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 25 June 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 201 130
Rank change year-on-year +66 -71 +158
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,355 786 2,211
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.73% 2.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.52% 1.94% 2.18%
Number of salaries quoted 1,102 455 1,616
10th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £62,625 £55,000
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 £106,875 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £102,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% -7.69%

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 89,296 40,583 101,492
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.03% 89.54% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 61,271 23,147 73,313
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,750 £38,734
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - - -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 25 June 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 25 June 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 +61 1,196 £75,000 -11.76% 201
UK excluding London +83 960 £70,000 +3.70% 150
London -21 323 £95,000 -7.32% 69
Work from Home -39 311 £70,000 -12.50% 71
South East +136 244 £75,000 +15.38% 44
North of England -21 239 £75,000 +0.67% 27
South West +49 162 £70,000 -9.68% 25
North West -28 144 £75,000 - 16
East of England +60 114 £70,000 +18.64% 34
Midlands +64 109 £65,000 -10.34% 15
West Midlands +34 69 £68,403 -8.80% 5
Scotland +14 69 £67,500 +3.85% 2
Yorkshire +16 64 £70,000 -17.89% 2
East Midlands +4 40 £65,000 -7.14% 10
North East -31 31 £80,000 +45.45% 9
Wales -31 22 £56,250 -13.46% 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 25 June 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 1,350 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 224 (16.53%) C#
3 223 (16.46%) C++
4 207 (15.28%) Python
5 195 (14.39%) AWS
6 194 (14.32%) Java
7 190 (14.02%) Agile
8 174 (12.84%) .NET
9 155 (11.44%) Full-Stack Development
10 145 (10.70%) CI/CD
11 121 (8.93%) Mentoring
12 119 (8.78%) Microservices
13 111 (8.19%) Azure
14 109 (8.04%) React
15 106 (7.82%) TypeScript
16 105 (7.75%) AI
17 103 (7.60%) Linux
18 100 (7.38%) DevOps
19 98 (7.23%) SaaS
20 96 (7.08%) JavaScript
21 90 (6.64%) Security Cleared
22 87 (6.42%) SQL
22 87 (6.42%) Test Automation
23 84 (6.20%) Kubernetes
23 84 (6.20%) SDLC
24 83 (6.13%) C
24 83 (6.13%) Computer Science
25 82 (6.05%) Degree
26 77 (5.68%) Docker
27 75 (5.54%) Node.js

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 (1.18%) SharePoint Server
2 3 (0.22%) Apache
2 3 (0.22%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
2 3 (0.22%) WinCC
3 2 (0.15%) CMS
3 2 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (0.22%) Blender
1 3 (0.22%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 195 (14.39%) AWS
2 111 (8.19%) Azure
3 98 (7.23%) SaaS
4 54 (3.99%) GCP
5 37 (2.73%) GitHub
6 32 (2.36%) Serverless
7 24 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
8 17 (1.25%) Anthropic Claude
8 17 (1.25%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 14 (1.03%) Azure AKS
10 13 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (0.81%) GitHub Copilot
12 8 (0.59%) Azure Event Grid
13 6 (0.44%) Amazon S3
13 6 (0.44%) AWS Lambda
13 6 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.37%) Pulumi
15 4 (0.30%) Azure AI
15 4 (0.30%) Dynamics 365
15 4 (0.30%) Stripe
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.77%) RS-232
2 17 (1.25%) Ethernet
2 17 (1.25%) Multicast
3 14 (1.03%) Modbus
4 13 (0.96%) Bluetooth
5 12 (0.89%) Profibus
5 12 (0.89%) Wireless
6 11 (0.81%) Broadband
7 9 (0.66%) HTTP
7 9 (0.66%) RS-485
7 9 (0.66%) ZigBee
8 1 (0.074%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (1.99%) SQL Server
2 25 (1.85%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (1.70%) MySQL
4 20 (1.48%) NoSQL
5 12 (0.89%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
7 7 (0.52%) Big Data
8 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
9 5 (0.37%) Redis
10 4 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.30%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.30%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.22%) DocumentDB
11 3 (0.22%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.22%) Neo4j
12 2 (0.15%) BigQuery
13 1 (0.074%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 59 (4.35%) Git
2 30 (2.21%) JIRA
3 24 (1.77%) GitLab
4 22 (1.62%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.25%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.96%) Visual Studio Code
7 11 (0.81%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.22%) Eclipse
8 3 (0.22%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.15%) Eclipse RCP
9 2 (0.15%) GDB
9 2 (0.15%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.074%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.074%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.074%) Selenium
10 1 (0.074%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.074%) Storybook
10 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 137 (10.11%) Finance
2 65 (4.80%) Social Skills
3 60 (4.43%) Banking
4 47 (3.47%) Electronics
5 34 (2.51%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.44%) Public Sector
7 32 (2.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 28 (2.07%) Analytical Skills
9 21 (1.55%) Retail
10 20 (1.48%) Automotive
10 20 (1.48%) Law
11 14 (1.03%) Back Office
11 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
12 12 (0.89%) Aerospace
12 12 (0.89%) Games
12 12 (0.89%) Tech for Good
13 9 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
13 9 (0.66%) Military
13 9 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (0.52%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 174 (12.84%) .NET
2 109 (8.04%) React
3 75 (5.54%) Node.js
4 42 (3.10%) WPF
5 37 (2.73%) Spring
6 36 (2.66%) REST
7 35 (2.58%) RESTful
8 28 (2.07%) Spring Boot
9 23 (1.70%) .NET Core
10 22 (1.62%) Next.js
11 20 (1.48%) React Native
12 18 (1.33%) AngularJS
12 18 (1.33%) Ruby on Rails
13 17 (1.25%) Boost C++ Libraries
13 17 (1.25%) FIX Protocol
13 17 (1.25%) pytest
14 16 (1.18%) .NET Framework
15 15 (1.11%) Vue
15 15 (1.11%) Yocto
16 13 (0.96%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 96 (7.08%) Cloud Native
2 55 (4.06%) Algorithms
3 50 (3.69%) Legacy Systems
4 37 (2.73%) Embedded Systems
5 36 (2.66%) Distributed Systems
6 31 (2.29%) Greenfield Project
7 18 (1.33%) Derivative
8 17 (1.25%) Equities
8 17 (1.25%) Fixed Income
8 17 (1.25%) Robotics
9 16 (1.18%) IoT
10 15 (1.11%) Device Driver
11 13 (0.96%) Product Ownership
12 12 (0.89%) AI Agents
13 11 (0.81%) CAN bus
14 9 (0.66%) Client/Server
14 9 (0.66%) Public Cloud
14 9 (0.66%) Sports Betting
15 8 (0.59%) Legacy Applications
15 8 (0.59%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 103 (7.60%) Linux
2 30 (2.21%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.40%) FreeRTOS
4 9 (0.66%) Windows
5 8 (0.59%) Android
6 3 (0.22%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.074%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,350 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 190 (14.02%) Agile
3 155 (11.44%) Full-Stack Development
4 145 (10.70%) CI/CD
5 121 (8.93%) Mentoring
6 119 (8.78%) Microservices
7 105 (7.75%) AI
8 100 (7.38%) DevOps
9 87 (6.42%) Test Automation
10 84 (6.20%) SDLC
11 83 (6.13%) Computer Science
12 64 (4.72%) Problem-Solving
13 60 (4.43%) Fintech
14 58 (4.28%) Containerisation
15 56 (4.13%) Code Quality
16 55 (4.06%) Technical Leadership
17 52 (3.84%) Continuous Improvement
18 47 (3.47%) Mathematics
19 43 (3.17%) Scrum
20 40 (2.95%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 224 (16.53%) C#
2 223 (16.46%) C++
3 207 (15.28%) Python
4 194 (14.32%) Java
5 106 (7.82%) TypeScript
6 96 (7.08%) JavaScript
7 87 (6.42%) SQL
8 83 (6.13%) C
9 46 (3.39%) Rust
10 26 (1.92%) Go
11 20 (1.48%) Embedded C
12 19 (1.40%) PHP
13 18 (1.33%) Ruby
14 13 (0.96%) Scala
15 10 (0.74%) Julia
15 10 (0.74%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.74%) VB
16 8 (0.59%) F#
16 8 (0.59%) Haskell
16 8 (0.59%) R
Qualifications
1 90 (6.64%) Security Cleared
2 82 (6.05%) Degree
3 68 (5.02%) SC Cleared
4 38 (2.80%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (1.55%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.03%) PhD
8 3 (0.22%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.15%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.074%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (2.44%) QA
2 12 (0.89%) Accessibility
2 12 (0.89%) IEC 61508
2 12 (0.89%) MISRA
2 12 (0.89%) MISRA C
3 5 (0.37%) GDPR
4 3 (0.22%) DO-178B
4 3 (0.22%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.074%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 77 (5.68%) Docker
2 49 (3.62%) Firmware
3 22 (1.62%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.15%) KVM
4 2 (0.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.074%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 84 (6.20%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.39%) Terraform
3 21 (1.55%) Grafana
4 9 (0.66%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.44%) Ansible
6 5 (0.37%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.22%) Plesk
Vendors
1 12 (0.89%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.59%) Siemens
3 7 (0.52%) Google
4 6 (0.44%) Splunk
5 4 (0.30%) Databricks
5 4 (0.30%) HubSpot
5 4 (0.30%) OpenAI
6 3 (0.22%) Foundry
6 3 (0.22%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.15%) Intel
7 2 (0.15%) VMware
8 1 (0.074%) Palantir
8 1 (0.074%) TOWER Software