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 21 March 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 205 207 181
Rank change year-on-year +2 -26 +95
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 830 627 1,444
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.09% 1.48% 1.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 1.64% 1.78%
Number of salaries quoted 635 514 1,051
10th Percentile £59,250 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,000 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £72,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +11.54% -7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £101,250
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 69,843 38,164 81,143
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.98% 90.31% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 44,555 23,016 61,790
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £43,408 £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 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,263
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -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 21 March 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 21 March 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 +20 706 £75,000 - 245
UK excluding London +15 523 £70,000 +7.69% 190
London +33 266 £97,500 +8.33% 91
Work from Home -43 254 £75,000 +7.14% 127
South East +9 118 £70,000 +7.69% 66
South West +38 116 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -51 104 £75,000 +15.38% 25
Scotland +3 84 £68,750 +5.77% 24
East of England -17 52 £70,000 +3.70% 17
North West -32 52 £75,000 +15.38% 14
Midlands +6 41 £65,000 -10.34% 24
Yorkshire -23 39 £75,000 -12.03% 8
East Midlands -27 22 £65,000 -13.33% 8
West Midlands +4 19 £65,000 -7.14% 16
North East -26 13 £75,000 +36.36% 3
Wales -26 8 £60,000 -7.69% 9

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

For the 6 months to 21 March 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.

1 814 (98.07%) Software Engineering
2 149 (17.95%) Java
3 133 (16.02%) AWS
4 124 (14.94%) .NET
4 124 (14.94%) Agile
5 112 (13.49%) C#
6 104 (12.53%) CI/CD
7 103 (12.41%) C++
8 100 (12.05%) Full-Stack Development
9 92 (11.08%) Microservices
10 85 (10.24%) Azure
11 84 (10.12%) Kubernetes
12 81 (9.76%) Python
13 79 (9.52%) Mentoring
14 73 (8.80%) DevOps
15 72 (8.67%) React
16 70 (8.43%) Linux
17 65 (7.83%) SaaS
18 62 (7.47%) Test Automation
18 62 (7.47%) TypeScript
19 59 (7.11%) SQL
20 57 (6.87%) Fintech
21 53 (6.39%) Degree
22 52 (6.27%) Computer Science
22 52 (6.27%) GCP
22 52 (6.27%) Problem-Solving
23 51 (6.14%) JavaScript
24 49 (5.90%) AI
24 49 (5.90%) Docker
25 47 (5.66%) Containerisation

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 (0.36%) Apache
1 3 (0.36%) Apache Solr
1 3 (0.36%) CMS
2 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 133 (16.02%) AWS
2 85 (10.24%) Azure
3 65 (7.83%) SaaS
4 52 (6.27%) GCP
5 32 (3.86%) GitHub
6 18 (2.17%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (2.05%) Azure AKS
8 11 (1.33%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 10 (1.20%) Anthropic Claude
9 10 (1.20%) Azure Event Grid
9 10 (1.20%) GitHub Copilot
10 9 (1.08%) Serverless
11 8 (0.96%) Stripe
12 6 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.48%) Amazon S3
15 3 (0.36%) AWS Lambda
15 3 (0.36%) Cloud Run
15 3 (0.36%) dbt
15 3 (0.36%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.57%) Multicast
2 11 (1.33%) Ethernet
2 11 (1.33%) RS-232
3 10 (1.20%) HTTP
4 5 (0.60%) Broadband
5 2 (0.24%) Wireless
6 1 (0.12%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.22%) SQL Server
2 23 (2.77%) NoSQL
3 21 (2.53%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.57%) MongoDB
5 11 (1.33%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.20%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.84%) MySQL
7 7 (0.84%) Redis
8 5 (0.60%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
9 3 (0.36%) Big Data
9 3 (0.36%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.24%) Apache Arrow
10 2 (0.24%) Apache Iceberg
10 2 (0.24%) Apache Ignite
10 2 (0.24%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.24%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.24%) Dremio
10 2 (0.24%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 28 (3.37%) Git
2 22 (2.65%) JIRA
3 20 (2.41%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.20%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.20%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.84%) GitLab
6 4 (0.48%) JUnit
7 3 (0.36%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.36%) JBehave
7 3 (0.36%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.24%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.24%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.24%) Xcode
9 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.12%) GDB
9 1 (0.12%) Gradle
9 1 (0.12%) NUnit
9 1 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.12%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.12%) Selenium
General
1 147 (17.71%) Finance
2 58 (6.99%) Banking
3 37 (4.46%) Social Skills
4 26 (3.13%) Retail
5 24 (2.89%) Financial Institution
6 20 (2.41%) Law
7 19 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.17%) Games
9 17 (2.05%) Back Office
10 12 (1.45%) Tech for Good
11 11 (1.33%) Public Sector
12 10 (1.20%) Automotive
12 10 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
13 7 (0.84%) Analytical Skills
13 7 (0.84%) Manufacturing
14 5 (0.60%) Aerospace
14 5 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (0.60%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.48%) Aeronautics
15 4 (0.48%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 124 (14.94%) .NET
2 72 (8.67%) React
3 36 (4.34%) RESTful
4 35 (4.22%) Node.js
5 33 (3.98%) REST
6 26 (3.13%) .NET Core
7 25 (3.01%) React Native
8 20 (2.41%) .NET Framework
9 16 (1.93%) GraphQL
10 14 (1.69%) Ruby on Rails
11 13 (1.57%) Boost C++ Libraries
11 13 (1.57%) Django
11 13 (1.57%) Entity Framework
11 13 (1.57%) FIX Protocol
11 13 (1.57%) pytest
11 13 (1.57%) Spring
12 11 (1.33%) Dapper ORM
12 11 (1.33%) Spring Boot
12 11 (1.33%) Yocto
13 10 (1.20%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 75 (9.04%) Cloud Native
2 31 (3.73%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (2.89%) Algorithms
4 21 (2.53%) Embedded Systems
5 16 (1.93%) Derivative
6 15 (1.81%) Equities
6 15 (1.81%) Fixed Income
7 14 (1.69%) IoT
8 12 (1.45%) Greenfield Project
8 12 (1.45%) Robotics
9 11 (1.33%) CAN bus
9 11 (1.33%) Device Driver
9 11 (1.33%) Legacy Code
9 11 (1.33%) Public Cloud
10 9 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
10 9 (1.08%) Sports Betting
11 7 (0.84%) Blog
12 6 (0.72%) Hedge funds
13 5 (0.60%) Data Structures
14 4 (0.48%) Over-the-Top Content
Operating Systems
1 70 (8.43%) Linux
2 23 (2.77%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.17%) Android
4 6 (0.72%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.12%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 814 (98.07%) Software Engineering
2 124 (14.94%) Agile
3 104 (12.53%) CI/CD
4 100 (12.05%) Full-Stack Development
5 92 (11.08%) Microservices
6 79 (9.52%) Mentoring
7 73 (8.80%) DevOps
8 62 (7.47%) Test Automation
9 57 (6.87%) Fintech
10 52 (6.27%) Computer Science
10 52 (6.27%) Problem-Solving
11 49 (5.90%) AI
12 47 (5.66%) Containerisation
13 43 (5.18%) SDLC
14 42 (5.06%) Technical Leadership
15 37 (4.46%) Scrum
16 35 (4.22%) Continuous Improvement
17 33 (3.98%) Clean Code
17 33 (3.98%) Low Latency
18 29 (3.49%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 149 (17.95%) Java
2 112 (13.49%) C#
3 103 (12.41%) C++
4 81 (9.76%) Python
5 62 (7.47%) TypeScript
6 59 (7.11%) SQL
7 51 (6.14%) JavaScript
8 39 (4.70%) C
9 31 (3.73%) Rust
10 27 (3.25%) Go
11 19 (2.29%) Kotlin
12 17 (2.05%) PHP
13 14 (1.69%) Ruby
14 11 (1.33%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.60%) Delphi
16 4 (0.48%) Scala
16 4 (0.48%) VB
17 3 (0.36%) Swift
18 1 (0.12%) Bash
18 1 (0.12%) Elm
Qualifications
1 53 (6.39%) Degree
2 28 (3.37%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
4 23 (2.77%) SC Cleared
5 18 (2.17%) Master's Degree
6 8 (0.96%) PhD
7 5 (0.60%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.12%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.65%) QA
2 11 (1.33%) IEC 61508
2 11 (1.33%) MISRA
2 11 (1.33%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.72%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.12%) ECSS
4 1 (0.12%) GDPR
4 1 (0.12%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 49 (5.90%) Docker
2 12 (1.45%) Firmware
3 6 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.24%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.24%) KVM
5 2 (0.24%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 84 (10.12%) Kubernetes
2 37 (4.46%) Terraform
3 17 (2.05%) Grafana
4 11 (1.33%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.24%) Ansible
5 2 (0.24%) Argo
6 1 (0.12%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 11 (1.33%) Google
2 9 (1.08%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.96%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.24%) Adobe
4 2 (0.24%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.24%) SAP
4 2 (0.24%) VMware
5 1 (0.12%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.12%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.12%) New Relic