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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 206 110
Rank change year-on-year +74 -96 +164
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,558 786 1,901
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.45% 1.57% 2.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.55% 1.74% 2.42%
Number of salaries quoted 1,203 451 1,347
10th Percentile £57,500 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £55,625
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 100,717 45,123 78,702
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.02% 89.93% 95.04%
Number of salaries quoted 68,844 26,712 52,410
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,350 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.45% - -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 £48,000 £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 17 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 17 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 +79 1,395 £75,000 -12.03% 141
UK excluding London +97 1,089 £70,000 - 118
London -13 382 £95,000 -11.63% 50
Work from Home -79 291 £75,000 -12.03% 57
North of England -8 273 £75,000 +7.14% 31
South East +127 241 £80,000 +14.29% 27
South West +52 211 £70,000 +3.70% 26
East of England +88 167 £70,000 +9.80% 14
North West -28 165 £75,000 +7.14% 16
Midlands +65 116 £69,305 -4.41% 14
Yorkshire +22 68 £70,000 -8.98% 3
West Midlands +34 66 £70,000 -6.67% 5
East Midlands +25 50 £60,000 -14.29% 9
Scotland -5 48 £67,500 +3.85% 6
North East -34 40 £90,000 +800.00% 12
Wales -39 30 £65,000 - 3
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 17 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 1,554 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 264 (16.94%) Python
3 251 (16.11%) C#
4 236 (15.15%) C++
5 229 (14.70%) Agile
6 221 (14.18%) Java
7 208 (13.35%) AWS
8 186 (11.94%) CI/CD
9 170 (10.91%) .NET
9 170 (10.91%) Mentoring
10 165 (10.59%) AI
11 159 (10.21%) Full-Stack Development
12 122 (7.83%) TypeScript
13 121 (7.77%) DevOps
14 120 (7.70%) Microservices
15 117 (7.51%) React
16 110 (7.06%) Azure
17 108 (6.93%) Security Cleared
18 105 (6.74%) Linux
19 102 (6.55%) JavaScript
20 99 (6.35%) Test Automation
21 87 (5.58%) Code Quality
21 87 (5.58%) SDLC
22 86 (5.52%) Problem-Solving
23 85 (5.46%) SQL
23 85 (5.46%) Technical Leadership
24 84 (5.39%) Degree
25 83 (5.33%) SaaS
26 79 (5.07%) C
27 78 (5.01%) 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
1 208 (13.35%) AWS
2 110 (7.06%) Azure
3 83 (5.33%) SaaS
4 62 (3.98%) GCP
5 42 (2.70%) 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
12 9 (0.58%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 9 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.39%) Amazon SQS
13 6 (0.39%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (0.39%) Supabase
14 5 (0.32%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.32%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (0.32%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.28%) RS-232
2 14 (0.90%) Modbus
3 13 (0.83%) Bluetooth
3 13 (0.83%) Ethernet
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 59 (3.79%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (2.12%) MySQL
3 28 (1.80%) Relational Database
4 19 (1.22%) SQL Server
5 18 (1.16%) Redis
6 17 (1.09%) NoSQL
7 16 (1.03%) MongoDB
8 9 (0.58%) Big Data
9 8 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
10 7 (0.45%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
12 5 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
13 4 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
13 4 (0.26%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
14 3 (0.19%) DocumentDB
14 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.19%) Neo4j
15 2 (0.13%) CockroachDB
15 2 (0.13%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 59 (3.79%) Git
2 30 (1.93%) 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 (0.39%) Mocha
7 6 (0.39%) 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
1 143 (9.18%) Finance
2 107 (6.87%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.30%) Electronics
4 54 (3.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 50 (3.21%) 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 (1.16%) 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
1 170 (10.91%) .NET
2 117 (7.51%) React
3 74 (4.75%) Node.js
4 60 (3.85%) Spring
5 49 (3.15%) WPF
6 38 (2.44%) RESTful
7 37 (2.37%) Spring Boot
8 33 (2.12%) Kafka
9 30 (1.93%) REST
10 28 (1.80%) Next.js
11 23 (1.48%) AngularJS
12 18 (1.16%) FastAPI
13 17 (1.09%) Django
14 16 (1.03%) React Native
14 16 (1.03%) Vue
15 14 (0.90%) CSS
16 13 (0.83%) .NET Core
16 13 (0.83%) FIX Protocol
17 12 (0.77%) Boost C++ Libraries
17 12 (0.77%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 115 (7.38%) 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 20 (1.28%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.96%) Blog
10 15 (0.96%) Derivative
11 14 (0.90%) Device Driver
12 13 (0.83%) Fixed Income
13 12 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (0.77%) Equities
13 12 (0.77%) Virtual Team
14 11 (0.71%) Blockchain
14 11 (0.71%) Cyber Threat
14 11 (0.71%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 105 (6.74%) Linux
2 28 (1.80%) 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 1,554 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 229 (14.70%) Agile
3 186 (11.94%) CI/CD
4 170 (10.91%) Mentoring
5 165 (10.59%) AI
6 159 (10.21%) Full-Stack Development
7 121 (7.77%) DevOps
8 120 (7.70%) Microservices
9 99 (6.35%) Test Automation
10 87 (5.58%) Code Quality
10 87 (5.58%) SDLC
11 86 (5.52%) Problem-Solving
12 85 (5.46%) Technical Leadership
13 74 (4.75%) Computer Science
14 72 (4.62%) Fintech
15 69 (4.43%) Continuous Improvement
16 54 (3.47%) Machine Learning
17 50 (3.21%) Infrastructure as Code
18 48 (3.08%) Containerisation
19 47 (3.02%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 264 (16.94%) Python
2 251 (16.11%) C#
3 236 (15.15%) C++
4 221 (14.18%) Java
5 122 (7.83%) TypeScript
6 102 (6.55%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.46%) SQL
8 79 (5.07%) C
9 45 (2.89%) Rust
10 35 (2.25%) Go
11 20 (1.28%) 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
1 108 (6.93%) Security Cleared
2 84 (5.39%) Degree
3 75 (4.81%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.47%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.60%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.16%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.77%) PhD
8 8 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.39%) 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 (1.16%) 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 78 (5.01%) Docker
2 53 (3.40%) Firmware
3 22 (1.41%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.064%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 77 (4.94%) 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 (0.39%) 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