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 3 May 2026.

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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 216 155
Rank change year-on-year +50 -61 +124
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,127 612 1,809
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.25% 1.44% 1.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.34% 1.61% 2.00%
Number of salaries quoted 878 537 1,304
10th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £55,000
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 £130,000 £102,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £61,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +5.69% -5.38%

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 83,975 37,966 90,660
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.94% 89.30% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 54,064 23,403 66,761
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.78% +11.32% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 3 May 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 3 May 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 +80 962 £75,000 -3.23% 262
UK excluding London +71 747 £70,000 +7.69% 203
London +44 314 £95,000 - 90
Work from Home -20 291 £72,500 -3.33% 147
South East +84 190 £70,000 +7.69% 64
South West +40 145 £70,000 +7.69% 25
North of England -36 139 £75,000 +15.38% 37
Scotland -1 91 £67,500 +3.85% 19
East of England +23 90 £70,000 +9.80% 31
North West -10 80 £75,000 +13.21% 20
Midlands +26 75 £65,000 -10.34% 25
West Midlands +16 48 £70,000 -3.45% 12
Yorkshire -40 45 £77,500 -2.40% 13
East Midlands -13 27 £65,000 - 13
Wales -22 16 £60,000 -7.69% 2
North East -35 14 £80,000 +45.45% 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 3 May 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 1,111 (98.58%) Software Engineering
2 157 (13.93%) C#
2 157 (13.93%) Java
3 153 (13.58%) Agile
3 153 (13.58%) C++
4 149 (13.22%) AWS
5 148 (13.13%) .NET
6 125 (11.09%) Full-Stack Development
7 123 (10.91%) Python
8 104 (9.23%) Mentoring
9 103 (9.14%) CI/CD
10 93 (8.25%) Microservices
11 91 (8.07%) Azure
12 88 (7.81%) React
13 86 (7.63%) DevOps
14 85 (7.54%) Linux
15 79 (7.01%) TypeScript
16 78 (6.92%) SaaS
17 71 (6.30%) Kubernetes
18 70 (6.21%) C
18 70 (6.21%) Test Automation
19 68 (6.03%) AI
20 65 (5.77%) Degree
20 65 (5.77%) Fintech
20 65 (5.77%) JavaScript
20 65 (5.77%) SQL
21 62 (5.50%) Computer Science
22 60 (5.32%) Problem-Solving
23 57 (5.06%) SDLC
23 57 (5.06%) Technical Leadership

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 4 (0.35%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.27%) CMS
3 2 (0.18%) Confluence
3 2 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
3 2 (0.18%) WinCC
4 1 (0.089%) Apache
4 1 (0.089%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 149 (13.22%) AWS
2 91 (8.07%) Azure
3 78 (6.92%) SaaS
4 54 (4.79%) GCP
5 41 (3.64%) GitHub
6 19 (1.69%) Serverless
7 18 (1.60%) GitHub Copilot
8 17 (1.51%) Azure AKS
9 13 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
9 13 (1.15%) Anthropic Claude
10 11 (0.98%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 10 (0.89%) Azure Event Grid
12 8 (0.71%) Stripe
13 6 (0.53%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (0.53%) IaaS
14 4 (0.35%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 4 (0.35%) GitHub Actions
15 3 (0.27%) Amazon S3
15 3 (0.27%) Cloud Run
15 3 (0.27%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.60%) RS-232
2 17 (1.51%) HTTP
3 16 (1.42%) Ethernet
4 13 (1.15%) Multicast
5 8 (0.71%) Bluetooth
5 8 (0.71%) Modbus
6 7 (0.62%) Wireless
7 6 (0.53%) Profibus
8 5 (0.44%) Broadband
9 4 (0.35%) RS-485
9 4 (0.35%) ZigBee
10 1 (0.089%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (3.19%) SQL Server
2 24 (2.13%) NoSQL
3 20 (1.77%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.15%) MongoDB
5 11 (0.98%) Elasticsearch
5 11 (0.98%) MySQL
6 8 (0.71%) BigQuery
7 5 (0.44%) Redis
8 4 (0.35%) Big Data
8 4 (0.35%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.35%) Neo4j
8 4 (0.35%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.18%) DB2
9 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
10 1 (0.089%) Amazon Athena
10 1 (0.089%) Amazon RDS
10 1 (0.089%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.089%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 41 (3.64%) Git
2 23 (2.04%) JIRA
3 16 (1.42%) TeamCity
4 15 (1.33%) GitLab
5 13 (1.15%) Claude Code
5 13 (1.15%) Visual Studio Code
6 11 (0.98%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.35%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.35%) JUnit
8 3 (0.27%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.27%) JBehave
8 3 (0.27%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.18%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.18%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.18%) GDB
9 2 (0.18%) Selenium
9 2 (0.18%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.18%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.18%) Xcode
10 1 (0.089%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 160 (14.20%) Finance
2 63 (5.59%) Banking
3 44 (3.90%) Social Skills
4 29 (2.57%) Electronics
5 23 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 19 (1.69%) Manufacturing
7 18 (1.60%) Automotive
7 18 (1.60%) Financial Institution
7 18 (1.60%) Retail
8 17 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
9 16 (1.42%) Law
10 14 (1.24%) Games
10 14 (1.24%) Public Sector
10 14 (1.24%) Tech for Good
11 13 (1.15%) Back Office
12 10 (0.89%) Aerospace
13 9 (0.80%) Analytical Skills
14 8 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.44%) Social Housing
15 5 (0.44%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 148 (13.13%) .NET
2 88 (7.81%) React
3 54 (4.79%) Node.js
4 42 (3.73%) REST
5 32 (2.84%) RESTful
6 27 (2.40%) .NET Core
7 26 (2.31%) React Native
8 20 (1.77%) WPF
9 19 (1.69%) .NET Framework
10 14 (1.24%) Yocto
11 13 (1.15%) AngularJS
11 13 (1.15%) Boost C++ Libraries
11 13 (1.15%) FIX Protocol
11 13 (1.15%) pytest
11 13 (1.15%) Ruby on Rails
11 13 (1.15%) Spring
12 12 (1.06%) Entity Framework
13 11 (0.98%) Dapper ORM
13 11 (0.98%) GraphQL
13 11 (0.98%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 79 (7.01%) Cloud Native
2 42 (3.73%) Algorithms
3 33 (2.93%) Embedded Systems
4 26 (2.31%) Distributed Systems
5 18 (1.60%) Public Cloud
6 16 (1.42%) IoT
6 16 (1.42%) Robotics
7 15 (1.33%) CAN bus
7 15 (1.33%) Derivative
8 14 (1.24%) Device Driver
9 13 (1.15%) Equities
9 13 (1.15%) Fixed Income
10 10 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (0.80%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.80%) Sports Betting
12 6 (0.53%) FMCG
12 6 (0.53%) Hedge funds
12 6 (0.53%) Legacy Code
13 5 (0.44%) Augmented Reality
13 5 (0.44%) Blog
Operating Systems
1 85 (7.54%) Linux
2 28 (2.48%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.60%) Android
4 14 (1.24%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (0.53%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.27%) Windows
7 1 (0.089%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,111 (98.58%) Software Engineering
2 153 (13.58%) Agile
3 125 (11.09%) Full-Stack Development
4 104 (9.23%) Mentoring
5 103 (9.14%) CI/CD
6 93 (8.25%) Microservices
7 86 (7.63%) DevOps
8 70 (6.21%) Test Automation
9 68 (6.03%) AI
10 65 (5.77%) Fintech
11 62 (5.50%) Computer Science
12 60 (5.32%) Problem-Solving
13 57 (5.06%) SDLC
13 57 (5.06%) Technical Leadership
14 49 (4.35%) Containerisation
14 49 (4.35%) Scrum
15 46 (4.08%) Embedded Software Development
16 42 (3.73%) Low Latency
17 41 (3.64%) Continuous Improvement
18 38 (3.37%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 157 (13.93%) C#
1 157 (13.93%) Java
2 153 (13.58%) C++
3 123 (10.91%) Python
4 79 (7.01%) TypeScript
5 70 (6.21%) C
6 65 (5.77%) JavaScript
6 65 (5.77%) SQL
7 38 (3.37%) Rust
8 27 (2.40%) Go
9 19 (1.69%) Embedded C
10 17 (1.51%) PHP
11 16 (1.42%) Kotlin
12 13 (1.15%) Ruby
13 10 (0.89%) Scala
14 6 (0.53%) F#
14 6 (0.53%) Haskell
15 5 (0.44%) VB
16 3 (0.27%) Delphi
16 3 (0.27%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 65 (5.77%) Degree
2 51 (4.53%) Security Cleared
3 38 (3.37%) SC Cleared
4 21 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
4 21 (1.86%) Master's Degree
5 14 (1.24%) DV Cleared
6 9 (0.80%) PhD
7 3 (0.27%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.089%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.089%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.089%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (1.86%) QA
2 16 (1.42%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.42%) MISRA
2 16 (1.42%) MISRA C
3 8 (0.71%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.27%) DO-178B
5 2 (0.18%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.089%) GDPR
6 1 (0.089%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 55 (4.88%) Docker
2 35 (3.11%) Firmware
3 15 (1.33%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.18%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.18%) KVM
4 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.089%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 71 (6.30%) Kubernetes
2 33 (2.93%) Terraform
3 17 (1.51%) Grafana
4 13 (1.15%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.44%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.18%) Ansible
6 2 (0.18%) Argo
6 2 (0.18%) Plesk
Vendors
1 12 (1.06%) Google
2 10 (0.89%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.71%) HubSpot
4 3 (0.27%) Siemens
5 2 (0.18%) Adobe
5 2 (0.18%) CA Agile Central
5 2 (0.18%) OpenAI
5 2 (0.18%) Rockwell
5 2 (0.18%) SAP
5 2 (0.18%) VMware
6 1 (0.089%) New Relic
6 1 (0.089%) TOWER Software