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 13 May 2026.

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

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 162 196 149
Rank change year-on-year +34 -47 +130
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,140 751 1,854
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.27% 1.73% 1.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.36% 1.93% 2.03%
Number of salaries quoted 897 510 1,338
10th Percentile £55,000 £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 £97,528 £80,000
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 83,861 38,850 91,176
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.26% 89.47% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 55,212 22,832 66,939
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,670 £52,686
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% +9.46% -12.19%
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% -5.66%

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 13 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 13 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 +26 975 £75,000 -3.23% 249
UK excluding London +35 757 £70,000 +7.69% 191
London +44 314 £95,000 - 91
Work from Home -50 295 £72,500 -3.33% 130
South East +103 199 £70,000 +7.69% 52
South West +50 148 £70,000 +3.70% 22
North of England -87 141 £75,000 +15.38% 49
East of England +33 92 £75,000 +17.65% 26
Scotland +25 84 £67,500 +8.00% 21
North West -72 84 £75,000 +11.11% 25
Midlands +29 75 £65,000 -10.34% 23
West Midlands +15 49 £70,000 -3.45% 15
Yorkshire -38 46 £70,000 -11.18% 13
East Midlands +2 26 £65,000 - 8
Wales -23 17 £60,000 -7.69% 2
North East -45 11 £80,000 +45.45% 12
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 13 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 1,125 (98.68%) Software Engineering
2 168 (14.74%) C++
3 166 (14.56%) Java
4 162 (14.21%) Agile
4 162 (14.21%) C#
5 155 (13.60%) AWS
6 151 (13.25%) .NET
7 139 (12.19%) Python
8 128 (11.23%) Full-Stack Development
9 110 (9.65%) CI/CD
10 108 (9.47%) Mentoring
11 98 (8.60%) Microservices
12 95 (8.33%) Azure
13 89 (7.81%) React
14 88 (7.72%) DevOps
15 86 (7.54%) Linux
16 82 (7.19%) SaaS
17 77 (6.75%) TypeScript
18 75 (6.58%) JavaScript
19 73 (6.40%) Test Automation
20 70 (6.14%) C
20 70 (6.14%) Kubernetes
21 69 (6.05%) AI
21 69 (6.05%) Degree
22 68 (5.96%) Computer Science
23 67 (5.88%) SQL
24 66 (5.79%) SDLC
25 62 (5.44%) Fintech
26 59 (5.18%) Problem-Solving
26 59 (5.18%) Security 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 4 (0.35%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.26%) Apache
2 3 (0.26%) CMS
3 2 (0.18%) Confluence
3 2 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
3 2 (0.18%) WinCC
4 1 (0.088%) SharePoint Server
Cloud Services
1 155 (13.60%) AWS
2 95 (8.33%) Azure
3 82 (7.19%) SaaS
4 55 (4.82%) GCP
5 40 (3.51%) GitHub
6 24 (2.11%) Serverless
7 18 (1.58%) GitHub Copilot
8 16 (1.40%) Azure AKS
9 15 (1.32%) Amazon EKS
9 15 (1.32%) Anthropic Claude
10 12 (1.05%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 10 (0.88%) Azure Event Grid
12 8 (0.70%) Stripe
13 7 (0.61%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (0.53%) IaaS
15 4 (0.35%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 4 (0.35%) Amazon S3
16 3 (0.26%) Amazon SQS
16 3 (0.26%) AWS CloudFormation
16 3 (0.26%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.58%) RS-232
2 16 (1.40%) Ethernet
2 16 (1.40%) HTTP
3 14 (1.23%) Multicast
4 8 (0.70%) Bluetooth
4 8 (0.70%) Modbus
5 7 (0.61%) Wireless
6 6 (0.53%) Profibus
7 5 (0.44%) Broadband
8 4 (0.35%) RS-485
8 4 (0.35%) ZigBee
9 1 (0.088%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.89%) SQL Server
2 22 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (1.84%) NoSQL
4 12 (1.05%) MySQL
5 11 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
5 11 (0.96%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.70%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.61%) Big Data
8 5 (0.44%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.35%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.35%) Neo4j
9 4 (0.35%) Redis
10 3 (0.26%) MariaDB
11 2 (0.18%) DB2
11 2 (0.18%) DynamoDB
12 1 (0.088%) Amazon Athena
12 1 (0.088%) Amazon RDS
12 1 (0.088%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.088%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.088%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 42 (3.68%) Git
2 23 (2.02%) JIRA
3 17 (1.49%) GitLab
3 17 (1.49%) TeamCity
4 15 (1.32%) Claude Code
5 13 (1.14%) Visual Studio Code
6 11 (0.96%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.35%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.35%) JUnit
8 3 (0.26%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.26%) JBehave
8 3 (0.26%) 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 (0.088%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 146 (12.81%) Finance
2 64 (5.61%) Banking
3 42 (3.68%) Social Skills
4 31 (2.72%) Electronics
5 27 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 21 (1.84%) Manufacturing
7 20 (1.75%) Automotive
7 20 (1.75%) Retail
8 17 (1.49%) Law
9 16 (1.40%) Influencing Skills
9 16 (1.40%) Public Sector
10 15 (1.32%) Tech for Good
11 14 (1.23%) Games
12 13 (1.14%) Financial Institution
13 12 (1.05%) Analytical Skills
13 12 (1.05%) Back Office
14 10 (0.88%) Aerospace
15 9 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
16 7 (0.61%) Agriculture
16 7 (0.61%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 151 (13.25%) .NET
2 89 (7.81%) React
3 54 (4.74%) Node.js
4 43 (3.77%) REST
5 31 (2.72%) RESTful
6 28 (2.46%) .NET Core
7 26 (2.28%) React Native
8 25 (2.19%) WPF
9 18 (1.58%) .NET Framework
9 18 (1.58%) Spring
10 16 (1.40%) Spring Boot
11 15 (1.32%) AngularJS
12 14 (1.23%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 14 (1.23%) FIX Protocol
12 14 (1.23%) pytest
12 14 (1.23%) Yocto
13 13 (1.14%) Ruby on Rails
14 12 (1.05%) Entity Framework
14 12 (1.05%) Vue
15 11 (0.96%) Dapper ORM
Miscellaneous
1 83 (7.28%) Cloud Native
2 46 (4.04%) Algorithms
3 34 (2.98%) Embedded Systems
4 22 (1.93%) Distributed Systems
5 17 (1.49%) IoT
6 16 (1.40%) Derivative
6 16 (1.40%) Public Cloud
7 15 (1.32%) CAN bus
7 15 (1.32%) Robotics
8 14 (1.23%) Device Driver
8 14 (1.23%) Equities
8 14 (1.23%) Fixed Income
9 12 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (0.79%) Sports Betting
12 7 (0.61%) Client/Server
12 7 (0.61%) FMCG
13 6 (0.53%) Augmented Reality
13 6 (0.53%) Blog
13 6 (0.53%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 86 (7.54%) Linux
2 26 (2.28%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.58%) Android
4 14 (1.23%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (0.53%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.35%) Windows
7 1 (0.088%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,125 (98.68%) Software Engineering
2 162 (14.21%) Agile
3 128 (11.23%) Full-Stack Development
4 110 (9.65%) CI/CD
5 108 (9.47%) Mentoring
6 98 (8.60%) Microservices
7 88 (7.72%) DevOps
8 73 (6.40%) Test Automation
9 69 (6.05%) AI
10 68 (5.96%) Computer Science
11 66 (5.79%) SDLC
12 62 (5.44%) Fintech
13 59 (5.18%) Problem-Solving
14 55 (4.82%) Technical Leadership
15 52 (4.56%) Containerisation
16 47 (4.12%) Scrum
17 46 (4.04%) Embedded Software Development
18 43 (3.77%) Low Latency
19 42 (3.68%) Continuous Improvement
20 39 (3.42%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 168 (14.74%) C++
2 166 (14.56%) Java
3 162 (14.21%) C#
4 139 (12.19%) Python
5 77 (6.75%) TypeScript
6 75 (6.58%) JavaScript
7 70 (6.14%) C
8 67 (5.88%) SQL
9 38 (3.33%) Rust
10 26 (2.28%) Go
11 20 (1.75%) PHP
12 19 (1.67%) Embedded C
13 15 (1.32%) Kotlin
14 13 (1.14%) Ruby
15 12 (1.05%) Scala
16 8 (0.70%) F#
16 8 (0.70%) Haskell
17 5 (0.44%) MATLAB
18 4 (0.35%) VB
19 3 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 69 (6.05%) Degree
2 59 (5.18%) Security Cleared
3 45 (3.95%) SC Cleared
4 23 (2.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (1.75%) Master's Degree
6 19 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 9 (0.79%) PhD
8 3 (0.26%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.18%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.18%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (2.02%) QA
2 16 (1.40%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.40%) MISRA
2 16 (1.40%) MISRA C
3 10 (0.88%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.26%) DO-178B
5 2 (0.18%) GDPR
5 2 (0.18%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.088%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.088%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 58 (5.09%) Docker
2 37 (3.25%) Firmware
3 16 (1.40%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.18%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.18%) KVM
4 2 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.088%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 70 (6.14%) Kubernetes
2 36 (3.16%) Terraform
3 18 (1.58%) Grafana
4 13 (1.14%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.44%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.26%) Plesk
7 2 (0.18%) Ansible
7 2 (0.18%) Argo
Vendors
1 10 (0.88%) Google
1 10 (0.88%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.70%) HubSpot
3 4 (0.35%) Siemens
4 2 (0.18%) Adobe
4 2 (0.18%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.18%) OpenAI
4 2 (0.18%) Rockwell
4 2 (0.18%) VMware
5 1 (0.088%) New Relic
5 1 (0.088%) TOWER Software