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 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 205 108
Rank change year-on-year +74 -97 +172
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,559 786 1,903
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.46% 1.57% 2.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.55% 1.75% 2.42%
Number of salaries quoted 1,204 451 1,347
10th Percentile £57,500 £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 £90,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £122,500
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 100,469 44,986 78,750
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.01% 89.94% 95.03%
Number of salaries quoted 68,644 26,650 52,502
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,400 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -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 16 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 16 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 +81 1,397 £75,000 -12.03% 762
UK excluding London +93 1,090 £70,000 - 320
London -10 382 £95,000 -11.63% 496
Work from Home -79 297 £75,000 -12.03% 274
North of England -11 276 £75,000 +7.14% 73
South East +130 241 £80,000 +14.29% 57
South West +48 209 £70,000 +3.70% 44
East of England +83 167 £70,000 +9.80% 57
North West -21 166 £75,000 +7.14% 51
Midlands +63 117 £69,653 -3.93% 30
Yorkshire +23 70 £70,000 -8.98% 6
West Midlands +24 67 £70,000 -6.67% 12
East Midlands +21 50 £60,000 -14.29% 18
Scotland -3 49 £67,500 +3.85% 38
North East -35 40 £90,000 +800.00% 16
Wales -39 28 £64,500 -0.77% 7
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 18

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

For the 6 months to 16 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 1,555 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 266 (17.06%) Python
3 251 (16.10%) C#
4 237 (15.20%) C++
5 231 (14.82%) Agile
6 222 (14.24%) Java
7 211 (13.53%) AWS
8 188 (12.06%) CI/CD
9 171 (10.97%) .NET
10 170 (10.90%) Mentoring
11 166 (10.65%) AI
12 159 (10.20%) Full-Stack Development
13 123 (7.89%) TypeScript
14 122 (7.83%) DevOps
15 121 (7.76%) Microservices
16 119 (7.63%) React
17 113 (7.25%) Azure
18 107 (6.86%) Security Cleared
19 106 (6.80%) Linux
20 103 (6.61%) JavaScript
21 100 (6.41%) Test Automation
22 88 (5.64%) Problem-Solving
23 87 (5.58%) Code Quality
23 87 (5.58%) SDLC
24 86 (5.52%) SQL
25 85 (5.45%) Degree
25 85 (5.45%) Technical Leadership
26 84 (5.39%) SaaS
27 80 (5.13%) C
27 80 (5.13%) 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 16 (1.03%) SharePoint Server
2 7 (0.45%) Apache
3 4 (0.26%) Confluence
4 3 (0.19%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.19%) WinCC
5 2 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.13%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.064%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.064%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) Blender
1 3 (0.19%) Maya
2 1 (0.064%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 211 (13.53%) AWS
2 113 (7.25%) Azure
3 84 (5.39%) SaaS
4 63 (4.04%) GCP
5 43 (2.76%) GitHub
6 38 (2.44%) Serverless
7 21 (1.35%) Amazon EKS
7 21 (1.35%) Anthropic Claude
8 20 (1.28%) GitHub Copilot
9 15 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
10 11 (0.71%) AWS Lambda
11 10 (0.64%) Amazon S3
11 10 (0.64%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 9 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.38%) Amazon SQS
13 6 (0.38%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (0.38%) Supabase
14 5 (0.32%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.32%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (0.32%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.35%) RS-232
2 14 (0.90%) Ethernet
2 14 (0.90%) Modbus
3 13 (0.83%) Bluetooth
4 12 (0.77%) Multicast
4 12 (0.77%) Profibus
4 12 (0.77%) Wireless
5 9 (0.58%) RS-485
5 9 (0.58%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.51%) HTTP
7 7 (0.45%) Broadband
8 4 (0.26%) Firewall
8 4 (0.26%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.064%) BGP
9 1 (0.064%) DNS
9 1 (0.064%) LTE
9 1 (0.064%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (3.85%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (2.12%) MySQL
3 28 (1.80%) Relational Database
4 19 (1.22%) NoSQL
4 19 (1.22%) SQL Server
5 18 (1.15%) MongoDB
5 18 (1.15%) Redis
6 10 (0.64%) Big Data
7 8 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
8 7 (0.45%) DynamoDB
9 6 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.26%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.19%) DocumentDB
12 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.19%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.13%) CockroachDB
13 2 (0.13%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 59 (3.78%) Git
2 31 (1.99%) JIRA
3 26 (1.67%) GitLab
4 20 (1.28%) Claude Code
5 14 (0.90%) TeamCity
6 10 (0.64%) Jenkins
6 10 (0.64%) Visual Studio Code
7 6 (0.38%) Mocha
7 6 (0.38%) Selenium
8 5 (0.32%) Jasmine
8 5 (0.32%) NUnit
9 4 (0.26%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.26%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.26%) Rational Rhapsody
9 4 (0.26%) Visual Studio
10 3 (0.19%) Eclipse RCP
10 3 (0.19%) JUnit
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
11 2 (0.13%) CMake
11 2 (0.13%) GDB
General
1 144 (9.24%) Finance
2 108 (6.93%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.30%) Electronics
4 54 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 51 (3.27%) Banking
6 45 (2.89%) Manufacturing
7 44 (2.82%) Public Sector
8 40 (2.57%) Analytical Skills
9 34 (2.18%) Law
10 19 (1.22%) Retail
11 18 (1.15%) Aerospace
12 17 (1.09%) Marketing
13 14 (0.90%) Automotive
14 12 (0.77%) Financial Institution
14 12 (0.77%) Military
15 10 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.58%) Back Office
16 9 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
17 8 (0.51%) Games
18 7 (0.45%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 171 (10.97%) .NET
2 119 (7.63%) React
3 74 (4.75%) Node.js
4 60 (3.85%) Spring
5 49 (3.14%) WPF
6 39 (2.50%) RESTful
7 37 (2.37%) Spring Boot
8 33 (2.12%) Kafka
9 30 (1.92%) REST
10 28 (1.80%) Next.js
11 23 (1.48%) AngularJS
12 19 (1.22%) FastAPI
13 18 (1.15%) Django
14 17 (1.09%) Vue
15 16 (1.03%) React Native
16 14 (0.90%) CSS
17 13 (0.83%) .NET Core
17 13 (0.83%) FIX Protocol
17 13 (0.83%) Flask
18 12 (0.77%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 116 (7.44%) Cloud Native
2 56 (3.59%) Distributed Systems
3 55 (3.53%) Legacy Systems
4 48 (3.08%) Algorithms
5 36 (2.31%) Robotics
6 33 (2.12%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.86%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (1.41%) AI Agents
8 22 (1.41%) Product Ownership
9 19 (1.22%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.96%) Blog
10 15 (0.96%) Derivative
10 15 (0.96%) Device Driver
11 13 (0.83%) Fixed Income
12 12 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (0.77%) Equities
12 12 (0.77%) Virtual Team
13 11 (0.71%) Blockchain
13 11 (0.71%) Cyber Threat
13 11 (0.71%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 106 (6.80%) Linux
2 29 (1.86%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.22%) FreeRTOS
3 19 (1.22%) Windows
4 4 (0.26%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.19%) Android
5 3 (0.19%) Unix
6 1 (0.064%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,555 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 231 (14.82%) Agile
3 188 (12.06%) CI/CD
4 170 (10.90%) Mentoring
5 166 (10.65%) AI
6 159 (10.20%) Full-Stack Development
7 122 (7.83%) DevOps
8 121 (7.76%) Microservices
9 100 (6.41%) Test Automation
10 88 (5.64%) Problem-Solving
11 87 (5.58%) Code Quality
11 87 (5.58%) SDLC
12 85 (5.45%) Technical Leadership
13 75 (4.81%) Computer Science
14 73 (4.68%) Fintech
15 69 (4.43%) Continuous Improvement
16 54 (3.46%) Machine Learning
17 51 (3.27%) Containerisation
18 50 (3.21%) Infrastructure as Code
19 47 (3.01%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 266 (17.06%) Python
2 251 (16.10%) C#
3 237 (15.20%) C++
4 222 (14.24%) Java
5 123 (7.89%) TypeScript
6 103 (6.61%) JavaScript
7 86 (5.52%) SQL
8 80 (5.13%) C
9 45 (2.89%) Rust
10 35 (2.25%) Go
11 21 (1.35%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.03%) Scala
13 15 (0.96%) Ruby
14 14 (0.90%) PHP
15 13 (0.83%) F#
15 13 (0.83%) Haskell
16 11 (0.71%) Kotlin
16 11 (0.71%) MATLAB
17 10 (0.64%) Julia
18 8 (0.51%) R
Qualifications
1 107 (6.86%) Security Cleared
2 85 (5.45%) Degree
3 75 (4.81%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.46%) DV Cleared
5 26 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.15%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.77%) PhD
8 8 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.38%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.064%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.064%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (2.57%) QA
2 18 (1.15%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.32%) Data Quality
3 5 (0.32%) GDPR
3 5 (0.32%) IEC 61508
3 5 (0.32%) MISRA
3 5 (0.32%) MISRA C
4 4 (0.26%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.19%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.064%) SLA
6 1 (0.064%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 80 (5.13%) Docker
2 53 (3.40%) Firmware
3 22 (1.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.064%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 78 (5.00%) Kubernetes
2 58 (3.72%) Terraform
3 16 (1.03%) Grafana
4 9 (0.58%) Ansible
5 5 (0.32%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.19%) Plesk
7 2 (0.13%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.13%) kaniko
7 2 (0.13%) Puppet
8 1 (0.064%) Argo
8 1 (0.064%) Istio
8 1 (0.064%) Kibana
Vendors
1 19 (1.22%) Microsoft
2 11 (0.71%) Salesforce
3 9 (0.58%) Google
3 9 (0.58%) Splunk
4 8 (0.51%) Siemens
5 7 (0.45%) Databricks
6 6 (0.38%) Oracle
7 5 (0.32%) Intel
7 5 (0.32%) OpenAI
8 4 (0.26%) Foundry
9 3 (0.19%) Atlassian
9 3 (0.19%) New Relic
9 3 (0.19%) Revolut
9 3 (0.19%) Rockwell
10 2 (0.13%) ADVA
10 2 (0.13%) Sage
11 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg
11 1 (0.064%) Palantir
11 1 (0.064%) RedGate
11 1 (0.064%) Reuters