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 20 July 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 197 122
Rank change year-on-year +60 -75 +178
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,409 806 2,073
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.41% 1.63% 2.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.50% 1.82% 2.27%
Number of salaries quoted 1,149 473 1,501
10th Percentile £55,000 £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 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £68,750 £60,000
% change year-on-year +1.82% +14.58% -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 94,139 44,347 91,129
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.26% 89.90% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 64,646 26,264 64,457
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.80% -10.83%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £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 20 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 20 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 +65 1,257 £75,000 -11.76% 238
UK excluding London +87 1,011 £70,000 +1.82% 150
London -15 322 £95,000 -9.52% 109
Work from Home -54 300 £70,000 -13.58% 66
South East +145 253 £75,000 +7.14% 27
North of England -15 240 £75,000 +2.04% 35
South West +55 180 £70,000 - 33
North West -26 148 £75,000 - 25
East of England +76 147 £70,000 +12.00% 30
Midlands +59 112 £67,500 -6.90% 18
West Midlands +32 66 £70,000 -5.08% 2
Yorkshire +23 61 £70,000 -7.47% 6
Scotland +4 52 £67,500 +3.85% 5
East Midlands +21 46 £65,000 -7.14% 16
North East -30 31 £90,000 +63.64% 4
Wales -38 24 £56,250 -13.46% 5
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 20 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 1,404 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 242 (17.18%) C++
3 241 (17.10%) Python
4 238 (16.89%) C#
5 196 (13.91%) AWS
6 195 (13.84%) Agile
7 192 (13.63%) Java
8 169 (11.99%) .NET
9 149 (10.57%) CI/CD
10 146 (10.36%) Full-Stack Development
11 135 (9.58%) Mentoring
12 133 (9.44%) AI
13 113 (8.02%) Azure
14 112 (7.95%) Linux
15 110 (7.81%) Microservices
16 109 (7.74%) TypeScript
17 107 (7.59%) React
18 104 (7.38%) DevOps
19 97 (6.88%) JavaScript
19 97 (6.88%) Security Cleared
20 92 (6.53%) Test Automation
21 89 (6.32%) SaaS
22 86 (6.10%) C
23 85 (6.03%) Degree
23 85 (6.03%) SQL
24 82 (5.82%) SDLC
25 79 (5.61%) Computer Science
26 78 (5.54%) Kubernetes
27 75 (5.32%) Node.js
28 73 (5.18%) 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 (0.28%) 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
1 196 (13.91%) AWS
2 113 (8.02%) Azure
3 89 (6.32%) SaaS
4 55 (3.90%) GCP
5 34 (2.41%) GitHub
6 33 (2.34%) Serverless
7 25 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
8 17 (1.21%) Anthropic Claude
9 13 (0.92%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 13 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
10 11 (0.78%) GitHub Copilot
11 10 (0.71%) Azure AKS
12 8 (0.57%) Amazon S3
13 7 (0.50%) AWS Lambda
14 6 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (0.35%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.35%) Pulumi
16 4 (0.28%) Azure Event Grid
16 4 (0.28%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.28%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.63%) RS-232
2 16 (1.14%) Ethernet
3 15 (1.06%) Multicast
4 14 (0.99%) Modbus
5 13 (0.92%) Bluetooth
6 12 (0.85%) Profibus
6 12 (0.85%) 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 (2.48%) PostgreSQL
2 25 (1.77%) MySQL
3 23 (1.63%) SQL Server
4 19 (1.35%) NoSQL
5 15 (1.06%) 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 (0.35%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.28%) 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 60 (4.26%) Git
2 30 (2.13%) JIRA
3 27 (1.92%) GitLab
4 18 (1.28%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.21%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
7 7 (0.50%) Jenkins
8 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.21%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.21%) Eclipse RCP
9 3 (0.21%) NUnit
9 3 (0.21%) Rational Rhapsody
9 3 (0.21%) Selenium
9 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.14%) GDB
10 2 (0.14%) Jasmine
10 2 (0.14%) Mocha
10 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.071%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.071%) Yeoman
General
1 116 (8.23%) Finance
2 68 (4.83%) Social Skills
3 61 (4.33%) Electronics
4 52 (3.69%) Banking
5 42 (2.98%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 34 (2.41%) Analytical Skills
7 34 (2.41%) Public Sector
8 20 (1.42%) Law
8 20 (1.42%) Retail
9 16 (1.14%) Automotive
10 14 (0.99%) Back Office
10 14 (0.99%) Financial Institution
11 11 (0.78%) Military
12 9 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (0.57%) Aerospace
13 8 (0.57%) Games
13 8 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (0.50%) Billing
14 7 (0.50%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (11.99%) .NET
2 107 (7.59%) React
3 75 (5.32%) Node.js
4 47 (3.34%) WPF
5 37 (2.63%) Spring
6 34 (2.41%) RESTful
7 27 (1.92%) REST
7 27 (1.92%) Spring Boot
8 24 (1.70%) Next.js
9 17 (1.21%) AngularJS
9 17 (1.21%) Vue
10 15 (1.06%) .NET Core
10 15 (1.06%) Boost C++ Libraries
10 15 (1.06%) FastAPI
10 15 (1.06%) FIX Protocol
10 15 (1.06%) pytest
10 15 (1.06%) React Native
11 14 (0.99%) Django
11 14 (0.99%) Ruby on Rails
11 14 (0.99%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 98 (6.96%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.69%) Legacy Systems
3 51 (3.62%) Algorithms
4 43 (3.05%) Distributed Systems
5 33 (2.34%) Embedded Systems
6 31 (2.20%) Robotics
7 29 (2.06%) Greenfield Project
8 17 (1.21%) Device Driver
8 17 (1.21%) Product Ownership
9 16 (1.14%) Derivative
10 15 (1.06%) Equities
10 15 (1.06%) Fixed Income
11 13 (0.92%) AI Agents
12 11 (0.78%) Client/Server
12 11 (0.78%) IoT
12 11 (0.78%) Public Cloud
13 9 (0.64%) Legacy Applications
13 9 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
14 8 (0.57%) Cyber Threat
15 7 (0.50%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 112 (7.95%) Linux
2 29 (2.06%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.35%) FreeRTOS
4 15 (1.06%) Windows
5 5 (0.35%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.21%) Android
6 3 (0.21%) Unix
7 1 (0.071%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,404 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 195 (13.84%) Agile
3 149 (10.57%) CI/CD
4 146 (10.36%) Full-Stack Development
5 135 (9.58%) Mentoring
6 133 (9.44%) AI
7 110 (7.81%) Microservices
8 104 (7.38%) DevOps
9 92 (6.53%) Test Automation
10 82 (5.82%) SDLC
11 79 (5.61%) Computer Science
12 68 (4.83%) Problem-Solving
13 66 (4.68%) Code Quality
14 62 (4.40%) Technical Leadership
15 60 (4.26%) Fintech
16 55 (3.90%) Continuous Improvement
17 49 (3.48%) Containerisation
18 46 (3.26%) Software Testing
19 43 (3.05%) Mathematics
20 42 (2.98%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 242 (17.18%) C++
2 241 (17.10%) Python
3 238 (16.89%) C#
4 192 (13.63%) Java
5 109 (7.74%) TypeScript
6 97 (6.88%) JavaScript
7 86 (6.10%) C
8 85 (6.03%) SQL
9 52 (3.69%) Rust
10 25 (1.77%) Go
11 21 (1.49%) Embedded C
12 15 (1.06%) Scala
13 14 (0.99%) Ruby
14 13 (0.92%) F#
14 13 (0.92%) Haskell
14 13 (0.92%) PHP
15 11 (0.78%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.71%) Julia
17 8 (0.57%) R
17 8 (0.57%) VB
Qualifications
1 97 (6.88%) Security Cleared
2 85 (6.03%) Degree
3 69 (4.90%) SC Cleared
4 45 (3.19%) DV Cleared
5 24 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.35%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.85%) 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 (2.63%) QA
2 12 (0.85%) Accessibility
3 7 (0.50%) IEC 61508
3 7 (0.50%) MISRA
3 7 (0.50%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.35%) GDPR
5 3 (0.21%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.071%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 73 (5.18%) Docker
2 49 (3.48%) Firmware
3 22 (1.56%) 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 (5.54%) Kubernetes
2 47 (3.34%) Terraform
3 21 (1.49%) Grafana
4 6 (0.43%) Ansible
4 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.28%) Functional Safety
6 3 (0.21%) Plesk
7 2 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 15 (1.06%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.57%) Siemens
3 6 (0.43%) Google
3 6 (0.43%) Splunk
4 5 (0.35%) Intel
4 5 (0.35%) OpenAI
5 4 (0.28%) Databricks
5 4 (0.28%) Foundry
6 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.14%) ADVA
7 2 (0.14%) VMware
8 1 (0.071%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.071%) Palantir
8 1 (0.071%) TOWER Software