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 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 195 125
Rank change year-on-year +60 -70 +166
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,361 783 2,207
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.72% 2.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.52% 1.93% 2.19%
Number of salaries quoted 1,105 452 1,609
10th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £63,125 £55,000
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 £106,563 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £102,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% -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 89,332 40,653 100,647
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.05% 89.51% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 61,290 23,209 72,638
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,500 £38,750
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 £77,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,622 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,042 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.08% - -6.54%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 +65 1,201 £75,000 -11.76% 226
UK excluding London +92 964 £70,000 +3.70% 165
London -13 324 £95,000 -7.32% 84
Work from Home -37 311 £70,000 -12.50% 88
South East +132 246 £75,000 +15.38% 43
North of England -14 237 £75,000 +0.67% 34
South West +49 163 £70,000 -9.68% 27
North West -24 143 £75,000 - 22
East of England +61 117 £70,000 +18.64% 33
Midlands +65 109 £65,000 -10.34% 18
West Midlands +34 69 £68,403 -8.80% 6
Scotland +12 69 £67,500 +3.85% 2
Yorkshire +8 63 £70,000 -17.89% 3
East Midlands +14 40 £65,000 -7.14% 12
North East -28 31 £80,000 +45.45% 9
Wales -33 22 £56,250 -13.46% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 8

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

For the 6 months to 26 June 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 1,356 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 224 (16.46%) C#
3 222 (16.31%) C++
4 206 (15.14%) Python
5 195 (14.33%) AWS
5 195 (14.33%) Java
6 189 (13.89%) Agile
7 173 (12.71%) .NET
8 157 (11.54%) Full-Stack Development
9 144 (10.58%) CI/CD
10 121 (8.89%) Mentoring
11 118 (8.67%) Microservices
12 112 (8.23%) Azure
13 110 (8.08%) React
14 107 (7.86%) AI
15 106 (7.79%) TypeScript
16 102 (7.49%) Linux
17 100 (7.35%) DevOps
18 98 (7.20%) SaaS
19 96 (7.05%) JavaScript
20 92 (6.76%) Security Cleared
21 88 (6.47%) SQL
22 87 (6.39%) Test Automation
23 84 (6.17%) Kubernetes
24 83 (6.10%) C
24 83 (6.10%) SDLC
25 82 (6.02%) Computer Science
25 82 (6.02%) Degree
26 76 (5.58%) Docker
27 75 (5.51%) Node.js

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 (1.18%) SharePoint Server
2 3 (0.22%) Apache
2 3 (0.22%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
2 3 (0.22%) WinCC
3 2 (0.15%) CMS
3 2 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (0.22%) Blender
1 3 (0.22%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 195 (14.33%) AWS
2 112 (8.23%) Azure
3 98 (7.20%) SaaS
4 54 (3.97%) GCP
5 36 (2.65%) GitHub
6 32 (2.35%) Serverless
7 24 (1.76%) Amazon EKS
8 17 (1.25%) Anthropic Claude
8 17 (1.25%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 14 (1.03%) Azure AKS
10 13 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (0.81%) GitHub Copilot
12 8 (0.59%) Azure Event Grid
13 6 (0.44%) Amazon S3
13 6 (0.44%) AWS Lambda
13 6 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.37%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.37%) Pulumi
15 4 (0.29%) Copilot Studio
15 4 (0.29%) Stripe
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.76%) RS-232
2 17 (1.25%) Ethernet
3 16 (1.18%) Multicast
4 14 (1.03%) Modbus
5 13 (0.96%) Bluetooth
6 12 (0.88%) Profibus
6 12 (0.88%) Wireless
7 11 (0.81%) Broadband
8 9 (0.66%) HTTP
8 9 (0.66%) RS-485
8 9 (0.66%) ZigBee
9 1 (0.073%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (1.98%) SQL Server
2 26 (1.91%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (1.69%) MySQL
4 20 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 12 (0.88%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
7 7 (0.51%) Big Data
8 6 (0.44%) Redis
8 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.29%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.22%) DocumentDB
11 3 (0.22%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.22%) Neo4j
12 2 (0.15%) BigQuery
13 1 (0.073%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 58 (4.26%) Git
2 29 (2.13%) JIRA
3 24 (1.76%) GitLab
4 22 (1.62%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.25%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.96%) Visual Studio Code
7 11 (0.81%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.22%) Eclipse
8 3 (0.22%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.15%) Eclipse RCP
9 2 (0.15%) GDB
9 2 (0.15%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.073%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.073%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.073%) Selenium
10 1 (0.073%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.073%) Storybook
10 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 137 (10.07%) Finance
2 66 (4.85%) Social Skills
3 59 (4.34%) Banking
4 47 (3.45%) Electronics
5 34 (2.50%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.42%) Public Sector
7 32 (2.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 28 (2.06%) Analytical Skills
9 21 (1.54%) Retail
10 20 (1.47%) Automotive
10 20 (1.47%) Law
11 14 (1.03%) Back Office
11 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
12 12 (0.88%) Aerospace
12 12 (0.88%) Games
12 12 (0.88%) Tech for Good
13 9 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
13 9 (0.66%) Military
13 9 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (0.51%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 173 (12.71%) .NET
2 110 (8.08%) React
3 75 (5.51%) Node.js
4 42 (3.09%) WPF
5 37 (2.72%) Spring
6 35 (2.57%) REST
6 35 (2.57%) RESTful
7 28 (2.06%) Spring Boot
8 22 (1.62%) .NET Core
8 22 (1.62%) Next.js
9 20 (1.47%) React Native
10 18 (1.32%) AngularJS
10 18 (1.32%) Ruby on Rails
11 16 (1.18%) .NET Framework
11 16 (1.18%) Boost C++ Libraries
11 16 (1.18%) FIX Protocol
11 16 (1.18%) pytest
12 15 (1.10%) Vue
12 15 (1.10%) Yocto
13 13 (0.96%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 97 (7.13%) Cloud Native
2 54 (3.97%) Algorithms
3 50 (3.67%) Legacy Systems
4 37 (2.72%) Embedded Systems
5 36 (2.65%) Distributed Systems
6 31 (2.28%) Greenfield Project
7 17 (1.25%) Derivative
7 17 (1.25%) Robotics
8 16 (1.18%) Equities
8 16 (1.18%) Fixed Income
8 16 (1.18%) IoT
9 15 (1.10%) Device Driver
10 13 (0.96%) Product Ownership
11 12 (0.88%) AI Agents
12 11 (0.81%) CAN bus
13 9 (0.66%) Client/Server
13 9 (0.66%) Public Cloud
13 9 (0.66%) Sports Betting
14 8 (0.59%) Legacy Applications
14 8 (0.59%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 102 (7.49%) Linux
2 30 (2.20%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.40%) FreeRTOS
4 9 (0.66%) Windows
5 8 (0.59%) Android
6 3 (0.22%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.073%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,356 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 189 (13.89%) Agile
3 157 (11.54%) Full-Stack Development
4 144 (10.58%) CI/CD
5 121 (8.89%) Mentoring
6 118 (8.67%) Microservices
7 107 (7.86%) AI
8 100 (7.35%) DevOps
9 87 (6.39%) Test Automation
10 83 (6.10%) SDLC
11 82 (6.02%) Computer Science
12 65 (4.78%) Problem-Solving
13 60 (4.41%) Fintech
14 58 (4.26%) Containerisation
15 56 (4.11%) Code Quality
16 55 (4.04%) Technical Leadership
17 52 (3.82%) Continuous Improvement
18 46 (3.38%) Mathematics
19 43 (3.16%) Scrum
20 40 (2.94%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 224 (16.46%) C#
2 222 (16.31%) C++
3 206 (15.14%) Python
4 195 (14.33%) Java
5 106 (7.79%) TypeScript
6 96 (7.05%) JavaScript
7 88 (6.47%) SQL
8 83 (6.10%) C
9 46 (3.38%) Rust
10 26 (1.91%) Go
11 20 (1.47%) Embedded C
12 19 (1.40%) PHP
13 18 (1.32%) Ruby
14 14 (1.03%) Scala
15 10 (0.73%) Julia
15 10 (0.73%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.73%) VB
16 9 (0.66%) F#
16 9 (0.66%) Haskell
17 8 (0.59%) R
Qualifications
1 92 (6.76%) Security Cleared
2 82 (6.02%) Degree
3 69 (5.07%) SC Cleared
4 39 (2.87%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (1.54%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.03%) PhD
8 3 (0.22%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.15%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.073%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.35%) QA
2 12 (0.88%) Accessibility
2 12 (0.88%) IEC 61508
2 12 (0.88%) MISRA
2 12 (0.88%) MISRA C
3 5 (0.37%) GDPR
4 3 (0.22%) DO-178B
4 3 (0.22%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.073%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (5.58%) Docker
2 49 (3.60%) Firmware
3 22 (1.62%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.15%) KVM
4 2 (0.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.073%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 84 (6.17%) Kubernetes
2 45 (3.31%) Terraform
3 21 (1.54%) Grafana
4 9 (0.66%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.44%) Ansible
6 5 (0.37%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.22%) Plesk
Vendors
1 12 (0.88%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.59%) Siemens
3 7 (0.51%) Google
4 6 (0.44%) Splunk
5 4 (0.29%) Databricks
5 4 (0.29%) Foundry
5 4 (0.29%) HubSpot
5 4 (0.29%) OpenAI
6 3 (0.22%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.15%) Intel
7 2 (0.15%) VMware
8 1 (0.073%) Palantir
8 1 (0.073%) TOWER Software