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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 207 115
Rank change year-on-year +72 -92 +171
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,508 790 1,895
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.44% 1.59% 2.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.53% 1.77% 2.38%
Number of salaries quoted 1,178 456 1,344
10th Percentile £55,000 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,000 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +29.84% -3.06%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £87,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £110,000
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 98,527 44,645 79,471
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.16% 90.04% 94.94%
Number of salaries quoted 67,450 26,505 53,682
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,991
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -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 6 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 6 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 1,350 £75,000 -14.29% 729
UK excluding London +95 1,055 £70,000 - 302
London -15 368 £95,000 -11.63% 466
Work from Home -78 294 £75,000 -12.03% 251
North of England -7 261 £75,000 +3.45% 68
South East +129 245 £80,000 +14.29% 59
South West +59 200 £70,000 - 42
East of England +79 161 £70,000 +12.00% 54
North West -23 158 £75,000 +0.67% 51
Midlands +52 111 £67,500 -6.90% 34
Yorkshire +29 69 £70,000 -11.18% 5
West Midlands +19 63 £70,000 -5.08% 12
East Midlands +27 48 £60,000 -14.29% 22
Scotland +14 47 £67,500 +3.85% 29
North East -30 34 £90,000 +800.00% 12
Wales -33 27 £64,000 -5.19% 9
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 12

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

For the 6 months to 6 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 1,504 (99.73%) Software Engineering
2 263 (17.44%) Python
3 247 (16.38%) C#
4 238 (15.78%) C++
5 221 (14.66%) Agile
6 218 (14.46%) Java
7 208 (13.79%) AWS
8 179 (11.87%) CI/CD
9 170 (11.27%) .NET
10 161 (10.68%) AI
11 159 (10.54%) Full-Stack Development
11 159 (10.54%) Mentoring
12 120 (7.96%) Microservices
12 120 (7.96%) TypeScript
13 118 (7.82%) React
14 116 (7.69%) DevOps
15 114 (7.56%) Azure
16 107 (7.10%) Linux
17 104 (6.90%) Security Cleared
18 102 (6.76%) JavaScript
18 102 (6.76%) Test Automation
19 87 (5.77%) SDLC
20 86 (5.70%) SaaS
21 85 (5.64%) Degree
21 85 (5.64%) SQL
22 82 (5.44%) C
22 82 (5.44%) Code Quality
22 82 (5.44%) Problem-Solving
23 79 (5.24%) Docker
23 79 (5.24%) 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 (1.06%) SharePoint Server
2 6 (0.40%) Apache
3 4 (0.27%) Confluence
4 3 (0.20%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.20%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.20%) WinCC
5 2 (0.13%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.066%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.066%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.20%) Blender
1 3 (0.20%) Maya
2 1 (0.066%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 208 (13.79%) AWS
2 114 (7.56%) Azure
3 86 (5.70%) SaaS
4 66 (4.38%) GCP
5 40 (2.65%) GitHub
6 35 (2.32%) Serverless
7 22 (1.46%) Amazon EKS
8 21 (1.39%) Anthropic Claude
9 18 (1.19%) GitHub Copilot
10 14 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (0.66%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 9 (0.60%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (0.53%) Amazon S3
14 7 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
15 6 (0.40%) Supabase
16 5 (0.33%) Amazon SQS
16 5 (0.33%) Azure AI
16 5 (0.33%) Azure AKS
16 5 (0.33%) Pulumi
17 4 (0.27%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.39%) RS-232
2 14 (0.93%) Ethernet
2 14 (0.93%) Modbus
3 13 (0.86%) Bluetooth
3 13 (0.86%) Multicast
4 12 (0.80%) Profibus
4 12 (0.80%) Wireless
5 9 (0.60%) RS-485
5 9 (0.60%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.53%) HTTP
7 7 (0.46%) Broadband
8 3 (0.20%) Firewall
8 3 (0.20%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.066%) BGP
9 1 (0.066%) DNS
9 1 (0.066%) LTE
9 1 (0.066%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (3.45%) PostgreSQL
2 30 (1.99%) MySQL
3 22 (1.46%) Relational Database
4 19 (1.26%) SQL Server
5 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
6 17 (1.13%) Redis
7 16 (1.06%) MongoDB
8 10 (0.66%) Big Data
9 8 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.33%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.27%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.20%) DocumentDB
12 3 (0.20%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.20%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.13%) CockroachDB
13 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 59 (3.91%) Git
2 32 (2.12%) JIRA
3 26 (1.72%) GitLab
4 20 (1.33%) Claude Code
5 16 (1.06%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.73%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.60%) Jenkins
8 6 (0.40%) Selenium
9 5 (0.33%) Jasmine
9 5 (0.33%) Mocha
9 5 (0.33%) NUnit
10 4 (0.27%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.27%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.27%) Rational Rhapsody
10 4 (0.27%) Visual Studio
11 3 (0.20%) Eclipse RCP
11 3 (0.20%) JUnit
12 2 (0.13%) GDB
12 2 (0.13%) Oracle APEX
12 2 (0.13%) SonarQube
General
1 139 (9.22%) Finance
2 96 (6.37%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.44%) Electronics
4 53 (3.51%) Banking
5 50 (3.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 46 (3.05%) Manufacturing
7 41 (2.72%) Public Sector
8 38 (2.52%) Analytical Skills
9 32 (2.12%) Law
10 21 (1.39%) Retail
11 15 (0.99%) Automotive
12 14 (0.93%) Financial Institution
13 13 (0.86%) Aerospace
14 12 (0.80%) Marketing
14 12 (0.80%) Military
15 11 (0.73%) Back Office
16 9 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
17 7 (0.46%) Agriculture
17 7 (0.46%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 170 (11.27%) .NET
2 118 (7.82%) React
3 71 (4.71%) Node.js
4 54 (3.58%) Spring
5 49 (3.25%) WPF
6 36 (2.39%) RESTful
7 34 (2.25%) Spring Boot
8 29 (1.92%) REST
9 27 (1.79%) Kafka
9 27 (1.79%) Next.js
10 21 (1.39%) AngularJS
11 18 (1.19%) FastAPI
12 17 (1.13%) Django
13 16 (1.06%) Vue
14 15 (0.99%) React Native
15 14 (0.93%) .NET Core
15 14 (0.93%) FIX Protocol
16 13 (0.86%) Boost C++ Libraries
16 13 (0.86%) CSS
16 13 (0.86%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 114 (7.56%) Cloud Native
2 55 (3.65%) Legacy Systems
3 54 (3.58%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (3.12%) Algorithms
5 37 (2.45%) Robotics
6 32 (2.12%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.92%) Greenfield Project
8 20 (1.33%) Product Ownership
9 17 (1.13%) AI Agents
10 16 (1.06%) Derivative
10 16 (1.06%) Public Cloud
11 15 (0.99%) Device Driver
12 13 (0.86%) Equities
12 13 (0.86%) Fixed Income
13 11 (0.73%) Blog
13 11 (0.73%) Client/Server
13 11 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
13 11 (0.73%) Legacy Applications
14 10 (0.66%) Blockchain
14 10 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 107 (7.10%) Linux
2 28 (1.86%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.26%) FreeRTOS
4 17 (1.13%) Windows
5 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.20%) Unix
6 2 (0.13%) Android
7 1 (0.066%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,504 (99.73%) Software Engineering
2 221 (14.66%) Agile
3 179 (11.87%) CI/CD
4 161 (10.68%) AI
5 159 (10.54%) Full-Stack Development
5 159 (10.54%) Mentoring
6 120 (7.96%) Microservices
7 116 (7.69%) DevOps
8 102 (6.76%) Test Automation
9 87 (5.77%) SDLC
10 82 (5.44%) Code Quality
10 82 (5.44%) Problem-Solving
11 77 (5.11%) Computer Science
11 77 (5.11%) Technical Leadership
12 72 (4.77%) Fintech
13 67 (4.44%) Continuous Improvement
14 52 (3.45%) Machine Learning
15 50 (3.32%) Containerisation
16 48 (3.18%) Software Architecture
17 44 (2.92%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 263 (17.44%) Python
2 247 (16.38%) C#
3 238 (15.78%) C++
4 218 (14.46%) Java
5 120 (7.96%) TypeScript
6 102 (6.76%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.64%) SQL
8 82 (5.44%) C
9 48 (3.18%) Rust
10 33 (2.19%) Go
11 21 (1.39%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.06%) Scala
13 14 (0.93%) Ruby
14 13 (0.86%) F#
14 13 (0.86%) Haskell
14 13 (0.86%) PHP
15 11 (0.73%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.66%) Julia
17 8 (0.53%) Kotlin
17 8 (0.53%) R
Qualifications
1 104 (6.90%) Security Cleared
2 85 (5.64%) Degree
3 73 (4.84%) SC Cleared
4 52 (3.45%) DV Cleared
5 27 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (1.13%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.73%) PhD
8 7 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.40%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.066%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.066%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.066%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (2.72%) QA
2 17 (1.13%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.33%) GDPR
3 5 (0.33%) IEC 61508
3 5 (0.33%) MISRA
3 5 (0.33%) MISRA C
4 4 (0.27%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.20%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.20%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.066%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 79 (5.24%) Docker
2 51 (3.38%) Firmware
3 22 (1.46%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.13%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.13%) KVM
4 2 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.066%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 79 (5.24%) Kubernetes
2 53 (3.51%) Terraform
3 18 (1.19%) Grafana
4 7 (0.46%) Ansible
5 5 (0.33%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.20%) Plesk
7 2 (0.13%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.13%) kaniko
7 2 (0.13%) Puppet
8 1 (0.066%) Argo
8 1 (0.066%) Istio
Vendors
1 19 (1.26%) Microsoft
2 9 (0.60%) Google
3 8 (0.53%) Siemens
3 8 (0.53%) Splunk
4 6 (0.40%) Databricks
4 6 (0.40%) Salesforce
5 5 (0.33%) Intel
5 5 (0.33%) OpenAI
6 4 (0.27%) Foundry
6 4 (0.27%) Oracle
7 3 (0.20%) Rockwell
8 2 (0.13%) ADVA
8 2 (0.13%) Atlassian
8 2 (0.13%) New Relic
8 2 (0.13%) Revolut
8 2 (0.13%) VMware
9 1 (0.066%) Palantir
9 1 (0.066%) TOWER Software
9 1 (0.066%) Virgin Media