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 12 August 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 208 112
Rank change year-on-year +74 -96 +169
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,538 788 1,905
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.45% 1.58% 2.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.54% 1.76% 2.40%
Number of salaries quoted 1,194 452 1,340
10th Percentile £56,625 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,000 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +29.84% -3.02%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £87,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £112,750
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 99,712 44,763 79,353
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.04% 89.90% 94.99%
Number of salaries quoted 68,207 26,557 53,034
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.82% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £48,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +8.25% -3.00% -6.54%

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 12 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 12 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 +77 1,378 £75,000 -12.03% 1,102
UK excluding London +96 1,077 £70,000 - 438
London -15 376 £95,000 -11.63% 727
Work from Home -68 293 £75,000 -12.03% 397
North of England -13 267 £75,000 +5.26% 105
South East +135 245 £80,000 +14.29% 77
South West +57 204 £70,000 - 50
East of England +80 166 £70,000 +9.80% 88
North West -27 162 £75,000 +3.81% 73
Midlands +70 116 £69,305 -4.41% 40
Yorkshire +26 69 £70,000 -11.18% 14
West Midlands +30 66 £70,000 -6.67% 17
East Midlands +25 50 £60,000 -14.29% 23
Scotland +5 48 £67,500 +3.85% 54
North East -31 36 £90,000 +800.00% 18
Wales -33 28 £64,500 -0.77% 14
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 16

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

For the 6 months to 12 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 1,534 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 265 (17.23%) Python
3 249 (16.19%) C#
4 238 (15.47%) C++
5 229 (14.89%) Agile
6 218 (14.17%) Java
7 205 (13.33%) AWS
8 180 (11.70%) CI/CD
9 169 (10.99%) .NET
10 165 (10.73%) Mentoring
11 163 (10.60%) AI
12 158 (10.27%) Full-Stack Development
13 120 (7.80%) DevOps
14 119 (7.74%) Microservices
14 119 (7.74%) TypeScript
15 116 (7.54%) React
16 113 (7.35%) Azure
17 106 (6.89%) Security Cleared
18 104 (6.76%) Linux
19 102 (6.63%) JavaScript
20 98 (6.37%) Test Automation
21 89 (5.79%) SDLC
22 86 (5.59%) Code Quality
23 85 (5.53%) SQL
24 84 (5.46%) Degree
25 83 (5.40%) Problem-Solving
25 83 (5.40%) SaaS
26 81 (5.27%) Technical Leadership
27 80 (5.20%) C
28 78 (5.07%) 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 (1.04%) 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 (0.065%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.20%) Blender
1 3 (0.20%) Maya
2 1 (0.065%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 205 (13.33%) AWS
2 113 (7.35%) Azure
3 83 (5.40%) SaaS
4 63 (4.10%) GCP
5 41 (2.67%) GitHub
6 36 (2.34%) Serverless
7 21 (1.37%) Amazon EKS
7 21 (1.37%) Anthropic Claude
8 20 (1.30%) GitHub Copilot
9 15 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (0.65%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 9 (0.59%) Amazon S3
11 9 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.39%) Amazon SQS
13 6 (0.39%) Supabase
14 5 (0.33%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.33%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (0.33%) Pulumi
15 4 (0.26%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.37%) RS-232
2 14 (0.91%) Ethernet
2 14 (0.91%) Modbus
3 13 (0.85%) Bluetooth
4 12 (0.78%) Multicast
4 12 (0.78%) Profibus
4 12 (0.78%) Wireless
5 9 (0.59%) RS-485
5 9 (0.59%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.52%) HTTP
7 7 (0.46%) Broadband
8 3 (0.20%) Firewall
8 3 (0.20%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.065%) BGP
9 1 (0.065%) DNS
9 1 (0.065%) LTE
9 1 (0.065%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (3.64%) PostgreSQL
2 32 (2.08%) MySQL
3 26 (1.69%) Relational Database
4 18 (1.17%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.17%) Redis
4 18 (1.17%) SQL Server
5 17 (1.11%) MongoDB
6 10 (0.65%) Big Data
7 8 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (0.39%) DynamoDB
9 5 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.26%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.20%) DocumentDB
11 3 (0.20%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.20%) Neo4j
12 2 (0.13%) CockroachDB
12 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 59 (3.84%) Git
2 31 (2.02%) JIRA
3 26 (1.69%) GitLab
4 20 (1.30%) Claude Code
5 14 (0.91%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.72%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.59%) Jenkins
8 6 (0.39%) 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
1 139 (9.04%) Finance
2 103 (6.70%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.36%) Electronics
4 53 (3.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 50 (3.25%) Banking
6 46 (2.99%) Manufacturing
7 43 (2.80%) Public Sector
8 39 (2.54%) Analytical Skills
9 34 (2.21%) Law
10 19 (1.24%) Retail
11 16 (1.04%) Marketing
12 14 (0.91%) Aerospace
12 14 (0.91%) Automotive
13 12 (0.78%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.78%) Military
14 10 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.59%) Back Office
15 9 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
16 7 (0.46%) Agriculture
16 7 (0.46%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (10.99%) .NET
2 116 (7.54%) React
3 71 (4.62%) Node.js
4 57 (3.71%) Spring
5 49 (3.19%) WPF
6 37 (2.41%) RESTful
7 35 (2.28%) Spring Boot
8 29 (1.89%) Kafka
8 29 (1.89%) REST
9 27 (1.76%) Next.js
10 22 (1.43%) AngularJS
11 19 (1.24%) FastAPI
12 18 (1.17%) Django
13 16 (1.04%) React Native
13 16 (1.04%) Vue
14 13 (0.85%) CSS
14 13 (0.85%) FIX Protocol
14 13 (0.85%) Flask
15 12 (0.78%) pytest
15 12 (0.78%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 117 (7.61%) Cloud Native
2 55 (3.58%) Legacy Systems
3 52 (3.38%) Distributed Systems
4 48 (3.12%) Algorithms
5 37 (2.41%) Robotics
6 33 (2.15%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.89%) Greenfield Project
8 21 (1.37%) Product Ownership
9 19 (1.24%) AI Agents
9 19 (1.24%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.98%) Derivative
10 15 (0.98%) Device Driver
11 12 (0.78%) Blog
11 12 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (0.78%) Equities
11 12 (0.78%) Fixed Income
12 11 (0.72%) Blockchain
12 11 (0.72%) Cyber Threat
12 11 (0.72%) Legacy Applications
12 11 (0.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 104 (6.76%) Linux
2 28 (1.82%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.24%) FreeRTOS
4 18 (1.17%) Windows
5 4 (0.26%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.20%) Android
6 3 (0.20%) Unix
7 1 (0.065%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,534 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 229 (14.89%) Agile
3 180 (11.70%) CI/CD
4 165 (10.73%) Mentoring
5 163 (10.60%) AI
6 158 (10.27%) Full-Stack Development
7 120 (7.80%) DevOps
8 119 (7.74%) Microservices
9 98 (6.37%) Test Automation
10 89 (5.79%) SDLC
11 86 (5.59%) Code Quality
12 83 (5.40%) Problem-Solving
13 81 (5.27%) Technical Leadership
14 74 (4.81%) Computer Science
14 74 (4.81%) Fintech
15 68 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
16 53 (3.45%) Machine Learning
17 48 (3.12%) Containerisation
17 48 (3.12%) Software Architecture
18 45 (2.93%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 265 (17.23%) Python
2 249 (16.19%) C#
3 238 (15.47%) C++
4 218 (14.17%) Java
5 119 (7.74%) TypeScript
6 102 (6.63%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.53%) SQL
8 80 (5.20%) C
9 45 (2.93%) Rust
10 33 (2.15%) Go
11 21 (1.37%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.04%) Scala
13 14 (0.91%) PHP
13 14 (0.91%) Ruby
14 13 (0.85%) F#
14 13 (0.85%) Haskell
15 11 (0.72%) Kotlin
15 11 (0.72%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.65%) Julia
17 8 (0.52%) R
Qualifications
1 106 (6.89%) Security Cleared
2 84 (5.46%) Degree
3 74 (4.81%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.51%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.17%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.72%) PhD
8 8 (0.52%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.39%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.065%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.065%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (2.60%) QA
2 18 (1.17%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.33%) Data Quality
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%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.20%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.065%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 77 (5.01%) Docker
2 52 (3.38%) Firmware
3 22 (1.43%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.065%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 78 (5.07%) Kubernetes
2 53 (3.45%) Terraform
3 16 (1.04%) Grafana
4 8 (0.52%) 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 (0.065%) Argo
8 1 (0.065%) Istio
8 1 (0.065%) Kibana
Vendors
1 20 (1.30%) Microsoft
2 9 (0.59%) Google
2 9 (0.59%) Salesforce
3 8 (0.52%) Siemens
3 8 (0.52%) Splunk
4 7 (0.46%) Databricks
5 6 (0.39%) 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%) Revolut
8 3 (0.20%) Rockwell
9 2 (0.13%) ADVA
9 2 (0.13%) New Relic
10 1 (0.065%) Palantir
10 1 (0.065%) RedGate
10 1 (0.065%) Sage
10 1 (0.065%) TOWER Software
10 1 (0.065%) Virgin Media