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 March 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 205 213 201
Rank change year-on-year +8 -12 +70
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 769 689 1,214
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.51% 1.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.17% 1.65% 1.63%
Number of salaries quoted 599 499 901
10th Percentile £57,750 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,000 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +6.93% -6.48%
75th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £102,500
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 65,777 41,647 74,342
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.60% 91.11% 94.66%
Number of salaries quoted 41,594 22,804 57,442
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,000 £39,073
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,624
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 5 March 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 March 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 +11 656 £75,000 +7.14% 275
UK excluding London +2 483 £70,000 +7.69% 223
London +48 249 £95,000 +5.56% 97
Work from Home -48 243 £72,500 +3.57% 136
South East -13 115 £70,000 +7.69% 64
South West +40 105 £65,000 - 31
North of England -43 94 £75,000 +15.38% 46
Scotland +4 77 £67,500 +3.85% 31
East of England -23 45 £70,000 +3.70% 28
North West -32 45 £75,000 +15.38% 21
Midlands +18 40 £65,000 -3.70% 21
Yorkshire -25 37 £75,000 -4.91% 19
East Midlands -10 21 £65,000 -13.33% 11
West Midlands +9 19 £65,000 +1.96% 8
North East -21 12 £75,000 +36.36% 6
Wales -11 7 £60,000 -7.69% 5

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

For the 6 months to 5 March 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.

1 755 (98.18%) Software Engineering
2 135 (17.56%) Java
3 128 (16.64%) AWS
4 120 (15.60%) .NET
5 113 (14.69%) Agile
6 106 (13.78%) C#
7 100 (13.00%) CI/CD
8 98 (12.74%) Full-Stack Development
9 92 (11.96%) C++
10 88 (11.44%) Microservices
11 87 (11.31%) Kubernetes
12 81 (10.53%) Azure
12 81 (10.53%) Python
13 77 (10.01%) Mentoring
14 75 (9.75%) DevOps
15 72 (9.36%) React
16 63 (8.19%) Linux
16 63 (8.19%) TypeScript
17 56 (7.28%) SaaS
18 55 (7.15%) Test Automation
19 54 (7.02%) SQL
20 53 (6.89%) Fintech
21 52 (6.76%) Degree
21 52 (6.76%) Problem-Solving
22 51 (6.63%) Computer Science
22 51 (6.63%) Docker
23 50 (6.50%) GCP
24 49 (6.37%) Containerisation
25 48 (6.24%) AI
26 47 (6.11%) JavaScript

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 5 (0.65%) Apache
2 4 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.39%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.39%) CMS
4 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.13%) Confluence
4 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Photoshop
Cloud Services
1 128 (16.64%) AWS
2 81 (10.53%) Azure
3 56 (7.28%) SaaS
4 50 (6.50%) GCP
5 29 (3.77%) GitHub
6 17 (2.21%) Azure AKS
7 16 (2.08%) Amazon EKS
8 11 (1.43%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 11 (1.43%) Serverless
9 10 (1.30%) Azure Event Grid
9 10 (1.30%) GitHub Copilot
10 9 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (1.04%) Stripe
12 6 (0.78%) Anthropic Claude
13 5 (0.65%) Cloud Run
13 5 (0.65%) dbt
13 5 (0.65%) Snowflake
14 4 (0.52%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
15 3 (0.39%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.56%) Multicast
2 10 (1.30%) HTTP
3 9 (1.17%) Ethernet
3 9 (1.17%) RS-232
4 4 (0.52%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.55%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.60%) NoSQL
2 20 (2.60%) PostgreSQL
3 12 (1.56%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (1.30%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.30%) MongoDB
5 7 (0.91%) Redis
6 6 (0.78%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.65%) Amazon Athena
7 5 (0.65%) MySQL
8 4 (0.52%) Apache Arrow
8 4 (0.52%) Apache Iceberg
8 4 (0.52%) Apache Ignite
8 4 (0.52%) Data Lake
8 4 (0.52%) Dremio
8 4 (0.52%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.26%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.26%) Neo4j
11 1 (0.13%) ClickHouse
Development Applications
1 31 (4.03%) Git
2 21 (2.73%) JIRA
3 18 (2.34%) TeamCity
4 8 (1.04%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.78%) Claude Code
5 6 (0.78%) GitLab
6 4 (0.52%) JUnit
7 3 (0.39%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.39%) JBehave
7 3 (0.39%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.26%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.26%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.26%) Xcode
9 1 (0.13%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.13%) Gradle
9 1 (0.13%) NUnit
9 1 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.13%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.13%) Selenium
General
1 140 (18.21%) Finance
2 56 (7.28%) Banking
3 41 (5.33%) Social Skills
4 23 (2.99%) Financial Institution
4 23 (2.99%) Retail
5 20 (2.60%) Law
6 16 (2.08%) Games
6 16 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (1.82%) Back Office
8 12 (1.56%) Tech for Good
9 10 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.17%) Automotive
11 8 (1.04%) Public Sector
12 5 (0.65%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.65%) Analytical Skills
12 5 (0.65%) Manufacturing
12 5 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (0.65%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.52%) Front Office
13 4 (0.52%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (15.60%) .NET
2 72 (9.36%) React
3 37 (4.81%) RESTful
4 34 (4.42%) REST
5 33 (4.29%) Node.js
6 27 (3.51%) .NET Core
7 23 (2.99%) React Native
8 20 (2.60%) .NET Framework
9 18 (2.34%) GraphQL
10 14 (1.82%) AngularJS
10 14 (1.82%) Ruby on Rails
10 14 (1.82%) Spring
11 13 (1.69%) Entity Framework
12 12 (1.56%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 12 (1.56%) Django
12 12 (1.56%) FIX Protocol
12 12 (1.56%) pytest
12 12 (1.56%) Spring Boot
13 11 (1.43%) Dapper ORM
14 10 (1.30%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 73 (9.49%) Cloud Native
2 28 (3.64%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (3.12%) Algorithms
4 20 (2.60%) Embedded Systems
5 17 (2.21%) Derivative
6 16 (2.08%) Equities
6 16 (2.08%) Fixed Income
7 13 (1.69%) IoT
8 12 (1.56%) Legacy Code
8 12 (1.56%) Robotics
9 11 (1.43%) CAN bus
9 11 (1.43%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.30%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (1.17%) Device Driver
11 9 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
12 8 (1.04%) Hedge funds
13 7 (0.91%) Blog
14 6 (0.78%) Sports Betting
15 5 (0.65%) Data Structures
16 4 (0.52%) Over-the-Top Content
Operating Systems
1 63 (8.19%) Linux
2 21 (2.73%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.34%) Android
4 6 (0.78%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.26%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 755 (98.18%) Software Engineering
2 113 (14.69%) Agile
3 100 (13.00%) CI/CD
4 98 (12.74%) Full-Stack Development
5 88 (11.44%) Microservices
6 77 (10.01%) Mentoring
7 75 (9.75%) DevOps
8 55 (7.15%) Test Automation
9 53 (6.89%) Fintech
10 52 (6.76%) Problem-Solving
11 51 (6.63%) Computer Science
12 49 (6.37%) Containerisation
13 48 (6.24%) AI
14 45 (5.85%) Technical Leadership
15 44 (5.72%) SDLC
16 37 (4.81%) Scrum
17 34 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
18 33 (4.29%) Clean Code
19 29 (3.77%) User Experience
20 28 (3.64%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 135 (17.56%) Java
2 106 (13.78%) C#
3 92 (11.96%) C++
4 81 (10.53%) Python
5 63 (8.19%) TypeScript
6 54 (7.02%) SQL
7 47 (6.11%) JavaScript
8 37 (4.81%) C
9 29 (3.77%) Rust
10 25 (3.25%) Go
11 19 (2.47%) Kotlin
12 16 (2.08%) PHP
13 14 (1.82%) Ruby
14 9 (1.17%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.65%) Delphi
16 4 (0.52%) Scala
16 4 (0.52%) VB
17 3 (0.39%) Bash
17 3 (0.39%) Swift
18 2 (0.26%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 52 (6.76%) Degree
2 25 (3.25%) Computer Science Degree
3 24 (3.12%) Security Cleared
4 20 (2.60%) SC Cleared
5 18 (2.34%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.04%) PhD
7 3 (0.39%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.13%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (2.73%) QA
2 11 (1.43%) IEC 61508
2 11 (1.43%) MISRA
2 11 (1.43%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.78%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.13%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.13%) ECSS
4 1 (0.13%) GDPR
4 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 51 (6.63%) Docker
2 8 (1.04%) Firmware
3 7 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.91%) Virtual Servers
4 2 (0.26%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.26%) KVM
4 2 (0.26%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 87 (11.31%) Kubernetes
2 32 (4.16%) Terraform
3 16 (2.08%) Grafana
4 11 (1.43%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.26%) Ansible
5 2 (0.26%) Argo
6 1 (0.13%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (1.69%) Google
2 9 (1.17%) Microsoft
3 8 (1.04%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.26%) Adobe
4 2 (0.26%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.26%) OpenAI
4 2 (0.26%) SAP
4 2 (0.26%) VMware
5 1 (0.13%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.13%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.13%) New Relic