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 March 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 202 207 180
Rank change year-on-year +5 -27 +97
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 818 642 1,403
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.09% 1.49% 1.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 1.65% 1.75%
Number of salaries quoted 629 514 1,031
10th Percentile £58,750 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,000 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £72,500 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +10.75% -6.48%
75th Percentile £95,000 £95,938 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £101,250
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 68,739 38,903 80,284
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 90.47% 94.61%
Number of salaries quoted 43,768 23,119 61,505
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £43,500 £38,750
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 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -5.23%

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 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 17 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 +24 697 £75,000 +3.45% 236
UK excluding London +18 515 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +49 263 £95,000 +5.56% 92
Work from Home -41 249 £75,000 +7.14% 120
South East +12 118 £70,000 +7.69% 67
South West +43 115 £70,000 +7.69% 21
North of England -41 101 £75,000 +15.38% 21
Scotland -4 82 £70,000 +7.69% 24
East of England -23 51 £70,000 +3.70% 20
North West -33 48 £75,000 +15.38% 11
Midlands +6 40 £65,000 -10.34% 26
Yorkshire -22 40 £75,000 -12.03% 7
East Midlands -14 21 £65,000 -13.33% 8
West Midlands +15 19 £65,000 -7.14% 18
North East -25 13 £75,000 +36.36% 3
Wales -17 8 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 17 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.

1 803 (98.17%) Software Engineering
2 146 (17.85%) Java
3 132 (16.14%) AWS
4 122 (14.91%) .NET
5 120 (14.67%) Agile
6 110 (13.45%) C#
7 106 (12.96%) CI/CD
8 100 (12.22%) C++
8 100 (12.22%) Full-Stack Development
9 89 (10.88%) Microservices
10 88 (10.76%) Kubernetes
11 84 (10.27%) Python
12 82 (10.02%) Azure
13 79 (9.66%) Mentoring
14 73 (8.92%) DevOps
14 73 (8.92%) React
15 68 (8.31%) Linux
16 65 (7.95%) TypeScript
17 61 (7.46%) SaaS
18 60 (7.33%) Test Automation
19 59 (7.21%) SQL
20 56 (6.85%) Fintech
21 54 (6.60%) Degree
21 54 (6.60%) Problem-Solving
22 53 (6.48%) Computer Science
22 53 (6.48%) Docker
23 51 (6.23%) GCP
24 50 (6.11%) Containerisation
25 49 (5.99%) JavaScript
26 48 (5.87%) AI

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 3 (0.37%) Apache
1 3 (0.37%) Apache Solr
1 3 (0.37%) CMS
2 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.12%) Confluence
3 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 132 (16.14%) AWS
2 82 (10.02%) Azure
3 61 (7.46%) SaaS
4 51 (6.23%) GCP
5 32 (3.91%) GitHub
6 17 (2.08%) Amazon EKS
6 17 (2.08%) Azure AKS
7 11 (1.34%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 10 (1.22%) Azure Event Grid
8 10 (1.22%) GitHub Copilot
8 10 (1.22%) Serverless
9 8 (0.98%) Anthropic Claude
9 8 (0.98%) Stripe
10 6 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
11 5 (0.61%) Cloud Run
12 4 (0.49%) Amazon S3
12 4 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.37%) dbt
13 3 (0.37%) Firebase
13 3 (0.37%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.59%) Multicast
2 10 (1.22%) Ethernet
2 10 (1.22%) HTTP
2 10 (1.22%) RS-232
3 5 (0.61%) Broadband
4 2 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.28%) SQL Server
2 24 (2.93%) NoSQL
3 22 (2.69%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.71%) MongoDB
5 11 (1.34%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.22%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.86%) MySQL
7 7 (0.86%) Redis
8 5 (0.61%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.49%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.37%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.37%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.37%) Big Data
11 2 (0.24%) Apache Arrow
11 2 (0.24%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.24%) Apache Ignite
11 2 (0.24%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.24%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.24%) Dremio
11 2 (0.24%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 31 (3.79%) Git
2 23 (2.81%) JIRA
3 19 (2.32%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.22%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.98%) Claude Code
6 7 (0.86%) GitLab
7 4 (0.49%) JUnit
8 3 (0.37%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.37%) JBehave
8 3 (0.37%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.24%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.24%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.24%) Xcode
10 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.12%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.12%) Gradle
10 1 (0.12%) NUnit
10 1 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.12%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.12%) Selenium
General
1 147 (17.97%) Finance
2 56 (6.85%) Banking
3 40 (4.89%) Social Skills
4 24 (2.93%) Retail
5 23 (2.81%) Financial Institution
6 20 (2.44%) Law
7 18 (2.20%) Games
7 18 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 15 (1.83%) Back Office
9 12 (1.47%) Tech for Good
10 10 (1.22%) Automotive
10 10 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
10 10 (1.22%) Public Sector
11 7 (0.86%) Analytical Skills
11 7 (0.86%) Manufacturing
12 5 (0.61%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (0.61%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.49%) Aeronautics
13 4 (0.49%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (14.91%) .NET
2 73 (8.92%) React
3 37 (4.52%) RESTful
4 34 (4.16%) Node.js
4 34 (4.16%) REST
5 26 (3.18%) .NET Core
6 23 (2.81%) React Native
7 20 (2.44%) .NET Framework
8 18 (2.20%) GraphQL
9 14 (1.71%) Ruby on Rails
9 14 (1.71%) Spring
10 13 (1.59%) Boost C++ Libraries
10 13 (1.59%) Django
10 13 (1.59%) Entity Framework
10 13 (1.59%) FIX Protocol
10 13 (1.59%) pytest
11 12 (1.47%) AngularJS
11 12 (1.47%) Spring Boot
12 11 (1.34%) Dapper ORM
13 10 (1.22%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 77 (9.41%) Cloud Native
2 31 (3.79%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (2.93%) Algorithms
4 20 (2.44%) Embedded Systems
5 16 (1.96%) Derivative
6 15 (1.83%) Equities
6 15 (1.83%) Fixed Income
7 14 (1.71%) IoT
8 12 (1.47%) Legacy Code
8 12 (1.47%) Robotics
9 11 (1.34%) CAN bus
9 11 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
9 11 (1.34%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.22%) Device Driver
11 9 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.10%) Sports Betting
12 7 (0.86%) Blog
13 6 (0.73%) Hedge funds
14 5 (0.61%) Data Structures
15 4 (0.49%) Over-the-Top Content
Operating Systems
1 68 (8.31%) Linux
2 22 (2.69%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.20%) Android
4 6 (0.73%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.12%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 803 (98.17%) Software Engineering
2 120 (14.67%) Agile
3 106 (12.96%) CI/CD
4 100 (12.22%) Full-Stack Development
5 89 (10.88%) Microservices
6 79 (9.66%) Mentoring
7 73 (8.92%) DevOps
8 60 (7.33%) Test Automation
9 56 (6.85%) Fintech
10 54 (6.60%) Problem-Solving
11 53 (6.48%) Computer Science
12 50 (6.11%) Containerisation
13 48 (5.87%) AI
14 44 (5.38%) Technical Leadership
15 42 (5.13%) SDLC
16 38 (4.65%) Scrum
17 35 (4.28%) Continuous Improvement
18 33 (4.03%) Clean Code
19 32 (3.91%) Low Latency
20 29 (3.55%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 146 (17.85%) Java
2 110 (13.45%) C#
3 100 (12.22%) C++
4 84 (10.27%) Python
5 65 (7.95%) TypeScript
6 59 (7.21%) SQL
7 49 (5.99%) JavaScript
8 38 (4.65%) C
9 32 (3.91%) Rust
10 28 (3.42%) Go
11 19 (2.32%) Kotlin
12 17 (2.08%) PHP
13 14 (1.71%) Ruby
14 10 (1.22%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.61%) Delphi
16 4 (0.49%) Scala
16 4 (0.49%) VB
17 3 (0.37%) Swift
18 2 (0.24%) Bash
19 1 (0.12%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 54 (6.60%) Degree
2 28 (3.42%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
4 23 (2.81%) SC Cleared
5 19 (2.32%) Master's Degree
6 9 (1.10%) PhD
7 5 (0.61%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.12%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.69%) QA
2 11 (1.34%) IEC 61508
2 11 (1.34%) MISRA
2 11 (1.34%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.73%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.12%) ECSS
4 1 (0.12%) GDPR
4 1 (0.12%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 53 (6.48%) Docker
2 11 (1.34%) Firmware
3 7 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (0.73%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.24%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.24%) KVM
5 2 (0.24%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 88 (10.76%) Kubernetes
2 35 (4.28%) Terraform
3 17 (2.08%) Grafana
4 11 (1.34%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.24%) Ansible
5 2 (0.24%) Argo
6 1 (0.12%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (1.59%) Google
2 8 (0.98%) HubSpot
2 8 (0.98%) Microsoft
3 2 (0.24%) Adobe
3 2 (0.24%) CA Agile Central
3 2 (0.24%) SAP
3 2 (0.24%) VMware
4 1 (0.12%) Dynatrace
4 1 (0.12%) Green Hills
4 1 (0.12%) New Relic
4 1 (0.12%) OpenAI