 +8.00% 27
East of England -19 41 £70,000 +3.70% 24
North West 0 40 £70,000 +7.69% 31
Midlands +15 33 £65,000 +8.33% 20
Yorkshire -18 30 £75,000 -4.91% 6
East Midlands -4 18 £65,000 +8.33% 7
West Midlands +24 15 £65,000 +8.33% 13
North East -21 10 £75,000 +36.36% 2
Wales 0 7 £60,000 -7.69% 3

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

For the 6 months to 7 February 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.

1 665 (97.94%) Software Engineering
2 123 (18.11%) AWS
3 118 (17.38%) Java
4 112 (16.49%) Agile
5 108 (15.91%) .NET
6 100 (14.73%) C#
7 94 (13.84%) CI/CD
8 89 (13.11%) Full-Stack Development
9 82 (12.08%) Microservices
10 80 (11.78%) Mentoring
11 77 (11.34%) Kubernetes
11 77 (11.34%) Python
12 76 (11.19%) Azure
13 75 (11.05%) C++
14 74 (10.90%) React
15 69 (10.16%) DevOps
16 66 (9.72%) TypeScript
17 57 (8.39%) Linux
18 54 (7.95%) Problem-Solving
19 51 (7.51%) JavaScript
20 49 (7.22%) SQL
21 48 (7.07%) Degree
22 47 (6.92%) Computer Science
23 46 (6.77%) SDLC
23 46 (6.77%) Test Automation
24 45 (6.63%) Docker
25 44 (6.48%) Containerisation
25 44 (6.48%) Technical Leadership
26 43 (6.33%) Fintech
26 43 (6.33%) GCP

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 13 (1.91%) Apache
2 12 (1.77%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.44%) CMS
4 2 (0.29%) Apache Solr
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.15%) Confluence
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.15%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Photoshop
Cloud Services
1 123 (18.11%) AWS
2 76 (11.19%) Azure
3 43 (6.33%) GCP
3 43 (6.33%) SaaS
4 27 (3.98%) GitHub
5 14 (2.06%) Azure AKS
6 13 (1.91%) dbt
6 13 (1.91%) Snowflake
7 12 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
8 11 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.47%) GitHub Copilot
10 9 (1.33%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 9 (1.33%) Serverless
10 9 (1.33%) Stripe
11 8 (1.18%) Azure Event Grid
12 5 (0.74%) Cloud Run
13 4 (0.59%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
14 3 (0.44%) Azure Service Bus
14 3 (0.44%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.91%) Multicast
2 10 (1.47%) HTTP
3 6 (0.88%) Ethernet
3 6 (0.88%) RS-232
4 4 (0.59%) Broadband
5 1 (0.15%) DNS
5 1 (0.15%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (4.86%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.24%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (2.80%) NoSQL
4 13 (1.91%) Amazon Athena
5 12 (1.77%) Apache Arrow
5 12 (1.77%) Apache Iceberg
5 12 (1.77%) Apache Ignite
5 12 (1.77%) Data Lake
5 12 (1.77%) Dremio
6 11 (1.62%) Elasticsearch
6 11 (1.62%) Relational Database
7 10 (1.47%) BigQuery
8 8 (1.18%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.88%) Redis
10 5 (0.74%) DynamoDB
11 4 (0.59%) MySQL
12 3 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
13 2 (0.29%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.29%) RDBMS
14 1 (0.15%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 32 (4.71%) Git
2 21 (3.09%) JIRA
3 14 (2.06%) TeamCity
4 8 (1.18%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.74%) GitLab
6 4 (0.59%) JUnit
7 3 (0.44%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.44%) JBehave
8 2 (0.29%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.29%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.29%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.29%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.29%) Xcode
9 1 (0.15%) Gradle
9 1 (0.15%) NUnit
9 1 (0.15%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.15%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.15%) webpack
General
1 139 (20.47%) Finance
2 60 (8.84%) Banking
3 46 (6.77%) Social Skills
4 19 (2.80%) Financial Institution
4 19 (2.80%) Retail
5 17 (2.50%) Law
6 14 (2.06%) Games
6 14 (2.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (1.77%) Front Office
7 12 (1.77%) Investment Banking
7 12 (1.77%) Tech for Good
8 10 (1.47%) Back Office
8 10 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.33%) Automotive
10 6 (0.88%) Analytical Skills
10 6 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
10 6 (0.88%) Public Sector
11 5 (0.74%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.59%) Electronics
12 4 (0.59%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (15.91%) .NET
2 74 (10.90%) React
3 36 (5.30%) RESTful
4 31 (4.57%) Node.js
4 31 (4.57%) REST
5 24 (3.53%) React Native
6 23 (3.39%) .NET Core
7 20 (2.95%) GraphQL
8 19 (2.80%) AngularJS
9 18 (2.65%) .NET Framework
10 16 (2.36%) Ruby on Rails
11 14 (2.06%) Spring
12 13 (1.91%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 13 (1.91%) FIX Protocol
12 13 (1.91%) pytest
13 12 (1.77%) gRPC
13 12 (1.77%) Pandas
13 12 (1.77%) Protocol Buffers
13 12 (1.77%) SciPy
13 12 (1.77%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 61 (8.98%) Cloud Native
2 26 (3.83%) Derivative
3 25 (3.68%) Equities
3 25 (3.68%) Fixed Income
4 24 (3.53%) Algorithms
4 24 (3.53%) Distributed Systems
5 22 (3.24%) Embedded Systems
6 15 (2.21%) Hedge funds
7 13 (1.91%) IoT
8 12 (1.77%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 12 (1.77%) Pricing Data
9 11 (1.62%) CAN bus
9 11 (1.62%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (1.47%) Legacy Code
11 9 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
12 8 (1.18%) Robotics
13 7 (1.03%) Blog
14 6 (0.88%) Data Structures
14 6 (0.88%) Device Driver
Operating Systems
1 57 (8.39%) Linux
2 18 (2.65%) Embedded Linux
3 17 (2.50%) Android
4 6 (0.88%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.29%) Unix
5 2 (0.29%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 665 (97.94%) Software Engineering
2 112 (16.49%) Agile
3 94 (13.84%) CI/CD
4 89 (13.11%) Full-Stack Development
5 82 (12.08%) Microservices
6 80 (11.78%) Mentoring
7 69 (10.16%) DevOps
8 54 (7.95%) Problem-Solving
9 47 (6.92%) Computer Science
10 46 (6.77%) SDLC
10 46 (6.77%) Test Automation
11 44 (6.48%) Containerisation
11 44 (6.48%) Technical Leadership
12 43 (6.33%) Fintech
13 41 (6.04%) AI
14 35 (5.15%) Scrum
15 32 (4.71%) Clean Code
16 30 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
16 30 (4.42%) User Experience
17 26 (3.83%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 118 (17.38%) Java
2 100 (14.73%) C#
3 77 (11.34%) Python
4 75 (11.05%) C++
5 66 (9.72%) TypeScript
6 51 (7.51%) JavaScript
7 49 (7.22%) SQL
8 35 (5.15%) C
9 24 (3.53%) Rust
10 23 (3.39%) Go
11 18 (2.65%) Kotlin
12 16 (2.36%) PHP
12 16 (2.36%) Ruby
13 8 (1.18%) Embedded C
14 6 (0.88%) Delphi
15 4 (0.59%) Scala
15 4 (0.59%) VB
16 3 (0.44%) Bash
16 3 (0.44%) Swift
17 2 (0.29%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 48 (7.07%) Degree
2 21 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 17 (2.50%) Security Cleared
4 16 (2.36%) Master's Degree
5 13 (1.91%) SC Cleared
6 6 (0.88%) PhD
7 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.15%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.15%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.15%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.09%) QA
2 11 (1.62%) IEC 61508
2 11 (1.62%) MISRA
2 11 (1.62%) MISRA C
3 7 (1.03%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.29%) ISO 9000
4 2 (0.29%) JTAG
5 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.15%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.15%) ECSS
5 1 (0.15%) GDPR
5 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.15%) PSD2
System Software
1 45 (6.63%) Docker
2 7 (1.03%) Firmware
2 7 (1.03%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
3 3 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 77 (11.34%) Kubernetes
2 27 (3.98%) Terraform
3 12 (1.77%) Grafana
4 11 (1.62%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.29%) Ansible
5 2 (0.29%) Argo
6 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.15%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 14 (2.06%) Google
2 9 (1.33%) Microsoft
3 8 (1.18%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.29%) Adobe
4 2 (0.29%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.29%) OpenAI
4 2 (0.29%) Oracle
4 2 (0.29%) SAP
5 1 (0.15%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.15%) ForgeRock
5 1 (0.15%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.15%) MuleSoft
5 1 (0.15%) New Relic
5 1 (0.15%) SendGrid