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 29 May 2026.

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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 159 205 140
Rank change year-on-year +46 -65 +147
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,216 714 1,979
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.31% 1.67% 1.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.40% 1.86% 2.09%
Number of salaries quoted 977 448 1,435
10th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £78,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +20.00% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £80,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £130,000 £102,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -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 87,064 38,294 94,653
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.44% 89.31% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 57,954 21,519 69,253
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,500
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 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.90% +1.93% -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 29 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 29 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 +44 1,056 £75,000 -4.83% 163
UK excluding London +58 833 £70,000 +7.69% 139
London +25 316 £95,000 - 40
Work from Home -33 301 £70,000 -9.68% 71
South East +119 222 £75,000 +15.38% 47
North of England -74 175 £75,000 +9.09% 44
South West +58 148 £70,000 - 11
North West -62 107 £75,000 +7.14% 27
East of England +43 103 £70,000 +18.64% 17
Midlands +43 86 £65,000 -10.34% 18
Scotland +17 79 £67,500 +8.00% 3
West Midlands +13 59 £68,403 -5.65% 11
Yorkshire -24 52 £70,000 -11.84% 8
East Midlands -9 27 £65,000 - 7
Wales -23 19 £56,250 -13.46% 3
North East -36 16 £80,000 +45.45% 10
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 29 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 1,207 (99.26%) Software Engineering
2 197 (16.20%) C++
3 191 (15.71%) C#
4 179 (14.72%) Java
5 174 (14.31%) Agile
6 172 (14.14%) Python
7 164 (13.49%) AWS
8 161 (13.24%) .NET
9 135 (11.10%) Full-Stack Development
10 126 (10.36%) CI/CD
11 111 (9.13%) Microservices
12 110 (9.05%) Mentoring
13 103 (8.47%) Azure
14 94 (7.73%) Linux
15 93 (7.65%) DevOps
15 93 (7.65%) React
16 87 (7.15%) JavaScript
16 87 (7.15%) TypeScript
17 85 (6.99%) SaaS
18 81 (6.66%) AI
19 78 (6.41%) SDLC
20 77 (6.33%) Kubernetes
20 77 (6.33%) Security Cleared
20 77 (6.33%) Test Automation
21 76 (6.25%) C
21 76 (6.25%) Degree
21 76 (6.25%) SQL
22 75 (6.17%) Computer Science
23 64 (5.26%) Docker
24 63 (5.18%) 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 (1.32%) SharePoint Server
2 4 (0.33%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.25%) Apache
3 3 (0.25%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.25%) WinCC
4 2 (0.16%) CMS
4 2 (0.16%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (0.16%) Blender
1 2 (0.16%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 164 (13.49%) AWS
2 103 (8.47%) Azure
3 85 (6.99%) SaaS
4 54 (4.44%) GCP
5 37 (3.04%) GitHub
6 29 (2.38%) Serverless
7 18 (1.48%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 17 (1.40%) Amazon EKS
9 16 (1.32%) Anthropic Claude
10 15 (1.23%) Azure AKS
11 14 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
12 12 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (0.74%) Azure Event Grid
14 7 (0.58%) Stripe
15 5 (0.41%) Amazon S3
15 5 (0.41%) Amazon SQS
16 4 (0.33%) Amazon OpenSearch
16 4 (0.33%) AWS Lambda
16 4 (0.33%) IaaS
16 4 (0.33%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.73%) RS-232
2 17 (1.40%) Ethernet
3 16 (1.32%) Multicast
4 12 (0.99%) HTTP
5 11 (0.90%) Modbus
6 10 (0.82%) Bluetooth
7 9 (0.74%) Profibus
7 9 (0.74%) Wireless
8 6 (0.49%) Broadband
8 6 (0.49%) RS-485
8 6 (0.49%) ZigBee
9 1 (0.082%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (2.55%) SQL Server
2 22 (1.81%) NoSQL
3 17 (1.40%) MySQL
3 17 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.07%) MongoDB
5 10 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
6 8 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (0.58%) Big Data
8 5 (0.41%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.33%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.33%) Neo4j
9 4 (0.33%) Redis
9 4 (0.33%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.25%) Geospatial Data
10 3 (0.25%) MariaDB
11 1 (0.082%) DB2
11 1 (0.082%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 51 (4.19%) Git
2 23 (1.89%) JIRA
3 19 (1.56%) TeamCity
4 18 (1.48%) GitLab
5 16 (1.32%) Claude Code
6 13 (1.07%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.74%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.25%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.25%) JUnit
8 3 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.16%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.16%) GDB
9 2 (0.16%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.16%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.082%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.082%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.082%) Eclipse
10 1 (0.082%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.082%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.082%) Yeoman
General
1 136 (11.18%) Finance
2 63 (5.18%) Banking
3 50 (4.11%) Social Skills
4 41 (3.37%) Electronics
5 30 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 27 (2.22%) Manufacturing
6 27 (2.22%) Public Sector
7 21 (1.73%) Retail
8 20 (1.64%) Automotive
9 19 (1.56%) Analytical Skills
10 17 (1.40%) Law
11 14 (1.15%) Back Office
11 14 (1.15%) Financial Institution
11 14 (1.15%) Tech for Good
12 13 (1.07%) Games
13 12 (0.99%) Aerospace
13 12 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (0.58%) Agriculture
14 7 (0.58%) Military
14 7 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 161 (13.24%) .NET
2 93 (7.65%) React
3 59 (4.85%) Node.js
4 40 (3.29%) REST
5 36 (2.96%) WPF
6 32 (2.63%) RESTful
7 26 (2.14%) Spring
8 25 (2.06%) .NET Core
9 23 (1.89%) Spring Boot
10 22 (1.81%) React Native
11 17 (1.40%) .NET Framework
12 16 (1.32%) AngularJS
12 16 (1.32%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 16 (1.32%) FIX Protocol
12 16 (1.32%) pytest
13 15 (1.23%) Ruby on Rails
13 15 (1.23%) Yocto
14 14 (1.15%) Vue
15 12 (0.99%) Entity Framework
15 12 (0.99%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 87 (7.15%) Cloud Native
2 53 (4.36%) Algorithms
3 36 (2.96%) Embedded Systems
4 30 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
5 26 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (1.48%) Derivative
7 17 (1.40%) IoT
8 16 (1.32%) Equities
8 16 (1.32%) Fixed Income
9 15 (1.23%) CAN bus
9 15 (1.23%) Device Driver
9 15 (1.23%) Robotics
10 12 (0.99%) Greenfield Project
10 12 (0.99%) Public Cloud
11 9 (0.74%) Client/Server
11 9 (0.74%) Sports Betting
12 8 (0.66%) AI Agents
12 8 (0.66%) Legacy Applications
13 7 (0.58%) FMCG
13 7 (0.58%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 94 (7.73%) Linux
2 30 (2.47%) Embedded Linux
3 16 (1.32%) FreeRTOS
4 11 (0.90%) Android
5 6 (0.49%) Windows
6 4 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.082%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,207 (99.26%) Software Engineering
2 174 (14.31%) Agile
3 135 (11.10%) Full-Stack Development
4 126 (10.36%) CI/CD
5 111 (9.13%) Microservices
6 110 (9.05%) Mentoring
7 93 (7.65%) DevOps
8 81 (6.66%) AI
9 78 (6.41%) SDLC
10 77 (6.33%) Test Automation
11 75 (6.17%) Computer Science
12 63 (5.18%) Problem-Solving
13 58 (4.77%) Containerisation
13 58 (4.77%) Fintech
14 55 (4.52%) Technical Leadership
15 48 (3.95%) Continuous Improvement
16 47 (3.87%) Embedded Software Development
17 45 (3.70%) Low Latency
17 45 (3.70%) Scrum
18 42 (3.45%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 197 (16.20%) C++
2 191 (15.71%) C#
3 179 (14.72%) Java
4 172 (14.14%) Python
5 87 (7.15%) JavaScript
5 87 (7.15%) TypeScript
6 76 (6.25%) C
6 76 (6.25%) SQL
7 39 (3.21%) Rust
8 29 (2.38%) Go
9 20 (1.64%) Embedded C
10 19 (1.56%) PHP
11 15 (1.23%) Ruby
12 12 (0.99%) Scala
13 9 (0.74%) Kotlin
14 8 (0.66%) F#
14 8 (0.66%) Haskell
14 8 (0.66%) Julia
14 8 (0.66%) MATLAB
15 6 (0.49%) VB
Qualifications
1 77 (6.33%) Security Cleared
2 76 (6.25%) Degree
3 59 (4.85%) SC Cleared
4 27 (2.22%) DV Cleared
5 23 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (1.81%) Master's Degree
7 13 (1.07%) PhD
8 3 (0.25%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.25%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.16%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.082%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (2.22%) QA
2 16 (1.32%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.32%) MISRA
2 16 (1.32%) MISRA C
3 10 (0.82%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.25%) DO-178B
4 3 (0.25%) GDPR
4 3 (0.25%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.082%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 64 (5.26%) Docker
2 42 (3.45%) Firmware
3 18 (1.48%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.16%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.16%) KVM
4 2 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.082%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 77 (6.33%) Kubernetes
2 39 (3.21%) Terraform
3 20 (1.64%) Grafana
4 13 (1.07%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.41%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.25%) Plesk
7 2 (0.16%) Ansible
8 1 (0.082%) Argo
Vendors
1 8 (0.66%) Microsoft
2 7 (0.58%) Google
2 7 (0.58%) HubSpot
3 6 (0.49%) Siemens
4 3 (0.25%) Rockwell
5 2 (0.16%) OpenAI
5 2 (0.16%) Splunk
5 2 (0.16%) VMware
6 1 (0.082%) Palantir
6 1 (0.082%) TOWER Software