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 8 August 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 208 113
Rank change year-on-year +73 -95 +166
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,518 787 1,885
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.44% 1.59% 2.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.53% 1.76% 2.39%
Number of salaries quoted 1,179 452 1,335
10th Percentile £55,600 £56,325 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +30.77% -3.74%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £87,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% -4.00%

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 99,002 44,694 78,791
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.08% 90.02% 94.96%
Number of salaries quoted 67,676 26,534 53,124
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,450
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £49,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% -2.00% -6.79%

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 8 August 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 8 August 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 +73 1,360 £75,000 -15.41% 746
UK excluding London +96 1,061 £70,000 - 303
London -9 371 £95,000 -11.63% 484
Work from Home -70 297 £74,500 -12.61% 257
North of England -9 264 £75,000 +3.45% 69
South East +137 244 £80,000 +10.34% 56
South West +54 199 £70,000 - 39
East of England +82 164 £70,000 +9.80% 56
North West -25 160 £75,000 +0.67% 49
Midlands +63 114 £69,305 -4.41% 34
Yorkshire +18 69 £70,000 -11.18% 5
West Midlands +25 64 £70,000 -5.08% 13
East Midlands +23 50 £60,000 -14.29% 21
Scotland +2 46 £67,500 +3.85% 32
North East -28 35 £90,000 +800.00% 15
Wales -37 27 £64,000 -1.54% 10
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 11

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

For the 6 months to 8 August 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 1,514 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 266 (17.52%) Python
3 248 (16.34%) C#
4 241 (15.88%) C++
5 229 (15.09%) Agile
6 220 (14.49%) Java
7 211 (13.90%) AWS
8 182 (11.99%) CI/CD
9 169 (11.13%) .NET
10 163 (10.74%) AI
10 163 (10.74%) Mentoring
11 159 (10.47%) Full-Stack Development
12 120 (7.91%) Microservices
12 120 (7.91%) TypeScript
13 119 (7.84%) DevOps
14 118 (7.77%) React
15 114 (7.51%) Azure
16 107 (7.05%) Linux
17 105 (6.92%) Security Cleared
18 103 (6.79%) JavaScript
18 103 (6.79%) Test Automation
19 90 (5.93%) SDLC
20 87 (5.73%) Degree
21 86 (5.67%) Code Quality
22 85 (5.60%) SQL
23 84 (5.53%) SaaS
24 83 (5.47%) Problem-Solving
25 82 (5.40%) C
26 78 (5.14%) Computer Science
26 78 (5.14%) Kubernetes

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 (1.05%) SharePoint Server
2 7 (0.46%) Apache
3 4 (0.26%) Confluence
4 3 (0.20%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.20%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.20%) WinCC
5 2 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.13%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.066%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.20%) Blender
1 3 (0.20%) Maya
2 1 (0.066%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 211 (13.90%) AWS
2 114 (7.51%) Azure
3 84 (5.53%) SaaS
4 67 (4.41%) GCP
5 41 (2.70%) GitHub
6 35 (2.31%) Serverless
7 22 (1.45%) Amazon EKS
8 21 (1.38%) Anthropic Claude
9 19 (1.25%) GitHub Copilot
10 14 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (0.66%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 9 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (0.53%) Amazon S3
14 7 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
15 6 (0.40%) Supabase
16 5 (0.33%) Amazon SQS
16 5 (0.33%) Azure AI
16 5 (0.33%) Pulumi
17 4 (0.26%) Copilot Studio
17 4 (0.26%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.38%) RS-232
2 14 (0.92%) Ethernet
2 14 (0.92%) Modbus
3 13 (0.86%) Bluetooth
3 13 (0.86%) Multicast
4 12 (0.79%) Profibus
4 12 (0.79%) Wireless
5 9 (0.59%) RS-485
5 9 (0.59%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.53%) HTTP
7 7 (0.46%) Broadband
8 3 (0.20%) Firewall
8 3 (0.20%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.066%) BGP
9 1 (0.066%) DNS
9 1 (0.066%) LTE
9 1 (0.066%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (3.62%) PostgreSQL
2 31 (2.04%) MySQL
3 24 (1.58%) Relational Database
4 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.19%) SQL Server
5 17 (1.12%) Redis
6 16 (1.05%) MongoDB
7 10 (0.66%) Big Data
8 8 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
9 6 (0.40%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.26%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.20%) DocumentDB
12 3 (0.20%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.20%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.13%) CockroachDB
13 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 60 (3.95%) Git
2 32 (2.11%) JIRA
3 26 (1.71%) GitLab
4 20 (1.32%) Claude Code
5 16 (1.05%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.72%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.59%) Jenkins
8 6 (0.40%) Selenium
9 5 (0.33%) Jasmine
9 5 (0.33%) Mocha
9 5 (0.33%) NUnit
10 4 (0.26%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.26%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.26%) Rational Rhapsody
10 4 (0.26%) Visual Studio
11 3 (0.20%) Eclipse RCP
11 3 (0.20%) JUnit
11 3 (0.20%) Oracle APEX
12 2 (0.13%) CMake
12 2 (0.13%) GDB
General
1 143 (9.42%) Finance
2 100 (6.59%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.41%) Electronics
4 55 (3.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 53 (3.49%) Banking
6 46 (3.03%) Manufacturing
7 41 (2.70%) Public Sector
8 38 (2.50%) Analytical Skills
9 36 (2.37%) Law
10 21 (1.38%) Retail
11 15 (0.99%) Automotive
11 15 (0.99%) Marketing
12 14 (0.92%) Aerospace
12 14 (0.92%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.79%) Military
14 11 (0.72%) Back Office
15 10 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
17 7 (0.46%) Billing
17 7 (0.46%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (11.13%) .NET
2 118 (7.77%) React
3 71 (4.68%) Node.js
4 55 (3.62%) Spring
5 49 (3.23%) WPF
6 37 (2.44%) RESTful
7 35 (2.31%) Spring Boot
8 29 (1.91%) REST
9 27 (1.78%) Kafka
9 27 (1.78%) Next.js
10 21 (1.38%) AngularJS
11 19 (1.25%) FastAPI
12 18 (1.19%) Django
13 16 (1.05%) React Native
13 16 (1.05%) Vue
14 14 (0.92%) FIX Protocol
15 13 (0.86%) Boost C++ Libraries
15 13 (0.86%) CSS
15 13 (0.86%) Flask
15 13 (0.86%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 117 (7.71%) Cloud Native
2 55 (3.62%) Distributed Systems
2 55 (3.62%) Legacy Systems
3 49 (3.23%) Algorithms
4 37 (2.44%) Robotics
5 32 (2.11%) Embedded Systems
6 29 (1.91%) Greenfield Project
7 21 (1.38%) Product Ownership
8 18 (1.19%) AI Agents
8 18 (1.19%) Public Cloud
9 16 (1.05%) Derivative
10 15 (0.99%) Device Driver
11 13 (0.86%) Equities
11 13 (0.86%) Fixed Income
12 11 (0.72%) Blog
12 11 (0.72%) Client/Server
12 11 (0.72%) Cyber Threat
12 11 (0.72%) Legacy Applications
12 11 (0.72%) Virtual Team
13 10 (0.66%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 107 (7.05%) Linux
2 28 (1.84%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.25%) FreeRTOS
4 18 (1.19%) Windows
5 4 (0.26%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.20%) Android
6 3 (0.20%) Unix
7 1 (0.066%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,514 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 229 (15.09%) Agile
3 182 (11.99%) CI/CD
4 163 (10.74%) AI
4 163 (10.74%) Mentoring
5 159 (10.47%) Full-Stack Development
6 120 (7.91%) Microservices
7 119 (7.84%) DevOps
8 103 (6.79%) Test Automation
9 90 (5.93%) SDLC
10 86 (5.67%) Code Quality
11 83 (5.47%) Problem-Solving
12 78 (5.14%) Computer Science
12 78 (5.14%) Technical Leadership
13 74 (4.87%) Fintech
14 69 (4.55%) Continuous Improvement
15 53 (3.49%) Machine Learning
16 48 (3.16%) Containerisation
16 48 (3.16%) Software Architecture
17 44 (2.90%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 266 (17.52%) Python
2 248 (16.34%) C#
3 241 (15.88%) C++
4 220 (14.49%) Java
5 120 (7.91%) TypeScript
6 103 (6.79%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.60%) SQL
8 82 (5.40%) C
9 48 (3.16%) Rust
10 34 (2.24%) Go
11 21 (1.38%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.05%) Scala
13 14 (0.92%) Ruby
14 13 (0.86%) F#
14 13 (0.86%) Haskell
14 13 (0.86%) PHP
15 11 (0.72%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.66%) Julia
17 9 (0.59%) Kotlin
18 8 (0.53%) R
Qualifications
1 105 (6.92%) Security Cleared
2 87 (5.73%) Degree
3 74 (4.87%) SC Cleared
4 53 (3.49%) DV Cleared
5 27 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.25%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.79%) PhD
8 8 (0.53%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.40%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.066%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.066%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (2.70%) QA
2 18 (1.19%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.33%) GDPR
3 5 (0.33%) IEC 61508
3 5 (0.33%) MISRA
3 5 (0.33%) MISRA C
4 4 (0.26%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.26%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.20%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.066%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 77 (5.07%) Docker
2 51 (3.36%) Firmware
3 22 (1.45%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.13%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.13%) KVM
4 2 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.066%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 78 (5.14%) Kubernetes
2 54 (3.56%) Terraform
3 18 (1.19%) Grafana
4 7 (0.46%) Ansible
5 5 (0.33%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.20%) Plesk
7 2 (0.13%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.13%) kaniko
7 2 (0.13%) Puppet
8 1 (0.066%) Argo
8 1 (0.066%) Istio
Vendors
1 19 (1.25%) Microsoft
2 9 (0.59%) Google
3 8 (0.53%) Siemens
3 8 (0.53%) Splunk
4 7 (0.46%) Databricks
4 7 (0.46%) Salesforce
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle
6 5 (0.33%) Intel
6 5 (0.33%) OpenAI
7 4 (0.26%) Foundry
8 3 (0.20%) Atlassian
8 3 (0.20%) Rockwell
9 2 (0.13%) ADVA
9 2 (0.13%) New Relic
9 2 (0.13%) Revolut
9 2 (0.13%) VMware
10 1 (0.066%) Palantir
10 1 (0.066%) RedGate
10 1 (0.066%) TOWER Software
10 1 (0.066%) Virgin Media