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 13 August 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 209 110
Rank change year-on-year +78 -99 +172
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,539 784 1,900
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.45% 1.57% 2.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.54% 1.75% 2.40%
Number of salaries quoted 1,193 449 1,336
10th Percentile £56,500 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,000 £65,232
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +30.30% -3.36%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £87,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £112,500
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 99,901 44,909 79,263
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.03% 89.92% 95.00%
Number of salaries quoted 68,253 26,546 52,909
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.82% - -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 £48,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +8.25% -3.00% -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 13 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 13 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 +76 1,379 £75,000 -12.03% 1,059
UK excluding London +100 1,078 £70,000 - 426
London -15 375 £95,000 -11.63% 703
Work from Home -63 296 £75,000 -12.03% 384
North of England -11 270 £75,000 +5.26% 98
South East +150 243 £80,000 +14.29% 78
South West +65 204 £70,000 - 50
East of England +88 166 £70,000 +9.80% 86
North West -23 163 £75,000 +3.81% 69
Midlands +51 116 £69,305 -4.41% 35
Yorkshire +30 70 £70,000 -11.18% 12
West Midlands +24 66 £70,000 -6.67% 14
East Midlands +17 50 £60,000 -14.29% 21
Scotland +8 48 £67,500 +3.85% 56
North East -31 37 £90,000 +800.00% 17
Wales -38 28 £64,500 -0.77% 13
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 16

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

For the 6 months to 13 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 1,535 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 264 (17.15%) Python
3 248 (16.11%) C#
4 236 (15.33%) C++
5 228 (14.81%) Agile
6 220 (14.29%) Java
7 208 (13.52%) AWS
8 183 (11.89%) CI/CD
9 169 (10.98%) .NET
9 169 (10.98%) Mentoring
10 162 (10.53%) AI
11 157 (10.20%) Full-Stack Development
12 122 (7.93%) DevOps
12 122 (7.93%) Microservices
13 121 (7.86%) TypeScript
14 118 (7.67%) React
15 113 (7.34%) Azure
16 107 (6.95%) Security Cleared
17 105 (6.82%) Linux
18 102 (6.63%) JavaScript
19 99 (6.43%) Test Automation
20 88 (5.72%) SDLC
21 86 (5.59%) Code Quality
22 85 (5.52%) Problem-Solving
22 85 (5.52%) SQL
23 83 (5.39%) Degree
23 83 (5.39%) SaaS
24 82 (5.33%) Technical Leadership
25 80 (5.20%) C
26 79 (5.13%) Kubernetes

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 (1.04%) 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 (0.065%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.065%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) Blender
1 3 (0.19%) Maya
2 1 (0.065%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 208 (13.52%) AWS
2 113 (7.34%) Azure
3 83 (5.39%) SaaS
4 65 (4.22%) GCP
5 42 (2.73%) GitHub
6 37 (2.40%) Serverless
7 22 (1.43%) Amazon EKS
8 21 (1.36%) Anthropic Claude
9 20 (1.30%) GitHub Copilot
10 15 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (0.65%) AWS Lambda
11 10 (0.65%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 9 (0.58%) Amazon S3
13 8 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (0.39%) Amazon SQS
14 6 (0.39%) Supabase
15 5 (0.32%) AWS CloudFormation
15 5 (0.32%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.32%) Dynamics 365
15 5 (0.32%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.36%) RS-232
2 14 (0.91%) Ethernet
2 14 (0.91%) Modbus
3 13 (0.84%) Bluetooth
4 12 (0.78%) Multicast
4 12 (0.78%) Profibus
4 12 (0.78%) Wireless
5 9 (0.58%) RS-485
5 9 (0.58%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.52%) HTTP
7 7 (0.45%) Broadband
8 4 (0.26%) Firewall
8 4 (0.26%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.065%) BGP
9 1 (0.065%) DNS
9 1 (0.065%) LTE
9 1 (0.065%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (3.83%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (2.14%) MySQL
3 27 (1.75%) Relational Database
4 19 (1.23%) NoSQL
5 18 (1.17%) MongoDB
5 18 (1.17%) Redis
5 18 (1.17%) SQL Server
6 10 (0.65%) Big Data
7 8 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
8 7 (0.45%) DynamoDB
9 5 (0.32%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.26%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.19%) DocumentDB
11 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.19%) Neo4j
12 2 (0.13%) CockroachDB
12 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 58 (3.77%) Git
2 31 (2.01%) JIRA
3 25 (1.62%) GitLab
4 20 (1.30%) Claude Code
5 15 (0.97%) TeamCity
6 10 (0.65%) Jenkins
6 10 (0.65%) Visual Studio Code
7 6 (0.39%) Selenium
8 5 (0.32%) Jasmine
8 5 (0.32%) Mocha
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%) Appium
11 2 (0.13%) CMake
General
1 141 (9.16%) Finance
2 106 (6.89%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.35%) Electronics
4 54 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 52 (3.38%) Banking
6 45 (2.92%) Manufacturing
7 44 (2.86%) Public Sector
8 39 (2.53%) Analytical Skills
9 35 (2.27%) Law
10 20 (1.30%) Retail
11 16 (1.04%) Marketing
12 14 (0.91%) Aerospace
12 14 (0.91%) Automotive
13 12 (0.78%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.78%) Military
14 10 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.58%) Back Office
15 9 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
16 7 (0.45%) Games
16 7 (0.45%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (10.98%) .NET
2 118 (7.67%) React
3 72 (4.68%) Node.js
4 58 (3.77%) Spring
5 49 (3.18%) WPF
6 38 (2.47%) RESTful
7 36 (2.34%) Spring Boot
8 31 (2.01%) Kafka
9 29 (1.88%) REST
10 27 (1.75%) Next.js
11 22 (1.43%) AngularJS
12 19 (1.23%) FastAPI
13 18 (1.17%) Django
14 16 (1.04%) React Native
14 16 (1.04%) Vue
15 14 (0.91%) CSS
16 13 (0.84%) .NET Core
16 13 (0.84%) FIX Protocol
16 13 (0.84%) Flask
17 12 (0.78%) Boost C++ Libraries
Miscellaneous
1 118 (7.67%) Cloud Native
2 55 (3.57%) Legacy Systems
3 53 (3.44%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (3.05%) Algorithms
5 36 (2.34%) Robotics
6 33 (2.14%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.88%) Greenfield Project
8 21 (1.36%) Product Ownership
9 19 (1.23%) AI Agents
9 19 (1.23%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.97%) Derivative
10 15 (0.97%) Device Driver
11 14 (0.91%) Blog
12 12 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (0.78%) Equities
12 12 (0.78%) Fixed Income
13 11 (0.71%) Blockchain
13 11 (0.71%) Cyber Threat
13 11 (0.71%) Legacy Applications
13 11 (0.71%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 105 (6.82%) Linux
2 28 (1.82%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.23%) FreeRTOS
4 18 (1.17%) Windows
5 4 (0.26%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.19%) Android
6 3 (0.19%) Unix
7 1 (0.065%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,535 (99.74%) Software Engineering
2 228 (14.81%) Agile
3 183 (11.89%) CI/CD
4 169 (10.98%) Mentoring
5 162 (10.53%) AI
6 157 (10.20%) Full-Stack Development
7 122 (7.93%) DevOps
7 122 (7.93%) Microservices
8 99 (6.43%) Test Automation
9 88 (5.72%) SDLC
10 86 (5.59%) Code Quality
11 85 (5.52%) Problem-Solving
12 82 (5.33%) Technical Leadership
13 74 (4.81%) Fintech
14 73 (4.74%) Computer Science
15 67 (4.35%) Continuous Improvement
16 53 (3.44%) Machine Learning
17 50 (3.25%) Containerisation
18 48 (3.12%) Infrastructure as Code
19 47 (3.05%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 264 (17.15%) Python
2 248 (16.11%) C#
3 236 (15.33%) C++
4 220 (14.29%) Java
5 121 (7.86%) TypeScript
6 102 (6.63%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.52%) SQL
8 80 (5.20%) C
9 45 (2.92%) Rust
10 34 (2.21%) Go
11 21 (1.36%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.04%) Scala
13 15 (0.97%) Ruby
14 14 (0.91%) PHP
15 13 (0.84%) F#
15 13 (0.84%) Haskell
16 11 (0.71%) Kotlin
16 11 (0.71%) MATLAB
17 10 (0.65%) Julia
18 8 (0.52%) R
Qualifications
1 107 (6.95%) Security Cleared
2 83 (5.39%) Degree
3 75 (4.87%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.51%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (1.10%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.71%) PhD
8 8 (0.52%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.39%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.065%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.065%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (2.60%) QA
2 18 (1.17%) 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 (0.065%) SLA
6 1 (0.065%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 78 (5.07%) Docker
2 54 (3.51%) Firmware
3 22 (1.43%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.065%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 79 (5.13%) Kubernetes
2 56 (3.64%) Terraform
3 17 (1.10%) Grafana
4 8 (0.52%) 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 (0.065%) Argo
8 1 (0.065%) Istio
8 1 (0.065%) Kibana
Vendors
1 20 (1.30%) Microsoft
2 9 (0.58%) Google
2 9 (0.58%) Salesforce
2 9 (0.58%) Splunk
3 8 (0.52%) Siemens
4 7 (0.45%) Databricks
5 6 (0.39%) Oracle
6 5 (0.32%) Intel
6 5 (0.32%) OpenAI
7 4 (0.26%) Foundry
8 3 (0.19%) Atlassian
8 3 (0.19%) New Relic
8 3 (0.19%) Revolut
8 3 (0.19%) Rockwell
9 2 (0.13%) ADVA
10 1 (0.065%) Palantir
10 1 (0.065%) RedGate
10 1 (0.065%) Sage
10 1 (0.065%) TOWER Software
10 1 (0.065%) Virgin Media