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 24 July 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 202 119
Rank change year-on-year +72 -83 +180
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,436 805 1,978
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.64% 2.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.51% 1.82% 2.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,149 473 1,427
10th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £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 £111,250 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% -4.76%

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 94,832 44,261 86,457
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.34% 90.17% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 64,920 26,252 60,421
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £54,389
Median % change year-on-year - +1.12% -9.35%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,219
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.21%

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 24 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 24 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 +77 1,282 £75,000 -11.76% 453
UK excluding London +91 1,022 £70,000 - 216
London -10 333 £95,000 -9.52% 268
Work from Home -72 298 £72,500 -11.31% 154
South East +144 253 £80,000 +14.29% 36
North of England -22 241 £75,000 +2.04% 53
South West +59 188 £70,000 - 43
East of England +82 152 £70,000 +12.00% 40
North West -34 147 £75,000 - 40
Midlands +53 112 £67,500 -6.90% 23
West Midlands +17 67 £70,000 -5.08% 5
Yorkshire +15 63 £70,000 -6.67% 6
Scotland +1 49 £67,500 +3.85% 11
East Midlands +14 45 £65,000 -7.14% 18
North East -32 31 £90,000 +63.64% 7
Wales -39 24 £56,250 -13.46% 8
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 24 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 1,431 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 252 (17.55%) Python
3 244 (16.99%) C++
4 238 (16.57%) C#
5 203 (14.14%) Agile
6 197 (13.72%) Java
7 195 (13.58%) AWS
8 169 (11.77%) .NET
9 159 (11.07%) CI/CD
10 154 (10.72%) Full-Stack Development
11 147 (10.24%) AI
12 139 (9.68%) Mentoring
13 116 (8.08%) Azure
14 113 (7.87%) TypeScript
15 111 (7.73%) Microservices
16 110 (7.66%) React
17 109 (7.59%) Linux
18 105 (7.31%) DevOps
19 103 (7.17%) JavaScript
20 102 (7.10%) Security Cleared
21 94 (6.55%) Test Automation
22 88 (6.13%) SaaS
23 86 (5.99%) C
24 85 (5.92%) Degree
25 84 (5.85%) SDLC
25 84 (5.85%) SQL
26 77 (5.36%) Computer Science
26 77 (5.36%) Kubernetes
27 76 (5.29%) Docker
28 74 (5.15%) Problem-Solving

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 (1.11%) SharePoint Server
2 4 (0.28%) Apache
3 3 (0.21%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.21%) WinCC
4 2 (0.14%) Confluence
5 1 (0.070%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.070%) Cloud Foundry
5 1 (0.070%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Blender
1 3 (0.21%) Maya
2 1 (0.070%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 195 (13.58%) AWS
2 116 (8.08%) Azure
3 88 (6.13%) SaaS
4 58 (4.04%) GCP
5 36 (2.51%) GitHub
6 33 (2.30%) Serverless
7 22 (1.53%) Amazon EKS
8 19 (1.32%) Anthropic Claude
9 14 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (0.91%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 13 (0.91%) GitHub Copilot
11 8 (0.56%) Amazon S3
11 8 (0.56%) Azure AKS
12 7 (0.49%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (0.35%) Amazon SQS
13 5 (0.35%) Azure AI
13 5 (0.35%) Pulumi
13 5 (0.35%) Supabase
14 4 (0.28%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.60%) RS-232
2 16 (1.11%) Ethernet
3 14 (0.97%) Modbus
3 14 (0.97%) Multicast
4 13 (0.91%) Bluetooth
5 12 (0.84%) Profibus
5 12 (0.84%) Wireless
6 9 (0.63%) RS-485
6 9 (0.63%) ZigBee
7 8 (0.56%) HTTP
8 7 (0.49%) Broadband
9 1 (0.070%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (2.92%) PostgreSQL
2 28 (1.95%) MySQL
3 24 (1.67%) SQL Server
4 18 (1.25%) NoSQL
5 15 (1.04%) MongoDB
5 15 (1.04%) Redis
6 11 (0.77%) Relational Database
7 10 (0.70%) Big Data
8 8 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
9 6 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.28%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.28%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.21%) DocumentDB
12 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.21%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.14%) Hadoop
14 1 (0.070%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 60 (4.18%) Git
2 31 (2.16%) JIRA
3 26 (1.81%) GitLab
4 18 (1.25%) Claude Code
5 16 (1.11%) TeamCity
6 12 (0.84%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.63%) Jenkins
8 4 (0.28%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.28%) Visual Studio
9 3 (0.21%) Eclipse RCP
9 3 (0.21%) NUnit
9 3 (0.21%) Rational Rhapsody
9 3 (0.21%) Selenium
10 2 (0.14%) GDB
10 2 (0.14%) Jasmine
10 2 (0.14%) JUnit
10 2 (0.14%) Mocha
10 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.070%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 118 (8.22%) Finance
2 78 (5.43%) Social Skills
3 63 (4.39%) Electronics
4 50 (3.48%) Banking
5 44 (3.06%) Manufacturing
6 40 (2.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 37 (2.58%) Analytical Skills
8 36 (2.51%) Public Sector
9 23 (1.60%) Law
10 19 (1.32%) Retail
11 15 (1.04%) Automotive
12 12 (0.84%) Back Office
12 12 (0.84%) Financial Institution
13 11 (0.77%) Military
14 9 (0.63%) Aerospace
14 9 (0.63%) Organisational Skills
15 8 (0.56%) Influencing Skills
16 7 (0.49%) Agriculture
16 7 (0.49%) Billing
16 7 (0.49%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (11.77%) .NET
2 110 (7.66%) React
3 73 (5.08%) Node.js
4 48 (3.34%) WPF
5 42 (2.92%) Spring
6 32 (2.23%) RESTful
7 29 (2.02%) Spring Boot
8 28 (1.95%) REST
9 27 (1.88%) Next.js
10 18 (1.25%) AngularJS
11 17 (1.18%) FastAPI
11 17 (1.18%) Kafka
12 16 (1.11%) Vue
13 15 (1.04%) Django
14 14 (0.97%) Boost C++ Libraries
14 14 (0.97%) FIX Protocol
14 14 (0.97%) pytest
14 14 (0.97%) React Native
14 14 (0.97%) Ruby on Rails
14 14 (0.97%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 103 (7.17%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.62%) Legacy Systems
3 49 (3.41%) Algorithms
4 45 (3.13%) Distributed Systems
5 34 (2.37%) Robotics
6 32 (2.23%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (2.02%) Greenfield Project
8 19 (1.32%) Product Ownership
9 17 (1.18%) Device Driver
10 16 (1.11%) Derivative
11 14 (0.97%) AI Agents
11 14 (0.97%) Equities
11 14 (0.97%) Fixed Income
12 12 (0.84%) Public Cloud
13 11 (0.77%) Client/Server
14 10 (0.70%) Legacy Applications
15 9 (0.63%) Cyber Threat
15 9 (0.63%) IoT
15 9 (0.63%) Renewable Energy
16 8 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 109 (7.59%) Linux
2 29 (2.02%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.32%) FreeRTOS
4 16 (1.11%) Windows
5 5 (0.35%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.21%) Unix
7 2 (0.14%) Android
8 1 (0.070%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,431 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 203 (14.14%) Agile
3 159 (11.07%) CI/CD
4 154 (10.72%) Full-Stack Development
5 147 (10.24%) AI
6 139 (9.68%) Mentoring
7 111 (7.73%) Microservices
8 105 (7.31%) DevOps
9 94 (6.55%) Test Automation
10 84 (5.85%) SDLC
11 77 (5.36%) Computer Science
12 74 (5.15%) Problem-Solving
13 72 (5.01%) Code Quality
14 63 (4.39%) Fintech
14 63 (4.39%) Technical Leadership
15 61 (4.25%) Continuous Improvement
16 49 (3.41%) Containerisation
17 45 (3.13%) Machine Learning
17 45 (3.13%) Software Testing
18 42 (2.92%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 252 (17.55%) Python
2 244 (16.99%) C++
3 238 (16.57%) C#
4 197 (13.72%) Java
5 113 (7.87%) TypeScript
6 103 (7.17%) JavaScript
7 86 (5.99%) C
8 84 (5.85%) SQL
9 50 (3.48%) Rust
10 27 (1.88%) Go
11 22 (1.53%) Embedded C
12 15 (1.04%) Scala
13 14 (0.97%) Ruby
14 13 (0.91%) F#
14 13 (0.91%) Haskell
14 13 (0.91%) PHP
15 11 (0.77%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.70%) Julia
17 8 (0.56%) R
17 8 (0.56%) VB
Qualifications
1 102 (7.10%) Security Cleared
2 85 (5.92%) Degree
3 72 (5.01%) SC Cleared
4 49 (3.41%) DV Cleared
5 26 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (1.11%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.70%) PhD
8 5 (0.35%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.070%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.070%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (2.86%) QA
2 14 (0.97%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.42%) IEC 61508
3 6 (0.42%) MISRA
3 6 (0.42%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.35%) GDPR
5 3 (0.21%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.070%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (5.29%) Docker
2 49 (3.41%) Firmware
3 22 (1.53%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.14%) KVM
4 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.070%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 77 (5.36%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.34%) Terraform
3 19 (1.32%) Grafana
4 6 (0.42%) Ansible
4 6 (0.42%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.21%) Functional Safety
5 3 (0.21%) Plesk
6 2 (0.14%) Puppet
7 1 (0.070%) kaniko
Vendors
1 18 (1.25%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.56%) Siemens
3 7 (0.49%) Google
4 6 (0.42%) Splunk
5 5 (0.35%) Databricks
5 5 (0.35%) Intel
5 5 (0.35%) OpenAI
6 4 (0.28%) Foundry
7 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
8 2 (0.14%) ADVA
8 2 (0.14%) Atlassian
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle
8 2 (0.14%) Salesforce
8 2 (0.14%) VMware
9 1 (0.070%) Palantir
9 1 (0.070%) Revolut
9 1 (0.070%) TOWER Software
9 1 (0.070%) Virgin Media