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 14 June 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 141 198 136
Rank change year-on-year +57 -62 +149
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,301 788 2,173
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.40% 1.77% 2.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.49% 1.98% 2.13%
Number of salaries quoted 1,057 455 1,588
10th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £78,810 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.83% +21.25% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £105,000 £81,563
90th Percentile £100,000 £133,000 £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 87,334 39,784 101,964
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.98% 89.45% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 59,870 22,508 73,554
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,000 £38,500
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 £98,750 £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 14 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 14 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 +57 1,144 £75,000 -6.25% 195
UK excluding London +79 912 £70,000 +3.70% 164
London -4 321 £95,000 -5.00% 43
Work from Home -39 306 £70,000 -11.18% 77
South East +137 236 £75,000 +15.38% 49
North of England -43 217 £75,000 +7.14% 40
South West +55 156 £70,000 -6.67% 24
North West -40 130 £75,000 +0.67% 27
East of England +48 108 £70,000 +18.64% 26
Midlands +59 101 £65,000 -10.34% 21
Scotland +24 72 £67,500 +4.25% 2
West Midlands +35 68 £69,305 -4.41% 13
Yorkshire -4 61 £70,000 -11.84% 4
East Midlands +5 33 £65,000 -7.14% 8
North East -35 26 £80,000 +45.45% 9
Wales -29 21 £56,250 -13.46% 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 4

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

For the 6 months to 14 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 1,294 (99.46%) Software Engineering
2 213 (16.37%) C++
3 205 (15.76%) C#
4 195 (14.99%) Python
5 193 (14.83%) Java
6 184 (14.14%) Agile
7 175 (13.45%) AWS
8 167 (12.84%) .NET
9 150 (11.53%) Full-Stack Development
10 130 (9.99%) CI/CD
11 113 (8.69%) Microservices
12 112 (8.61%) Mentoring
13 105 (8.07%) Azure
14 100 (7.69%) Linux
15 96 (7.38%) React
15 96 (7.38%) TypeScript
16 92 (7.07%) DevOps
17 91 (6.99%) AI
18 87 (6.69%) JavaScript
19 86 (6.61%) SaaS
20 84 (6.46%) Security Cleared
21 82 (6.30%) Test Automation
22 81 (6.23%) SQL
23 80 (6.15%) Kubernetes
24 79 (6.07%) C
24 79 (6.07%) SDLC
25 78 (6.00%) Computer Science
26 76 (5.84%) Degree
27 70 (5.38%) Docker
28 66 (5.07%) 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 (1.23%) SharePoint Server
2 3 (0.23%) Apache
2 3 (0.23%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.23%) FactoryTalk
2 3 (0.23%) WinCC
3 2 (0.15%) CMS
3 2 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (0.23%) Blender
1 3 (0.23%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 175 (13.45%) AWS
2 105 (8.07%) Azure
3 86 (6.61%) SaaS
4 50 (3.84%) GCP
5 37 (2.84%) GitHub
6 29 (2.23%) Serverless
7 19 (1.46%) Amazon EKS
8 18 (1.38%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 16 (1.23%) Anthropic Claude
10 15 (1.15%) Azure AKS
11 13 (1.00%) GitHub Copilot
12 12 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (0.69%) Azure Event Grid
14 5 (0.38%) Amazon S3
14 5 (0.38%) Amazon SQS
14 5 (0.38%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (0.38%) Stripe
15 4 (0.31%) IaaS
15 4 (0.31%) Pulumi
16 3 (0.23%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.77%) RS-232
2 17 (1.31%) Ethernet
2 17 (1.31%) Multicast
3 13 (1.00%) Modbus
4 12 (0.92%) Bluetooth
5 11 (0.85%) HTTP
5 11 (0.85%) Profibus
5 11 (0.85%) Wireless
6 8 (0.61%) RS-485
6 8 (0.61%) ZigBee
7 7 (0.54%) Broadband
8 1 (0.077%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (2.38%) SQL Server
2 21 (1.61%) NoSQL
3 17 (1.31%) MySQL
3 17 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (0.92%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (0.61%) Elasticsearch
6 7 (0.54%) Big Data
7 5 (0.38%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (0.31%) Redis
8 4 (0.31%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.23%) DocumentDB
9 3 (0.23%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.23%) MariaDB
9 3 (0.23%) Neo4j
10 2 (0.15%) BigQuery
11 1 (0.077%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.077%) Db2
11 1 (0.077%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 55 (4.23%) Git
2 26 (2.00%) JIRA
3 20 (1.54%) GitLab
3 20 (1.54%) TeamCity
4 16 (1.23%) Claude Code
5 13 (1.00%) Visual Studio Code
6 9 (0.69%) Jenkins
7 3 (0.23%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.23%) Rational Rhapsody
8 2 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.15%) GDB
8 2 (0.15%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.077%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.077%) JUnit
9 1 (0.077%) LabVIEW
9 1 (0.077%) NUnit
9 1 (0.077%) Selenium
9 1 (0.077%) WinDbg
9 1 (0.077%) Xcode
General
1 138 (10.61%) Finance
2 62 (4.77%) Banking
3 56 (4.30%) Social Skills
4 44 (3.38%) Electronics
5 32 (2.46%) Public Sector
6 31 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 31 (2.38%) Manufacturing
7 22 (1.69%) Analytical Skills
8 20 (1.54%) Automotive
8 20 (1.54%) Retail
9 18 (1.38%) Law
10 14 (1.08%) Back Office
10 14 (1.08%) Financial Institution
11 12 (0.92%) Aerospace
11 12 (0.92%) Games
11 12 (0.92%) Tech for Good
12 11 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
13 8 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (0.54%) Military
14 7 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (12.84%) .NET
2 96 (7.38%) React
3 66 (5.07%) Node.js
4 40 (3.07%) WPF
5 38 (2.92%) REST
6 36 (2.77%) Spring
7 32 (2.46%) RESTful
8 26 (2.00%) Spring Boot
9 23 (1.77%) .NET Core
10 21 (1.61%) React Native
11 18 (1.38%) Next.js
12 17 (1.31%) .NET Framework
12 17 (1.31%) AngularJS
12 17 (1.31%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 17 (1.31%) FIX Protocol
12 17 (1.31%) pytest
13 16 (1.23%) Ruby on Rails
14 15 (1.15%) Yocto
15 14 (1.08%) Vue
16 12 (0.92%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 92 (7.07%) Cloud Native
2 55 (4.23%) Algorithms
3 45 (3.46%) Legacy Systems
4 37 (2.84%) Embedded Systems
5 30 (2.31%) Distributed Systems
6 27 (2.08%) Greenfield Project
7 18 (1.38%) Derivative
8 17 (1.31%) Equities
8 17 (1.31%) Fixed Income
9 16 (1.23%) IoT
10 15 (1.15%) Device Driver
10 15 (1.15%) Robotics
11 12 (0.92%) CAN bus
12 11 (0.85%) Public Cloud
13 10 (0.77%) AI Agents
13 10 (0.77%) Product Ownership
14 9 (0.69%) Sports Betting
15 8 (0.61%) Client/Server
15 8 (0.61%) Legacy Applications
16 7 (0.54%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 100 (7.69%) Linux
2 31 (2.38%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.38%) FreeRTOS
4 8 (0.61%) Android
5 7 (0.54%) Windows
6 3 (0.23%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.077%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,294 (99.46%) Software Engineering
2 184 (14.14%) Agile
3 150 (11.53%) Full-Stack Development
4 130 (9.99%) CI/CD
5 113 (8.69%) Microservices
6 112 (8.61%) Mentoring
7 92 (7.07%) DevOps
8 91 (6.99%) AI
9 82 (6.30%) Test Automation
10 79 (6.07%) SDLC
11 78 (6.00%) Computer Science
12 63 (4.84%) Problem-Solving
13 60 (4.61%) Containerisation
14 56 (4.30%) Fintech
15 54 (4.15%) Technical Leadership
16 49 (3.77%) Code Quality
17 48 (3.69%) Continuous Improvement
18 45 (3.46%) Scrum
19 44 (3.38%) Mathematics
20 42 (3.23%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 213 (16.37%) C++
2 205 (15.76%) C#
3 195 (14.99%) Python
4 193 (14.83%) Java
5 96 (7.38%) TypeScript
6 87 (6.69%) JavaScript
7 81 (6.23%) SQL
8 79 (6.07%) C
9 44 (3.38%) Rust
10 25 (1.92%) Go
11 20 (1.54%) Embedded C
12 17 (1.31%) PHP
13 16 (1.23%) Ruby
14 12 (0.92%) Scala
15 10 (0.77%) Julia
15 10 (0.77%) MATLAB
16 9 (0.69%) VB
17 8 (0.61%) F#
17 8 (0.61%) Haskell
17 8 (0.61%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 84 (6.46%) Security Cleared
2 76 (5.84%) Degree
3 64 (4.92%) SC Cleared
4 33 (2.54%) DV Cleared
5 24 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (1.69%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.08%) PhD
8 3 (0.23%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.23%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.15%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.077%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.31%) QA
2 13 (1.00%) IEC 61508
2 13 (1.00%) MISRA
2 13 (1.00%) MISRA C
3 12 (0.92%) Accessibility
4 5 (0.38%) GDPR
5 3 (0.23%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.23%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.077%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 70 (5.38%) Docker
2 47 (3.61%) Firmware
3 21 (1.61%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.15%) KVM
4 2 (0.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.077%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 80 (6.15%) Kubernetes
2 40 (3.07%) Terraform
3 20 (1.54%) Grafana
4 10 (0.77%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.38%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.31%) Ansible
7 3 (0.23%) Plesk
Vendors
1 9 (0.69%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.61%) Siemens
3 6 (0.46%) Google
4 5 (0.38%) HubSpot
5 4 (0.31%) Splunk
6 3 (0.23%) OpenAI
6 3 (0.23%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.15%) Foundry
7 2 (0.15%) VMware
8 1 (0.077%) Databricks
8 1 (0.077%) Intel
8 1 (0.077%) Palantir
8 1 (0.077%) TOWER Software