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 5 April 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 187 200 161
Rank change year-on-year +13 -39 +119
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 932 621 1,656
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.52% 1.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.25% 1.69% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 712 535 1,194
10th Percentile £57,575 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year - +15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £122,500 £99,250
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 74,800 36,762 86,050
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 89.83% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 48,216 23,292 64,576
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,650
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.79% -8.92%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,375
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -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 5 April 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 5 April 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 +30 795 £75,000 - 239
UK excluding London +20 599 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +22 284 £100,000 +5.26% 82
Work from Home -44 267 £73,750 - 116
South East +31 139 £70,000 +7.69% 62
South West +41 127 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -46 120 £75,000 +15.38% 32
Scotland -13 87 £67,500 +3.85% 18
North West -29 65 £75,000 +15.38% 19
East of England -13 61 £70,000 +3.70% 21
Midlands +3 54 £65,000 -10.34% 22
Yorkshire -35 41 £75,000 -12.03% 10
West Midlands +5 31 £65,000 -10.34% 17
East Midlands -22 23 £65,000 -13.33% 5
North East -23 14 £75,000 +36.36% 3
Wales -26 11 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 5 April 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.

1 915 (98.18%) Software Engineering
2 157 (16.85%) Java
3 144 (15.45%) AWS
4 136 (14.59%) Agile
5 130 (13.95%) .NET
6 118 (12.66%) C#
6 118 (12.66%) C++
7 112 (12.02%) Full-Stack Development
8 106 (11.37%) CI/CD
9 96 (10.30%) Microservices
10 95 (10.19%) Python
11 89 (9.55%) Azure
12 87 (9.33%) Mentoring
13 85 (9.12%) Kubernetes
14 80 (8.58%) DevOps
14 80 (8.58%) React
15 74 (7.94%) Linux
15 74 (7.94%) SaaS
16 70 (7.51%) Test Automation
16 70 (7.51%) TypeScript
17 63 (6.76%) SQL
18 61 (6.55%) Fintech
19 57 (6.12%) AI
19 57 (6.12%) GCP
19 57 (6.12%) JavaScript
20 56 (6.01%) Computer Science
20 56 (6.01%) Problem-Solving
21 54 (5.79%) Degree
22 51 (5.47%) C
22 51 (5.47%) Docker

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 3 (0.32%) Apache
1 3 (0.32%) Apache Solr
1 3 (0.32%) CMS
2 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.11%) Confluence
3 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 144 (15.45%) AWS
2 89 (9.55%) Azure
3 74 (7.94%) SaaS
4 57 (6.12%) GCP
5 36 (3.86%) GitHub
6 18 (1.93%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (1.82%) Azure AKS
8 13 (1.39%) GitHub Copilot
8 13 (1.39%) Serverless
9 11 (1.18%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 10 (1.07%) Anthropic Claude
10 10 (1.07%) Azure Event Grid
11 8 (0.86%) Stripe
12 6 (0.64%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.54%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.43%) Amazon S3
15 3 (0.32%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 3 (0.32%) dbt
15 3 (0.32%) IaaS
15 3 (0.32%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.50%) Multicast
2 13 (1.39%) Ethernet
2 13 (1.39%) HTTP
2 13 (1.39%) RS-232
3 5 (0.54%) Broadband
4 4 (0.43%) Wireless
5 2 (0.21%) Bluetooth
5 2 (0.21%) Modbus
6 1 (0.11%) LTE
6 1 (0.11%) Profibus
6 1 (0.11%) RS-485
6 1 (0.11%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.76%) SQL Server
2 25 (2.68%) NoSQL
3 21 (2.25%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.50%) MongoDB
5 12 (1.29%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.07%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.75%) MySQL
8 6 (0.64%) Redis
9 4 (0.43%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.32%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.32%) Big Data
10 3 (0.32%) DocumentDB
10 3 (0.32%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.32%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.21%) Apache Arrow
11 2 (0.21%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.21%) Apache Ignite
11 2 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.21%) DB2
11 2 (0.21%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 31 (3.33%) Git
2 24 (2.58%) JIRA
3 20 (2.15%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.07%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.07%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.86%) GitLab
6 4 (0.43%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.43%) JUnit
6 4 (0.43%) Visual Studio Code
7 3 (0.32%) JBehave
8 2 (0.21%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.21%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.21%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.21%) GDB
8 2 (0.21%) Selenium
8 2 (0.21%) Xcode
9 1 (0.11%) Gradle
9 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.11%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.11%) SonarQube
General
1 160 (17.17%) Finance
2 66 (7.08%) Banking
3 40 (4.29%) Social Skills
4 26 (2.79%) Retail
5 24 (2.58%) Financial Institution
6 21 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 20 (2.15%) Law
8 18 (1.93%) Games
9 17 (1.82%) Back Office
10 14 (1.50%) Public Sector
11 13 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.29%) Automotive
12 12 (1.29%) Tech for Good
13 11 (1.18%) Electronics
14 10 (1.07%) Manufacturing
15 7 (0.75%) Analytical Skills
16 6 (0.64%) Pharmaceutical
17 5 (0.54%) Aerospace
17 5 (0.54%) Telecoms
18 4 (0.43%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 130 (13.95%) .NET
2 80 (8.58%) React
3 42 (4.51%) Node.js
4 38 (4.08%) REST
4 38 (4.08%) RESTful
5 27 (2.90%) .NET Core
5 27 (2.90%) React Native
6 19 (2.04%) .NET Framework
7 15 (1.61%) GraphQL
8 14 (1.50%) Boost C++ Libraries
8 14 (1.50%) FIX Protocol
8 14 (1.50%) pytest
8 14 (1.50%) Spring
9 13 (1.39%) Django
9 13 (1.39%) Ruby on Rails
10 12 (1.29%) Entity Framework
10 12 (1.29%) Yocto
11 11 (1.18%) Dapper ORM
11 11 (1.18%) Spring Boot
12 10 (1.07%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 80 (8.58%) Cloud Native
2 31 (3.33%) Distributed Systems
3 29 (3.11%) Algorithms
4 24 (2.58%) Embedded Systems
5 18 (1.93%) Derivative
6 16 (1.72%) Equities
6 16 (1.72%) Fixed Income
7 14 (1.50%) IoT
7 14 (1.50%) Public Cloud
8 13 (1.39%) Robotics
9 12 (1.29%) CAN bus
9 12 (1.29%) Device Driver
9 12 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (1.07%) Legacy Code
10 10 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.97%) Sports Betting
12 7 (0.75%) Hedge funds
13 6 (0.64%) Blog
14 5 (0.54%) Data Structures
14 5 (0.54%) Mobile Payment
Operating Systems
1 74 (7.94%) Linux
2 24 (2.58%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.93%) Android
4 6 (0.64%) Apple iOS
4 6 (0.64%) FreeRTOS
5 1 (0.11%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 915 (98.18%) Software Engineering
2 136 (14.59%) Agile
3 112 (12.02%) Full-Stack Development
4 106 (11.37%) CI/CD
5 96 (10.30%) Microservices
6 87 (9.33%) Mentoring
7 80 (8.58%) DevOps
8 70 (7.51%) Test Automation
9 61 (6.55%) Fintech
10 57 (6.12%) AI
11 56 (6.01%) Computer Science
11 56 (6.01%) Problem-Solving
12 48 (5.15%) Technical Leadership
13 47 (5.04%) Containerisation
13 47 (5.04%) SDLC
14 40 (4.29%) Scrum
15 38 (4.08%) Low Latency
16 37 (3.97%) Continuous Improvement
17 33 (3.54%) Clean Code
17 33 (3.54%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 157 (16.85%) Java
2 118 (12.66%) C#
2 118 (12.66%) C++
3 95 (10.19%) Python
4 70 (7.51%) TypeScript
5 63 (6.76%) SQL
6 57 (6.12%) JavaScript
7 51 (5.47%) C
8 32 (3.43%) Rust
9 27 (2.90%) Go
10 18 (1.93%) Kotlin
11 17 (1.82%) PHP
12 13 (1.39%) Embedded C
12 13 (1.39%) Ruby
13 5 (0.54%) Delphi
14 4 (0.43%) Scala
14 4 (0.43%) VB
15 3 (0.32%) Swift
16 2 (0.21%) Assembly Language
16 2 (0.21%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 54 (5.79%) Degree
2 34 (3.65%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
3 24 (2.58%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.93%) Master's Degree
5 10 (1.07%) DV Cleared
6 9 (0.97%) PhD
7 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.11%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (2.79%) QA
2 15 (1.61%) IEC 61508
2 15 (1.61%) MISRA
2 15 (1.61%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.64%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.11%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.11%) ECSS
4 1 (0.11%) GDPR
4 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 51 (5.47%) Docker
2 21 (2.25%) Firmware
3 5 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.21%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.21%) KVM
5 2 (0.21%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 85 (9.12%) Kubernetes
2 39 (4.18%) Terraform
3 18 (1.93%) Grafana
4 12 (1.29%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.21%) Ansible
5 2 (0.21%) Argo
5 2 (0.21%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (1.39%) Google
2 11 (1.18%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.86%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.21%) Adobe
4 2 (0.21%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.21%) SAP
4 2 (0.21%) VMware
5 1 (0.11%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.11%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.11%) New Relic