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 30 July 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 205 118
Rank change year-on-year +72 -87 +170
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,477 802 1,910
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.44% 1.63% 2.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.53% 1.81% 2.31%
Number of salaries quoted 1,171 468 1,375
10th Percentile £55,000 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £80,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.83% +23.85% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £86,250
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 96,591 44,419 82,565
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.36% 90.03% 94.80%
Number of salaries quoted 66,030 26,374 56,860
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £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 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -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 30 July 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 30 July 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 +70 1,322 £75,000 -12.03% 371
UK excluding London +96 1,041 £70,000 - 157
London -12 354 £95,000 -11.63% 242
Work from Home -72 300 £72,500 -14.71% 131
North of England -17 254 £75,000 +2.04% 35
South East +140 249 £80,000 +14.29% 31
South West +52 191 £70,000 - 29
East of England +76 158 £70,000 +9.80% 28
North West -23 154 £75,000 - 27
Midlands +54 113 £67,500 -6.90% 16
Yorkshire +25 68 £70,000 -8.98% 2
West Midlands +25 65 £70,000 -5.08% 4
East Midlands +22 48 £62,500 -10.71% 12
Scotland 0 48 £67,500 +3.85% 6
North East -33 32 £85,000 +61.90% 6
Wales -41 25 £57,500 -14.81% 7
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 9

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

For the 6 months to 30 July 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 1,472 (99.66%) Software Engineering
2 257 (17.40%) Python
3 243 (16.45%) C++
4 242 (16.38%) C#
5 213 (14.42%) Agile
6 204 (13.81%) Java
7 200 (13.54%) AWS
8 172 (11.65%) .NET
9 169 (11.44%) CI/CD
10 157 (10.63%) Full-Stack Development
11 156 (10.56%) AI
12 150 (10.16%) Mentoring
13 117 (7.92%) TypeScript
14 115 (7.79%) React
15 114 (7.72%) DevOps
15 114 (7.72%) Microservices
16 113 (7.65%) Azure
17 108 (7.31%) Linux
18 103 (6.97%) JavaScript
19 102 (6.91%) Security Cleared
20 98 (6.64%) Test Automation
21 86 (5.82%) SaaS
21 86 (5.82%) SDLC
22 85 (5.75%) C
22 85 (5.75%) Degree
22 85 (5.75%) SQL
23 78 (5.28%) Problem-Solving
24 77 (5.21%) Code Quality
25 76 (5.15%) Computer Science
26 75 (5.08%) 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 (1.08%) SharePoint Server
2 6 (0.41%) Apache
3 3 (0.20%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.20%) Confluence
3 3 (0.20%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.20%) WinCC
4 1 (0.068%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.068%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.068%) Cloud Foundry
4 1 (0.068%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.20%) Blender
1 3 (0.20%) Maya
2 1 (0.068%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 200 (13.54%) AWS
2 113 (7.65%) Azure
3 86 (5.82%) SaaS
4 60 (4.06%) GCP
5 38 (2.57%) GitHub
6 34 (2.30%) Serverless
7 22 (1.49%) Amazon EKS
8 20 (1.35%) Anthropic Claude
9 15 (1.02%) GitHub Copilot
10 14 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.81%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 8 (0.54%) Amazon S3
12 8 (0.54%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (0.47%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (0.41%) Azure AKS
14 6 (0.41%) Supabase
15 5 (0.34%) Amazon SQS
15 5 (0.34%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.34%) Pulumi
16 4 (0.27%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.49%) RS-232
2 15 (1.02%) Ethernet
3 14 (0.95%) Modbus
3 14 (0.95%) Multicast
4 13 (0.88%) Bluetooth
5 12 (0.81%) Profibus
5 12 (0.81%) Wireless
6 9 (0.61%) RS-485
6 9 (0.61%) ZigBee
7 8 (0.54%) HTTP
8 7 (0.47%) Broadband
9 1 (0.068%) Firewall
9 1 (0.068%) LTE
9 1 (0.068%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (3.11%) PostgreSQL
2 28 (1.90%) MySQL
3 21 (1.42%) SQL Server
4 18 (1.22%) NoSQL
5 16 (1.08%) Redis
6 15 (1.02%) MongoDB
6 15 (1.02%) Relational Database
7 10 (0.68%) Big Data
8 8 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (0.34%) DynamoDB
9 5 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.27%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.20%) DocumentDB
11 3 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
11 3 (0.20%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.20%) Neo4j
12 2 (0.14%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.14%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 59 (3.99%) Git
2 32 (2.17%) JIRA
3 26 (1.76%) GitLab
4 19 (1.29%) Claude Code
5 16 (1.08%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.74%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.61%) Jenkins
8 5 (0.34%) NUnit
8 5 (0.34%) Selenium
9 4 (0.27%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.27%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.27%) Jasmine
9 4 (0.27%) Mocha
9 4 (0.27%) Rational Rhapsody
9 4 (0.27%) Visual Studio
10 3 (0.20%) Eclipse RCP
11 2 (0.14%) GDB
11 2 (0.14%) JUnit
11 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.068%) LabVIEW
General
1 128 (8.67%) Finance
2 87 (5.89%) Social Skills
3 65 (4.40%) Electronics
4 51 (3.45%) Banking
5 45 (3.05%) Manufacturing
6 44 (2.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 38 (2.57%) Analytical Skills
7 38 (2.57%) Public Sector
8 27 (1.83%) Law
9 20 (1.35%) Retail
10 15 (1.02%) Automotive
11 12 (0.81%) Financial Institution
11 12 (0.81%) Military
12 11 (0.74%) Aerospace
12 11 (0.74%) Back Office
13 9 (0.61%) Marketing
13 9 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (0.47%) Agriculture
15 7 (0.47%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 172 (11.65%) .NET
2 115 (7.79%) React
3 70 (4.74%) Node.js
4 48 (3.25%) WPF
5 47 (3.18%) Spring
6 35 (2.37%) RESTful
7 30 (2.03%) Spring Boot
8 28 (1.90%) Next.js
9 27 (1.83%) REST
10 21 (1.42%) Kafka
11 20 (1.35%) AngularJS
12 18 (1.22%) FastAPI
13 17 (1.15%) Django
14 16 (1.08%) Vue
15 15 (1.02%) React Native
16 14 (0.95%) Boost C++ Libraries
16 14 (0.95%) FIX Protocol
16 14 (0.95%) pytest
17 13 (0.88%) Ruby on Rails
17 13 (0.88%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 108 (7.31%) Cloud Native
2 54 (3.66%) Legacy Systems
3 49 (3.32%) Algorithms
3 49 (3.32%) Distributed Systems
4 37 (2.51%) Robotics
5 31 (2.10%) Embedded Systems
6 29 (1.96%) Greenfield Project
7 20 (1.35%) Product Ownership
8 17 (1.15%) Derivative
9 16 (1.08%) AI Agents
9 16 (1.08%) Device Driver
10 14 (0.95%) Equities
10 14 (0.95%) Fixed Income
10 14 (0.95%) Public Cloud
11 11 (0.74%) Client/Server
11 11 (0.74%) Legacy Applications
12 10 (0.68%) Blockchain
12 10 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
13 9 (0.61%) Blog
13 9 (0.61%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 108 (7.31%) Linux
2 28 (1.90%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.29%) FreeRTOS
4 17 (1.15%) Windows
5 4 (0.27%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.20%) Unix
7 2 (0.14%) Android
8 1 (0.068%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,472 (99.66%) Software Engineering
2 213 (14.42%) Agile
3 169 (11.44%) CI/CD
4 157 (10.63%) Full-Stack Development
5 156 (10.56%) AI
6 150 (10.16%) Mentoring
7 114 (7.72%) DevOps
7 114 (7.72%) Microservices
8 98 (6.64%) Test Automation
9 86 (5.82%) SDLC
10 78 (5.28%) Problem-Solving
11 77 (5.21%) Code Quality
12 76 (5.15%) Computer Science
13 70 (4.74%) Technical Leadership
14 67 (4.54%) Fintech
15 62 (4.20%) Continuous Improvement
16 50 (3.39%) Machine Learning
17 46 (3.11%) Containerisation
17 46 (3.11%) Software Architecture
18 44 (2.98%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 257 (17.40%) Python
2 243 (16.45%) C++
3 242 (16.38%) C#
4 204 (13.81%) Java
5 117 (7.92%) TypeScript
6 103 (6.97%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.75%) C
7 85 (5.75%) SQL
8 48 (3.25%) Rust
9 28 (1.90%) Go
10 21 (1.42%) Embedded C
11 15 (1.02%) Scala
12 14 (0.95%) Ruby
13 13 (0.88%) F#
13 13 (0.88%) Haskell
13 13 (0.88%) PHP
14 11 (0.74%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.68%) Julia
16 8 (0.54%) R
16 8 (0.54%) VB
Qualifications
1 102 (6.91%) Security Cleared
2 85 (5.75%) Degree
3 72 (4.87%) SC Cleared
4 50 (3.39%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (1.15%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.74%) PhD
8 6 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (0.34%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.068%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.068%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.068%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (2.84%) QA
2 15 (1.02%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.34%) GDPR
3 5 (0.34%) IEC 61508
3 5 (0.34%) MISRA
3 5 (0.34%) MISRA C
4 4 (0.27%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.20%) IEC 61131
6 2 (0.14%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.068%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 75 (5.08%) Docker
2 50 (3.39%) Firmware
3 22 (1.49%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.14%) KVM
4 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.068%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 75 (5.08%) Kubernetes
2 47 (3.18%) Terraform
3 18 (1.22%) Grafana
4 6 (0.41%) Ansible
5 5 (0.34%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.20%) Plesk
7 2 (0.14%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.14%) Puppet
8 1 (0.068%) kaniko
Vendors
1 19 (1.29%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.54%) Google
2 8 (0.54%) Siemens
3 7 (0.47%) Splunk
4 6 (0.41%) Databricks
5 5 (0.34%) Intel
5 5 (0.34%) OpenAI
6 4 (0.27%) Foundry
7 3 (0.20%) Rockwell
7 3 (0.20%) Salesforce
8 2 (0.14%) ADVA
8 2 (0.14%) Atlassian
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle
8 2 (0.14%) VMware
9 1 (0.068%) New Relic
9 1 (0.068%) Palantir
9 1 (0.068%) Revolut
9 1 (0.068%) TOWER Software
9 1 (0.068%) Virgin Media