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 9 March 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 205 211 192
Rank change year-on-year +6 -19 +88
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 789 671 1,311
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.09% 1.52% 1.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 1.68% 1.66%
Number of salaries quoted 611 521 987
10th Percentile £58,750 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,000 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £72,500 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +10.75% -6.48%
75th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £101,250
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 66,178 40,037 79,004
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.70% 90.84% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 42,020 23,148 60,868
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £43,750 £38,750
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 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,793 £50,000
% change year-on-year -8.75% +9.59% -5.66%

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 9 March 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 9 March 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 +19 673 £75,000 +3.45% 356
UK excluding London +15 497 £70,000 +7.69% 312
London +41 254 £95,000 +5.56% 95
Work from Home -49 245 £75,000 +7.14% 178
South East 0 118 £70,000 +7.69% 91
South West +41 109 £67,500 +3.85% 52
North of England -40 96 £75,000 +15.38% 52
Scotland +5 79 £67,500 +3.85% 31
East of England -19 48 £70,000 +3.70% 42
North West -34 45 £75,000 +15.38% 22
Midlands +8 40 £65,000 -10.34% 36
Yorkshire -26 38 £75,000 -12.03% 25
East Midlands -7 21 £65,000 -13.33% 21
West Midlands +9 19 £65,000 -7.14% 15
North East -20 13 £75,000 +36.36% 5
Wales -9 7 £60,000 -9.43% 10

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

For the 6 months to 9 March 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.

1 775 (98.23%) Software Engineering
2 138 (17.49%) Java
3 129 (16.35%) AWS
4 121 (15.34%) .NET
5 113 (14.32%) Agile
6 106 (13.43%) C#
7 101 (12.80%) CI/CD
8 97 (12.29%) Full-Stack Development
9 93 (11.79%) C++
10 86 (10.90%) Kubernetes
10 86 (10.90%) Microservices
11 82 (10.39%) Python
12 79 (10.01%) Azure
13 75 (9.51%) Mentoring
14 74 (9.38%) DevOps
15 70 (8.87%) React
16 64 (8.11%) TypeScript
17 63 (7.98%) Linux
18 58 (7.35%) SaaS
19 55 (6.97%) Test Automation
20 54 (6.84%) Fintech
20 54 (6.84%) SQL
21 52 (6.59%) Degree
21 52 (6.59%) Docker
22 51 (6.46%) Computer Science
22 51 (6.46%) Problem-Solving
23 49 (6.21%) Containerisation
23 49 (6.21%) GCP
23 49 (6.21%) JavaScript
24 47 (5.96%) AI

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 5 (0.63%) Apache
2 4 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.38%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.38%) CMS
4 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.13%) Confluence
4 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Photoshop
Cloud Services
1 129 (16.35%) AWS
2 79 (10.01%) Azure
3 58 (7.35%) SaaS
4 49 (6.21%) GCP
5 30 (3.80%) GitHub
6 17 (2.15%) Azure AKS
7 16 (2.03%) Amazon EKS
8 11 (1.39%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 11 (1.39%) Serverless
9 10 (1.27%) Azure Event Grid
9 10 (1.27%) GitHub Copilot
10 8 (1.01%) Stripe
11 7 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (0.76%) Anthropic Claude
13 5 (0.63%) Cloud Run
13 5 (0.63%) dbt
13 5 (0.63%) Snowflake
14 4 (0.51%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.51%) GitHub Actions
15 3 (0.38%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.52%) Multicast
2 10 (1.27%) HTTP
3 9 (1.14%) Ethernet
3 9 (1.14%) RS-232
4 4 (0.51%) Broadband
5 1 (0.13%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (4.56%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.66%) NoSQL
3 20 (2.53%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.52%) Elasticsearch
5 11 (1.39%) MongoDB
6 10 (1.27%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.89%) Redis
8 5 (0.63%) Amazon Athena
8 5 (0.63%) MySQL
8 5 (0.63%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.51%) Apache Arrow
9 4 (0.51%) Apache Iceberg
9 4 (0.51%) Apache Ignite
9 4 (0.51%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.51%) Dremio
9 4 (0.51%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.25%) Big Data
11 2 (0.25%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.25%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 31 (3.93%) Git
2 22 (2.79%) JIRA
3 18 (2.28%) TeamCity
4 8 (1.01%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.76%) Claude Code
5 6 (0.76%) GitLab
6 4 (0.51%) JUnit
7 3 (0.38%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.38%) JBehave
7 3 (0.38%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.25%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.25%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.25%) Xcode
9 1 (0.13%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.13%) Gradle
9 1 (0.13%) NUnit
9 1 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.13%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.13%) Selenium
General
1 143 (18.12%) Finance
2 56 (7.10%) Banking
3 39 (4.94%) Social Skills
4 23 (2.92%) Financial Institution
4 23 (2.92%) Retail
5 20 (2.53%) Law
6 17 (2.15%) Games
7 16 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 14 (1.77%) Back Office
9 12 (1.52%) Tech for Good
10 10 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
11 9 (1.14%) Automotive
11 9 (1.14%) Public Sector
12 6 (0.76%) Manufacturing
13 5 (0.63%) Aerospace
13 5 (0.63%) Analytical Skills
13 5 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.63%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.51%) Front Office
14 4 (0.51%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 121 (15.34%) .NET
2 70 (8.87%) React
3 36 (4.56%) RESTful
4 34 (4.31%) REST
5 33 (4.18%) Node.js
6 27 (3.42%) .NET Core
7 23 (2.92%) React Native
8 20 (2.53%) .NET Framework
9 18 (2.28%) GraphQL
10 14 (1.77%) Ruby on Rails
10 14 (1.77%) Spring
11 13 (1.65%) Entity Framework
12 12 (1.52%) AngularJS
12 12 (1.52%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 12 (1.52%) Django
12 12 (1.52%) FIX Protocol
12 12 (1.52%) pytest
12 12 (1.52%) Spring Boot
13 11 (1.39%) Dapper ORM
14 10 (1.27%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 71 (9.00%) Cloud Native
2 28 (3.55%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (3.04%) Algorithms
4 20 (2.53%) Embedded Systems
5 17 (2.15%) Derivative
6 16 (2.03%) Equities
6 16 (2.03%) Fixed Income
7 13 (1.65%) IoT
8 12 (1.52%) Robotics
9 11 (1.39%) CAN bus
9 11 (1.39%) Legacy Code
9 11 (1.39%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.27%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (1.14%) Device Driver
11 9 (1.14%) Legacy Systems
12 8 (1.01%) Hedge funds
13 7 (0.89%) Blog
13 7 (0.89%) Sports Betting
14 5 (0.63%) Data Structures
15 4 (0.51%) Pricing Data
Operating Systems
1 63 (7.98%) Linux
2 21 (2.66%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.28%) Android
4 6 (0.76%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.25%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 775 (98.23%) Software Engineering
2 113 (14.32%) Agile
3 101 (12.80%) CI/CD
4 97 (12.29%) Full-Stack Development
5 86 (10.90%) Microservices
6 75 (9.51%) Mentoring
7 74 (9.38%) DevOps
8 55 (6.97%) Test Automation
9 54 (6.84%) Fintech
10 51 (6.46%) Computer Science
10 51 (6.46%) Problem-Solving
11 49 (6.21%) Containerisation
12 47 (5.96%) AI
13 44 (5.58%) Technical Leadership
14 42 (5.32%) SDLC
15 36 (4.56%) Scrum
16 33 (4.18%) Continuous Improvement
17 32 (4.06%) Clean Code
18 29 (3.68%) Low Latency
18 29 (3.68%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 138 (17.49%) Java
2 106 (13.43%) C#
3 93 (11.79%) C++
4 82 (10.39%) Python
5 64 (8.11%) TypeScript
6 54 (6.84%) SQL
7 49 (6.21%) JavaScript
8 36 (4.56%) C
9 30 (3.80%) Rust
10 25 (3.17%) Go
11 19 (2.41%) Kotlin
12 16 (2.03%) PHP
13 14 (1.77%) Ruby
14 9 (1.14%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.63%) Delphi
16 4 (0.51%) Scala
16 4 (0.51%) VB
17 3 (0.38%) Bash
17 3 (0.38%) Swift
18 2 (0.25%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 52 (6.59%) Degree
2 26 (3.30%) Security Cleared
3 24 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
4 22 (2.79%) SC Cleared
5 19 (2.41%) Master's Degree
6 9 (1.14%) PhD
7 5 (0.63%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.13%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (2.66%) QA
2 11 (1.39%) IEC 61508
2 11 (1.39%) MISRA
2 11 (1.39%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.76%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.13%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.13%) ECSS
4 1 (0.13%) GDPR
4 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 52 (6.59%) Docker
2 9 (1.14%) Firmware
3 6 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
4 2 (0.25%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.25%) KVM
4 2 (0.25%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 86 (10.90%) Kubernetes
2 32 (4.06%) Terraform
3 16 (2.03%) Grafana
4 11 (1.39%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.25%) Ansible
5 2 (0.25%) Argo
6 1 (0.13%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (1.65%) Google
2 8 (1.01%) HubSpot
2 8 (1.01%) Microsoft
3 2 (0.25%) Adobe
3 2 (0.25%) CA Agile Central
3 2 (0.25%) OpenAI
3 2 (0.25%) SAP
3 2 (0.25%) VMware
4 1 (0.13%) Dynatrace
4 1 (0.13%) Green Hills
4 1 (0.13%) New Relic