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 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 136 198 122
Rank change year-on-year +62 -76 +168
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,403 808 2,122
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.42% 1.64% 2.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.51% 1.83% 2.28%
Number of salaries quoted 1,144 473 1,535
10th Percentile £55,225 £55,000 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £80,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +23.08% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £105,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% -5.51%

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 93,213 44,199 93,038
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.22% 89.97% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 63,958 26,129 66,038
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,390
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,550
Median % change year-on-year - +4.66% -12.42%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £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 17 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 17 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 +71 1,251 £75,000 -11.76% 336
UK excluding London +90 1,001 £70,000 +3.70% 272
London -14 325 £100,000 -4.76% 117
Work from Home -48 305 £72,500 -9.38% 176
South East +137 253 £75,000 +7.14% 53
North of England -13 239 £75,000 +2.04% 56
South West +55 177 £70,000 - 43
North West -28 148 £75,000 - 34
East of England +80 143 £70,000 +12.00% 48
Midlands +54 111 £67,500 -6.90% 36
West Midlands +30 66 £70,000 -5.08% 6
Yorkshire +10 60 £70,000 -11.18% 14
Scotland -4 52 £67,500 +3.85% 19
East Midlands +26 45 £65,000 -7.14% 30
North East -42 31 £80,000 +45.45% 8
Wales -36 23 £56,250 -13.46% 11
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 13

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

For the 6 months to 17 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 1,398 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 240 (17.11%) C++
3 238 (16.96%) Python
4 235 (16.75%) C#
5 200 (14.26%) AWS
6 194 (13.83%) Java
7 193 (13.76%) Agile
8 166 (11.83%) .NET
9 149 (10.62%) CI/CD
9 149 (10.62%) Full-Stack Development
10 133 (9.48%) AI
10 133 (9.48%) Mentoring
11 115 (8.20%) Azure
12 111 (7.91%) Microservices
12 111 (7.91%) React
13 110 (7.84%) Linux
13 110 (7.84%) TypeScript
14 104 (7.41%) DevOps
15 99 (7.06%) JavaScript
16 98 (6.99%) Security Cleared
17 92 (6.56%) Test Automation
18 90 (6.41%) SaaS
19 87 (6.20%) Degree
20 86 (6.13%) C
20 86 (6.13%) SQL
21 81 (5.77%) Computer Science
21 81 (5.77%) SDLC
22 78 (5.56%) Kubernetes
22 78 (5.56%) Node.js
23 72 (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 (1.14%) SharePoint Server
2 4 (0.29%) Apache
3 3 (0.21%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.21%) WinCC
4 2 (0.14%) Confluence
5 1 (0.071%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Blender
1 3 (0.21%) Maya
2 1 (0.071%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 200 (14.26%) AWS
2 115 (8.20%) Azure
3 90 (6.41%) SaaS
4 56 (3.99%) GCP
5 34 (2.42%) GitHub
6 33 (2.35%) Serverless
7 25 (1.78%) Amazon EKS
8 18 (1.28%) Anthropic Claude
9 14 (1.00%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 13 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (0.78%) GitHub Copilot
12 10 (0.71%) Azure AKS
13 8 (0.57%) Amazon S3
14 7 (0.50%) AWS Lambda
15 6 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
16 5 (0.36%) Azure AI
16 5 (0.36%) Azure Event Grid
16 5 (0.36%) Pulumi
17 4 (0.29%) Dynamics 365
17 4 (0.29%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.64%) RS-232
2 16 (1.14%) Ethernet
3 15 (1.07%) Multicast
4 14 (1.00%) Modbus
5 13 (0.93%) Bluetooth
6 12 (0.86%) Profibus
6 12 (0.86%) Wireless
7 9 (0.64%) RS-485
7 9 (0.64%) ZigBee
8 8 (0.57%) HTTP
9 7 (0.50%) Broadband
10 1 (0.071%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.49%) PostgreSQL
2 25 (1.78%) MySQL
3 23 (1.64%) SQL Server
4 20 (1.43%) NoSQL
5 16 (1.14%) MongoDB
6 11 (0.78%) Redis
7 9 (0.64%) Big Data
8 8 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (0.36%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.29%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.21%) DocumentDB
13 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
13 3 (0.21%) Neo4j
14 2 (0.14%) Hadoop
15 1 (0.071%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 59 (4.21%) Git
2 29 (2.07%) JIRA
3 26 (1.85%) GitLab
4 18 (1.28%) Claude Code
4 18 (1.28%) TeamCity
5 13 (0.93%) Visual Studio Code
6 7 (0.50%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.29%) Eclipse
8 3 (0.21%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.21%) Eclipse RCP
8 3 (0.21%) Rational Rhapsody
8 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.14%) GDB
9 2 (0.14%) NUnit
9 2 (0.14%) Selenium
9 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.071%) Mocha
10 1 (0.071%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.071%) Storybook
10 1 (0.071%) WinDbg
General
1 118 (8.41%) Finance
2 71 (5.06%) Social Skills
3 60 (4.28%) Electronics
4 53 (3.78%) Banking
5 42 (2.99%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 33 (2.35%) Analytical Skills
7 33 (2.35%) Public Sector
8 20 (1.43%) Law
8 20 (1.43%) Retail
9 16 (1.14%) Automotive
10 14 (1.00%) Back Office
10 14 (1.00%) Financial Institution
11 11 (0.78%) Military
12 9 (0.64%) Games
12 9 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (0.64%) Tech for Good
13 8 (0.57%) Aerospace
13 8 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (0.50%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 166 (11.83%) .NET
2 111 (7.91%) React
3 78 (5.56%) Node.js
4 47 (3.35%) WPF
5 37 (2.64%) Spring
6 34 (2.42%) RESTful
7 28 (2.00%) REST
8 27 (1.92%) Spring Boot
9 24 (1.71%) Next.js
10 18 (1.28%) Vue
11 16 (1.14%) AngularJS
11 16 (1.14%) FastAPI
12 15 (1.07%) .NET Core
12 15 (1.07%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 15 (1.07%) Django
12 15 (1.07%) FIX Protocol
12 15 (1.07%) pytest
12 15 (1.07%) React Native
12 15 (1.07%) Ruby on Rails
13 14 (1.00%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 97 (6.91%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.71%) Legacy Systems
3 51 (3.64%) Algorithms
4 43 (3.06%) Distributed Systems
5 34 (2.42%) Embedded Systems
6 30 (2.14%) Robotics
7 29 (2.07%) Greenfield Project
8 17 (1.21%) Device Driver
8 17 (1.21%) Product Ownership
9 16 (1.14%) Derivative
10 15 (1.07%) Equities
10 15 (1.07%) Fixed Income
11 13 (0.93%) AI Agents
11 13 (0.93%) IoT
12 11 (0.78%) Client/Server
12 11 (0.78%) Public Cloud
13 9 (0.64%) Legacy Applications
13 9 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
14 8 (0.57%) Sports Betting
15 7 (0.50%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 110 (7.84%) Linux
2 29 (2.07%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.35%) FreeRTOS
4 14 (1.00%) Windows
5 5 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.21%) Android
7 2 (0.14%) Unix
8 1 (0.071%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,398 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 193 (13.76%) Agile
3 149 (10.62%) CI/CD
3 149 (10.62%) Full-Stack Development
4 133 (9.48%) AI
4 133 (9.48%) Mentoring
5 111 (7.91%) Microservices
6 104 (7.41%) DevOps
7 92 (6.56%) Test Automation
8 81 (5.77%) Computer Science
8 81 (5.77%) SDLC
9 70 (4.99%) Problem-Solving
10 64 (4.56%) Code Quality
11 61 (4.35%) Technical Leadership
12 60 (4.28%) Fintech
13 56 (3.99%) Continuous Improvement
14 50 (3.56%) Containerisation
15 45 (3.21%) Software Testing
16 44 (3.14%) Mathematics
17 40 (2.85%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 240 (17.11%) C++
2 238 (16.96%) Python
3 235 (16.75%) C#
4 194 (13.83%) Java
5 110 (7.84%) TypeScript
6 99 (7.06%) JavaScript
7 86 (6.13%) C
7 86 (6.13%) SQL
8 53 (3.78%) Rust
9 27 (1.92%) Go
10 21 (1.50%) Embedded C
11 15 (1.07%) Ruby
11 15 (1.07%) Scala
12 14 (1.00%) PHP
13 13 (0.93%) F#
13 13 (0.93%) Haskell
14 11 (0.78%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.71%) Julia
16 8 (0.57%) R
16 8 (0.57%) VB
Qualifications
1 98 (6.99%) Security Cleared
2 87 (6.20%) Degree
3 70 (4.99%) SC Cleared
4 45 (3.21%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (1.43%) Master's Degree
7 13 (0.93%) PhD
8 3 (0.21%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.21%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.071%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (2.64%) QA
2 12 (0.86%) Accessibility
3 7 (0.50%) IEC 61508
3 7 (0.50%) MISRA
3 7 (0.50%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.36%) GDPR
5 3 (0.21%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.071%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 72 (5.13%) Docker
2 49 (3.49%) Firmware
3 22 (1.57%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.14%) KVM
4 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.071%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 78 (5.56%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.42%) Terraform
3 21 (1.50%) Grafana
4 6 (0.43%) Ansible
4 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.29%) Functional Safety
6 3 (0.21%) Plesk
7 2 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 15 (1.07%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.57%) Siemens
3 6 (0.43%) Google
3 6 (0.43%) Splunk
4 5 (0.36%) OpenAI
5 4 (0.29%) Databricks
5 4 (0.29%) Foundry
5 4 (0.29%) Intel
6 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.14%) ADVA
7 2 (0.14%) VMware
8 1 (0.071%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.071%) HubSpot
8 1 (0.071%) Palantir
8 1 (0.071%) TOWER Software