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 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 197 123
Rank change year-on-year +59 -74 +173
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,399 808 2,162
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.42% 1.64% 2.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.50% 1.83% 2.26%
Number of salaries quoted 1,141 473 1,568
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 £82,656
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% -5.51%

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 93,088 44,174 95,628
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.23% 89.90% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 63,779 26,115 68,243
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%

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 16 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 16 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 +69 1,249 £75,000 -11.76% 294
UK excluding London +77 998 £70,000 +3.70% 232
London -20 324 £100,000 -4.76% 108
Work from Home -52 305 £72,500 -9.38% 136
South East +148 254 £75,000 +7.14% 48
North of England -12 239 £75,000 +2.04% 44
South West +50 174 £70,000 - 41
North West -27 147 £75,000 - 29
East of England +79 142 £70,000 +12.00% 36
Midlands +64 112 £66,250 -8.62% 31
West Midlands +19 66 £70,000 -5.08% 5
Yorkshire +11 60 £70,000 -11.18% 10
Scotland +3 52 £67,500 +3.85% 14
East Midlands +5 46 £65,000 -7.14% 26
North East -38 32 £85,000 +54.55% 5
Wales -39 22 £55,000 -15.38% 8
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 15

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

For the 6 months to 16 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 1,394 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 239 (17.08%) C++
3 238 (17.01%) Python
4 237 (16.94%) C#
5 202 (14.44%) AWS
6 196 (14.01%) Java
7 193 (13.80%) Agile
8 168 (12.01%) .NET
9 149 (10.65%) CI/CD
10 148 (10.58%) Full-Stack Development
11 131 (9.36%) Mentoring
12 130 (9.29%) AI
13 114 (8.15%) Azure
14 110 (7.86%) React
15 109 (7.79%) Linux
15 109 (7.79%) Microservices
15 109 (7.79%) TypeScript
16 106 (7.58%) DevOps
17 100 (7.15%) JavaScript
17 100 (7.15%) Security Cleared
18 91 (6.50%) SaaS
19 90 (6.43%) Test Automation
20 88 (6.29%) Degree
21 87 (6.22%) SQL
22 85 (6.08%) C
23 82 (5.86%) Computer Science
24 81 (5.79%) SDLC
25 77 (5.50%) Node.js
26 76 (5.43%) Kubernetes
27 72 (5.15%) SC Cleared

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 (1.14%) SharePoint Server
2 4 (0.29%) Apache
3 3 (0.21%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.21%) WinCC
4 2 (0.14%) Confluence
5 1 (0.071%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Blender
1 3 (0.21%) Maya
2 1 (0.071%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 202 (14.44%) AWS
2 114 (8.15%) Azure
3 91 (6.50%) SaaS
4 56 (4.00%) GCP
5 33 (2.36%) GitHub
5 33 (2.36%) Serverless
6 24 (1.72%) Amazon EKS
7 18 (1.29%) Anthropic Claude
8 14 (1.00%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 13 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
10 11 (0.79%) GitHub Copilot
11 10 (0.71%) Azure AKS
12 7 (0.50%) Amazon S3
12 7 (0.50%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (0.36%) Azure AI
13 5 (0.36%) Azure Event Grid
13 5 (0.36%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (0.36%) Pulumi
14 4 (0.29%) Copilot Studio
14 4 (0.29%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.64%) RS-232
2 16 (1.14%) Ethernet
3 15 (1.07%) Multicast
4 14 (1.00%) Modbus
5 13 (0.93%) Bluetooth
6 12 (0.86%) Profibus
6 12 (0.86%) Wireless
7 9 (0.64%) RS-485
7 9 (0.64%) ZigBee
8 8 (0.57%) HTTP
9 7 (0.50%) Broadband
10 1 (0.071%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (1.72%) MySQL
3 22 (1.57%) SQL Server
4 20 (1.43%) NoSQL
5 15 (1.07%) MongoDB
6 11 (0.79%) Redis
7 9 (0.64%) Big Data
8 8 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (0.36%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.21%) DocumentDB
13 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
13 3 (0.21%) Neo4j
14 2 (0.14%) Hadoop
15 1 (0.071%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 59 (4.22%) Git
2 29 (2.07%) JIRA
3 27 (1.93%) GitLab
4 18 (1.29%) Claude Code
4 18 (1.29%) TeamCity
5 13 (0.93%) Visual Studio Code
6 7 (0.50%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.29%) Eclipse
8 3 (0.21%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.21%) Eclipse RCP
8 3 (0.21%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.14%) GDB
9 2 (0.14%) NUnit
9 2 (0.14%) Selenium
9 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.14%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.071%) JUnit
10 1 (0.071%) LabVIEW
10 1 (0.071%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.071%) Storybook
General
1 120 (8.58%) Finance
2 69 (4.93%) Social Skills
3 59 (4.22%) Electronics
4 53 (3.79%) Banking
5 41 (2.93%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 33 (2.36%) Analytical Skills
7 33 (2.36%) Public Sector
8 21 (1.50%) Retail
9 20 (1.43%) Law
10 16 (1.14%) Automotive
11 14 (1.00%) Back Office
11 14 (1.00%) Financial Institution
12 11 (0.79%) Military
13 10 (0.71%) Games
13 10 (0.71%) Tech for Good
14 9 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
15 8 (0.57%) Aerospace
15 8 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
16 7 (0.50%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 168 (12.01%) .NET
2 110 (7.86%) React
3 77 (5.50%) Node.js
4 46 (3.29%) WPF
5 38 (2.72%) Spring
6 34 (2.43%) RESTful
7 27 (1.93%) REST
7 27 (1.93%) Spring Boot
8 24 (1.72%) Next.js
9 17 (1.22%) Vue
10 16 (1.14%) .NET Core
10 16 (1.14%) AngularJS
10 16 (1.14%) FastAPI
11 15 (1.07%) Boost C++ Libraries
11 15 (1.07%) Django
11 15 (1.07%) FIX Protocol
11 15 (1.07%) pytest
11 15 (1.07%) React Native
11 15 (1.07%) Ruby on Rails
12 14 (1.00%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 97 (6.93%) Cloud Native
2 51 (3.65%) Algorithms
2 51 (3.65%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (3.07%) Distributed Systems
4 33 (2.36%) Embedded Systems
5 29 (2.07%) Greenfield Project
5 29 (2.07%) Robotics
6 17 (1.22%) Product Ownership
7 16 (1.14%) Derivative
7 16 (1.14%) Device Driver
8 15 (1.07%) Equities
8 15 (1.07%) Fixed Income
9 14 (1.00%) IoT
10 13 (0.93%) AI Agents
11 11 (0.79%) Client/Server
12 10 (0.71%) Public Cloud
13 9 (0.64%) Legacy Applications
13 9 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
13 9 (0.64%) Sports Betting
14 7 (0.50%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 109 (7.79%) Linux
2 29 (2.07%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.36%) FreeRTOS
4 13 (0.93%) Windows
5 5 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.21%) Android
7 2 (0.14%) Unix
8 1 (0.071%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,394 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 193 (13.80%) Agile
3 149 (10.65%) CI/CD
4 148 (10.58%) Full-Stack Development
5 131 (9.36%) Mentoring
6 130 (9.29%) AI
7 109 (7.79%) Microservices
8 106 (7.58%) DevOps
9 90 (6.43%) Test Automation
10 82 (5.86%) Computer Science
11 81 (5.79%) SDLC
12 70 (5.00%) Problem-Solving
13 63 (4.50%) Code Quality
14 61 (4.36%) Fintech
15 60 (4.29%) Technical Leadership
16 56 (4.00%) Continuous Improvement
17 50 (3.57%) Containerisation
18 45 (3.22%) Mathematics
19 43 (3.07%) Software Testing
20 39 (2.79%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 239 (17.08%) C++
2 238 (17.01%) Python
3 237 (16.94%) C#
4 196 (14.01%) Java
5 109 (7.79%) TypeScript
6 100 (7.15%) JavaScript
7 87 (6.22%) SQL
8 85 (6.08%) C
9 53 (3.79%) Rust
10 27 (1.93%) Go
11 21 (1.50%) Embedded C
12 15 (1.07%) Ruby
12 15 (1.07%) Scala
13 14 (1.00%) PHP
14 13 (0.93%) F#
14 13 (0.93%) Haskell
15 11 (0.79%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.71%) Julia
17 8 (0.57%) R
17 8 (0.57%) VB
Qualifications
1 100 (7.15%) Security Cleared
2 88 (6.29%) Degree
3 72 (5.15%) SC Cleared
4 45 (3.22%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (1.50%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.00%) PhD
8 3 (0.21%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.21%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.071%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (2.64%) QA
2 12 (0.86%) Accessibility
3 7 (0.50%) IEC 61508
3 7 (0.50%) MISRA
3 7 (0.50%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.36%) GDPR
5 3 (0.21%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.071%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 71 (5.08%) Docker
2 49 (3.50%) Firmware
3 22 (1.57%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.14%) KVM
4 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.071%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 76 (5.43%) Kubernetes
2 47 (3.36%) Terraform
3 21 (1.50%) Grafana
4 6 (0.43%) Ansible
5 5 (0.36%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.29%) Functional Safety
7 3 (0.21%) Plesk
8 2 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 15 (1.07%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.57%) Siemens
3 6 (0.43%) Google
3 6 (0.43%) Splunk
4 5 (0.36%) OpenAI
5 4 (0.29%) Databricks
5 4 (0.29%) Foundry
5 4 (0.29%) Intel
6 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.14%) ADVA
7 2 (0.14%) VMware
8 1 (0.071%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.071%) HubSpot
8 1 (0.071%) Palantir
8 1 (0.071%) TOWER Software