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 6 September 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 123 221 105
Rank change year-on-year +98 -116 +190
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,668 715 1,839
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.49% 1.44% 2.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.59% 1.61% 2.43%
Number of salaries quoted 1,309 390 1,272
10th Percentile £57,500 £58,750 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,253 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year -12.03% +30.23% -3.02%
75th Percentile £90,000 £115,000 £93,750
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 104,733 44,390 75,643
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.79% 89.68% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 72,126 26,208 47,516
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,132 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,500 £74,813 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

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 6 September 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 6 September 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 +90 1,492 £75,000 -16.67% 750
UK excluding London +111 1,167 £70,000 - 348
London -2 412 £95,000 -13.64% 473
North of England +2 304 £75,000 +3.45% 70
Work from Home -76 302 £80,000 -15.79% 307
South East +132 244 £80,000 +14.29% 64
South West +58 218 £70,000 +7.69% 49
North West -16 190 £75,000 +0.33% 50
East of England +89 180 £70,000 +7.69% 66
Midlands +75 127 £70,000 -6.67% 29
West Midlands +32 74 £70,000 -6.67% 11
Yorkshire +8 68 £70,000 +3.70% 12
East Midlands +19 53 £60,000 -14.29% 18
Scotland +10 51 £70,000 +3.70% 49
North East -32 46 £85,000 +750.00% 8
Wales -26 40 £66,000 +1.54% 7
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 19

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

For the 6 months to 6 September 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 1,662 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 272 (16.31%) Python
3 246 (14.75%) C#
4 240 (14.39%) Agile
5 235 (14.09%) C++
6 222 (13.31%) Java
7 220 (13.19%) AWS
8 196 (11.75%) CI/CD
9 184 (11.03%) AI
10 182 (10.91%) Mentoring
11 164 (9.83%) .NET
12 159 (9.53%) Full-Stack Development
13 136 (8.15%) TypeScript
14 126 (7.55%) DevOps
14 126 (7.55%) Microservices
15 122 (7.31%) React
16 110 (6.59%) Azure
16 110 (6.59%) Linux
17 106 (6.35%) Security Cleared
18 103 (6.18%) Test Automation
19 96 (5.76%) JavaScript
20 91 (5.46%) SDLC
21 90 (5.40%) Technical Leadership
22 88 (5.28%) Code Quality
23 87 (5.22%) Problem-Solving
24 84 (5.04%) SQL
25 82 (4.92%) SaaS
26 81 (4.86%) Degree
26 81 (4.86%) Node.js
27 80 (4.80%) 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 (0.96%) SharePoint Server
2 7 (0.42%) Apache
3 4 (0.24%) Confluence
4 3 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.18%) WinCC
5 2 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.12%) Apache Solr
5 2 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
5 2 (0.12%) CMS
6 1 (0.060%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.18%) Blender
1 3 (0.18%) Maya
2 1 (0.060%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 220 (13.19%) AWS
2 110 (6.59%) Azure
3 82 (4.92%) SaaS
4 68 (4.08%) GCP
5 41 (2.46%) GitHub
6 38 (2.28%) Serverless
7 23 (1.38%) Amazon EKS
8 20 (1.20%) GitHub Copilot
9 18 (1.08%) Anthropic Claude
10 17 (1.02%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.72%) AWS Lambda
12 10 (0.60%) Amazon S3
12 10 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (0.48%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 6 (0.36%) Amazon SQS
14 6 (0.36%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (0.36%) Supabase
15 5 (0.30%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.30%) Dynamics 365
16 4 (0.24%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.08%) RS-232
2 14 (0.84%) Modbus
3 13 (0.78%) Bluetooth
3 13 (0.78%) Ethernet
4 12 (0.72%) Profibus
4 12 (0.72%) Wireless
5 11 (0.66%) Multicast
6 9 (0.54%) RS-485
6 9 (0.54%) ZigBee
7 8 (0.48%) Broadband
7 8 (0.48%) HTTP
8 6 (0.36%) TCP/IP
9 4 (0.24%) Firewall
10 2 (0.12%) Internet
11 1 (0.060%) BGP
11 1 (0.060%) DNS
11 1 (0.060%) LTE
11 1 (0.060%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (3.72%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (1.98%) MySQL
3 28 (1.68%) Relational Database
4 19 (1.14%) MongoDB
5 18 (1.08%) Redis
6 17 (1.02%) NoSQL
7 14 (0.84%) SQL Server
8 10 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
9 9 (0.54%) DynamoDB
10 8 (0.48%) Big Data
11 6 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
12 5 (0.30%) Geospatial Data
13 4 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
13 4 (0.24%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
14 3 (0.18%) MariaDB
15 2 (0.12%) DocumentDB
15 2 (0.12%) Flink
15 2 (0.12%) Neo4j
15 2 (0.12%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 58 (3.48%) Git
2 28 (1.68%) JIRA
3 26 (1.56%) GitLab
4 17 (1.02%) Claude Code
5 16 (0.96%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.66%) Jenkins
7 10 (0.60%) Visual Studio Code
8 6 (0.36%) Mocha
8 6 (0.36%) Selenium
9 5 (0.30%) Jasmine
9 5 (0.30%) NUnit
9 5 (0.30%) Visual Studio
10 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.24%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.24%) Rational Rhapsody
11 3 (0.18%) Eclipse RCP
11 3 (0.18%) JUnit
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle APEX
12 2 (0.12%) CMake
12 2 (0.12%) GDB
General
1 149 (8.93%) Finance
2 117 (7.01%) Social Skills
3 68 (4.08%) Electronics
4 56 (3.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 53 (3.18%) Banking
6 46 (2.76%) Public Sector
7 42 (2.52%) Manufacturing
8 40 (2.40%) Analytical Skills
9 36 (2.16%) Law
10 22 (1.32%) Aerospace
11 21 (1.26%) Retail
12 17 (1.02%) Marketing
13 14 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 13 (0.78%) Automotive
15 12 (0.72%) Military
16 10 (0.60%) Back Office
16 10 (0.60%) Games
16 10 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
17 9 (0.54%) Organisational Skills
18 8 (0.48%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (9.83%) .NET
2 122 (7.31%) React
3 81 (4.86%) Node.js
4 63 (3.78%) Terraform
5 62 (3.72%) Spring
6 49 (2.94%) WPF
7 41 (2.46%) RESTful
8 39 (2.34%) Spring Boot
9 36 (2.16%) Kafka
10 28 (1.68%) Next.js
10 28 (1.68%) REST
11 24 (1.44%) AngularJS
12 20 (1.20%) Vue
13 18 (1.08%) FastAPI
14 17 (1.02%) React Native
15 16 (0.96%) Django
16 14 (0.84%) CSS
17 13 (0.78%) FIX Protocol
18 12 (0.72%) Ruby on Rails
19 11 (0.66%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 115 (6.89%) Cloud Native
2 58 (3.48%) Distributed Systems
3 55 (3.30%) Legacy Systems
4 47 (2.82%) Algorithms
5 39 (2.34%) Robotics
6 36 (2.16%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.74%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (1.32%) AI Agents
8 22 (1.32%) Product Ownership
9 21 (1.26%) Public Cloud
10 16 (0.96%) Blockchain
10 16 (0.96%) Blog
11 14 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
11 14 (0.84%) Derivative
12 13 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (0.72%) Device Driver
13 12 (0.72%) Fixed Income
13 12 (0.72%) Virtual Team
14 11 (0.66%) Equities
14 11 (0.66%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 110 (6.59%) Linux
2 29 (1.74%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.14%) FreeRTOS
3 19 (1.14%) Windows
4 8 (0.48%) Unix
5 6 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.24%) Android
7 1 (0.060%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,662 (99.64%) Software Engineering
2 240 (14.39%) Agile
3 196 (11.75%) CI/CD
4 184 (11.03%) AI
5 182 (10.91%) Mentoring
6 159 (9.53%) Full-Stack Development
7 126 (7.55%) DevOps
7 126 (7.55%) Microservices
8 103 (6.18%) Test Automation
9 91 (5.46%) SDLC
10 90 (5.40%) Technical Leadership
11 88 (5.28%) Code Quality
12 87 (5.22%) Problem-Solving
13 71 (4.26%) Computer Science
14 70 (4.20%) Continuous Improvement
14 70 (4.20%) Fintech
15 58 (3.48%) Machine Learning
16 54 (3.24%) Infrastructure as Code
17 53 (3.18%) Containerisation
18 52 (3.12%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 272 (16.31%) Python
2 246 (14.75%) C#
3 235 (14.09%) C++
4 222 (13.31%) Java
5 136 (8.15%) TypeScript
6 96 (5.76%) JavaScript
7 84 (5.04%) SQL
8 78 (4.68%) C
9 43 (2.58%) Rust
10 34 (2.04%) Go
11 18 (1.08%) Embedded C
12 16 (0.96%) Scala
13 15 (0.90%) Ruby
14 14 (0.84%) PHP
15 13 (0.78%) F#
15 13 (0.78%) Haskell
16 11 (0.66%) Kotlin
16 11 (0.66%) MATLAB
17 10 (0.60%) Julia
18 8 (0.48%) R
Qualifications
1 106 (6.35%) Security Cleared
2 81 (4.86%) Degree
3 70 (4.20%) SC Cleared
4 51 (3.06%) DV Cleared
5 23 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (0.96%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.60%) PhD
8 8 (0.48%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.36%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.12%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.12%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.060%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.060%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (2.34%) QA
2 18 (1.08%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.36%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.30%) GDPR
4 5 (0.30%) IEC 61508
4 5 (0.30%) MISRA
4 5 (0.30%) MISRA C
5 4 (0.24%) DO-178B
6 3 (0.18%) IEC 61131
7 2 (0.12%) SLA
8 1 (0.060%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (4.56%) Docker
2 57 (3.42%) Firmware
3 22 (1.32%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.060%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 1 (0.060%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 80 (4.80%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.08%) Grafana
3 11 (0.66%) Ansible
4 5 (0.30%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.18%) Plesk
6 2 (0.12%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.12%) kaniko
6 2 (0.12%) Puppet
7 1 (0.060%) Argo
7 1 (0.060%) Istio
7 1 (0.060%) Kibana
7 1 (0.060%) Podman
Vendors
1 22 (1.32%) Microsoft
2 15 (0.90%) Salesforce
3 11 (0.66%) Google
4 9 (0.54%) Splunk
5 8 (0.48%) Siemens
6 7 (0.42%) Databricks
7 6 (0.36%) Oracle
7 6 (0.36%) RedGate
7 6 (0.36%) Sage
8 5 (0.30%) Foundry
8 5 (0.30%) Intel
8 5 (0.30%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.18%) Atlassian
9 3 (0.18%) New Relic
9 3 (0.18%) Revolut
9 3 (0.18%) Rockwell
10 2 (0.12%) ADVA
10 2 (0.12%) Okta
11 1 (0.060%) Palantir
11 1 (0.060%) Virgin Media