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 23 February 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 206 196 213
Rank change year-on-year -10 +17 +50
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 721 754 1,106
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.05% 1.57% 1.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.15% 1.71% 1.55%
Number of salaries quoted 558 519 843
10th Percentile £57,675 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £57,500 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +3.70% -3.57%
75th Percentile £95,000 £96,875 £81,875
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £102,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -3.85%

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 62,963 43,992 71,553
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.36% 91.41% 94.79%
Number of salaries quoted 39,692 23,186 55,777
10th Percentile £29,000 £32,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,268
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%

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 23 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Software Engineer in the UK

Senior Software Engineer
Top 16 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 23 February 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 +4 616 £75,000 +7.14% 236
UK excluding London -22 449 £70,000 +7.69% 186
London +27 237 £95,000 +5.56% 94
Work from Home -51 234 £72,500 +3.57% 155
South East -19 109 £70,000 +7.69% 45
South West +35 98 £65,000 - 30
North of England -36 85 £75,000 +15.38% 38
Scotland -7 71 £67,500 +3.85% 28
East of England -27 44 £70,000 +3.70% 22
North West -16 40 £70,000 +7.69% 21
Midlands +10 35 £65,000 +4.00% 20
Yorkshire -16 35 £75,000 -4.91% 12
East Midlands -12 18 £65,000 -3.70% 10
West Midlands +11 17 £65,000 +4.00% 10
North East -23 10 £75,000 +36.36% 5
Wales -2 7 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 23 February 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.

1 707 (98.06%) Software Engineering
2 126 (17.48%) AWS
2 126 (17.48%) Java
3 116 (16.09%) .NET
4 108 (14.98%) Agile
5 104 (14.42%) C#
6 99 (13.73%) CI/CD
7 94 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
8 86 (11.93%) Microservices
9 84 (11.65%) C++
10 83 (11.51%) Kubernetes
11 78 (10.82%) Azure
12 77 (10.68%) Python
13 76 (10.54%) Mentoring
14 72 (9.99%) DevOps
14 72 (9.99%) React
15 63 (8.74%) TypeScript
16 60 (8.32%) Linux
17 52 (7.21%) Degree
18 51 (7.07%) Computer Science
18 51 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
18 51 (7.07%) SaaS
18 51 (7.07%) Test Automation
19 49 (6.80%) SQL
20 48 (6.66%) Containerisation
20 48 (6.66%) Docker
20 48 (6.66%) Fintech
20 48 (6.66%) GCP
21 47 (6.52%) JavaScript
22 45 (6.24%) SDLC

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 7 (0.97%) Apache
2 6 (0.83%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.42%) CMS
4 2 (0.28%) Apache Solr
5 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.14%) Confluence
5 1 (0.14%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Photoshop
Cloud Services
1 126 (17.48%) AWS
2 78 (10.82%) Azure
3 51 (7.07%) SaaS
4 48 (6.66%) GCP
5 28 (3.88%) GitHub
6 16 (2.22%) Amazon EKS
6 16 (2.22%) Azure AKS
7 10 (1.39%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 10 (1.39%) Azure DevOps
7 10 (1.39%) GitHub Copilot
8 9 (1.25%) Azure Event Grid
9 8 (1.11%) Serverless
9 8 (1.11%) Stripe
10 7 (0.97%) dbt
10 7 (0.97%) Snowflake
11 5 (0.69%) Cloud Run
12 4 (0.55%) Amazon S3
12 4 (0.55%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.42%) AWS Lambda
13 3 (0.42%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.66%) Multicast
2 10 (1.39%) HTTP
3 7 (0.97%) Ethernet
3 7 (0.97%) RS-232
4 4 (0.55%) Broadband
5 1 (0.14%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (4.58%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.77%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (2.64%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.53%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (1.39%) BigQuery
6 9 (1.25%) MongoDB
7 7 (0.97%) Amazon Athena
7 7 (0.97%) Redis
8 6 (0.83%) Apache Arrow
8 6 (0.83%) Apache Iceberg
8 6 (0.83%) Apache Ignite
8 6 (0.83%) Data Lake
8 6 (0.83%) Dremio
8 6 (0.83%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.69%) MySQL
10 4 (0.55%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.14%) Big Data
12 1 (0.14%) MariaDB
12 1 (0.14%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 30 (4.16%) Git
2 21 (2.91%) JIRA
3 18 (2.50%) TeamCity
4 8 (1.11%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.83%) GitLab
6 4 (0.55%) JUnit
7 3 (0.42%) Claude Code
7 3 (0.42%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.42%) JBehave
7 3 (0.42%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.28%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.28%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.28%) Xcode
9 1 (0.14%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.14%) Gradle
9 1 (0.14%) NUnit
9 1 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.14%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.14%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.14%) Selenium
General
1 139 (19.28%) Finance
2 58 (8.04%) Banking
3 41 (5.69%) Social Skills
4 23 (3.19%) Financial Institution
4 23 (3.19%) Retail
5 20 (2.77%) Law
6 16 (2.22%) Games
6 16 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (1.94%) Back Office
8 12 (1.66%) Tech for Good
9 10 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.25%) Automotive
11 7 (0.97%) Public Sector
12 6 (0.83%) Front Office
12 6 (0.83%) Investment Banking
13 5 (0.69%) Aerospace
13 5 (0.69%) Analytical Skills
13 5 (0.69%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.55%) Marketing
14 4 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 116 (16.09%) .NET
2 72 (9.99%) React
3 37 (5.13%) RESTful
4 32 (4.44%) Node.js
4 32 (4.44%) REST
5 25 (3.47%) .NET Core
6 23 (3.19%) React Native
7 19 (2.64%) .NET Framework
8 18 (2.50%) GraphQL
9 14 (1.94%) AngularJS
9 14 (1.94%) Ruby on Rails
10 13 (1.80%) Spring
11 12 (1.66%) Boost C++ Libraries
11 12 (1.66%) Entity Framework
11 12 (1.66%) FIX Protocol
11 12 (1.66%) pytest
12 11 (1.53%) Django
12 11 (1.53%) Spring Boot
13 10 (1.39%) Dapper ORM
13 10 (1.39%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 67 (9.29%) Cloud Native
2 27 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (3.33%) Algorithms
4 20 (2.77%) Embedded Systems
5 19 (2.64%) Derivative
6 18 (2.50%) Equities
6 18 (2.50%) Fixed Income
7 13 (1.80%) IoT
8 11 (1.53%) CAN bus
8 11 (1.53%) Legacy Code
8 11 (1.53%) Public Cloud
9 10 (1.39%) Greenfield Project
9 10 (1.39%) Robotics
10 9 (1.25%) Hedge funds
10 9 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (0.97%) Blog
11 7 (0.97%) Device Driver
12 6 (0.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 6 (0.83%) Pricing Data
12 6 (0.83%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 60 (8.32%) Linux
2 19 (2.64%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.50%) Android
4 6 (0.83%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.28%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 707 (98.06%) Software Engineering
2 108 (14.98%) Agile
3 99 (13.73%) CI/CD
4 94 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
5 86 (11.93%) Microservices
6 76 (10.54%) Mentoring
7 72 (9.99%) DevOps
8 51 (7.07%) Computer Science
8 51 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
8 51 (7.07%) Test Automation
9 48 (6.66%) Containerisation
9 48 (6.66%) Fintech
10 45 (6.24%) SDLC
11 43 (5.96%) Technical Leadership
12 42 (5.83%) AI
13 35 (4.85%) Scrum
14 33 (4.58%) Clean Code
14 33 (4.58%) Continuous Improvement
15 28 (3.88%) User Experience
16 27 (3.74%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 126 (17.48%) Java
2 104 (14.42%) C#
3 84 (11.65%) C++
4 77 (10.68%) Python
5 63 (8.74%) TypeScript
6 49 (6.80%) SQL
7 47 (6.52%) JavaScript
8 35 (4.85%) C
9 28 (3.88%) Rust
10 24 (3.33%) Go
11 19 (2.64%) Kotlin
12 15 (2.08%) PHP
13 14 (1.94%) Ruby
14 7 (0.97%) Embedded C
15 6 (0.83%) Delphi
16 4 (0.55%) Scala
16 4 (0.55%) VB
17 3 (0.42%) Bash
17 3 (0.42%) Swift
18 2 (0.28%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 52 (7.21%) Degree
2 25 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
3 20 (2.77%) Security Cleared
4 18 (2.50%) Master's Degree
5 16 (2.22%) SC Cleared
6 8 (1.11%) PhD
7 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.14%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.14%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (2.77%) QA
2 11 (1.53%) IEC 61508
2 11 (1.53%) MISRA
2 11 (1.53%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.83%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.14%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.14%) ECSS
4 1 (0.14%) GDPR
4 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.14%) PSD2
System Software
1 48 (6.66%) Docker
2 7 (0.97%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (0.97%) Virtual Servers
3 5 (0.69%) Firmware
4 2 (0.28%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.28%) KVM
4 2 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 83 (11.51%) Kubernetes
2 31 (4.30%) Terraform
3 16 (2.22%) Grafana
4 11 (1.53%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.28%) Ansible
5 2 (0.28%) Argo
6 1 (0.14%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.14%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (1.80%) Google
2 9 (1.25%) Microsoft
3 8 (1.11%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.28%) Adobe
4 2 (0.28%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.28%) OpenAI
4 2 (0.28%) SAP
4 2 (0.28%) VMware
5 1 (0.14%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.14%) ForgeRock
5 1 (0.14%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.14%) New Relic