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 28 April 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 173 213 159
Rank change year-on-year +40 -54 +122
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,105 616 1,776
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.23% 1.46% 1.86%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.33% 1.64% 1.97%
Number of salaries quoted 861 537 1,282
10th Percentile £58,250 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year - +15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £128,500 £101,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £61,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +5.69% -5.38%

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 83,161 37,674 90,190
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.86% 89.04% 94.55%
Number of salaries quoted 53,383 23,465 66,451
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,580 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 28 April 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 28 April 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 +70 944 £75,000 -3.23% 264
UK excluding London +69 729 £70,000 +7.69% 206
London +44 311 £95,000 - 99
Work from Home -28 290 £72,500 -3.33% 120
South East +54 179 £70,000 +7.69% 75
South West +41 143 £70,000 +7.69% 26
North of England -22 142 £75,000 +15.38% 26
Scotland -6 89 £67,500 +5.88% 18
East of England +16 87 £70,000 +9.80% 27
North West -13 81 £75,000 +15.38% 19
Midlands +22 73 £65,000 -10.34% 29
West Midlands +15 47 £67,500 -6.90% 14
Yorkshire -41 46 £75,000 -5.55% 5
East Midlands -20 26 £65,000 - 15
Wales -24 15 £60,000 -7.69% 3
North East -41 15 £77,500 +40.91% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 5

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

For the 6 months to 28 April 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 1,089 (98.55%) Software Engineering
2 158 (14.30%) Java
3 157 (14.21%) C#
4 153 (13.85%) Agile
5 152 (13.76%) AWS
6 149 (13.48%) C++
7 148 (13.39%) .NET
8 126 (11.40%) Full-Stack Development
9 125 (11.31%) Python
10 104 (9.41%) CI/CD
11 102 (9.23%) Mentoring
12 95 (8.60%) Azure
13 93 (8.42%) Microservices
14 88 (7.96%) DevOps
14 88 (7.96%) React
15 84 (7.60%) Linux
16 77 (6.97%) SaaS
16 77 (6.97%) TypeScript
17 75 (6.79%) Kubernetes
18 68 (6.15%) AI
18 68 (6.15%) Test Automation
19 66 (5.97%) Fintech
19 66 (5.97%) SQL
20 65 (5.88%) C
21 64 (5.79%) Computer Science
21 64 (5.79%) JavaScript
22 63 (5.70%) Degree
23 59 (5.34%) Problem-Solving
24 58 (5.25%) Docker
25 57 (5.16%) SDLC

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 4 (0.36%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.27%) CMS
3 2 (0.18%) Confluence
4 1 (0.090%) Apache
4 1 (0.090%) FactoryTalk
4 1 (0.090%) Tuxedo
4 1 (0.090%) WinCC
Cloud Services
1 152 (13.76%) AWS
2 95 (8.60%) Azure
3 77 (6.97%) SaaS
4 56 (5.07%) GCP
5 42 (3.80%) GitHub
6 19 (1.72%) Serverless
7 18 (1.63%) GitHub Copilot
8 17 (1.54%) Azure AKS
9 13 (1.18%) Amazon EKS
10 11 (1.00%) Anthropic Claude
10 11 (1.00%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 10 (0.90%) Azure Event Grid
12 8 (0.72%) Stripe
13 6 (0.54%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (0.54%) IaaS
14 5 (0.45%) GitHub Actions
15 4 (0.36%) Amazon OpenSearch
16 3 (0.27%) Cloud Run
16 3 (0.27%) Firebase
16 3 (0.27%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.63%) HTTP
1 18 (1.63%) RS-232
2 16 (1.45%) Ethernet
3 14 (1.27%) Multicast
4 8 (0.72%) Bluetooth
5 7 (0.63%) Modbus
5 7 (0.63%) Wireless
6 5 (0.45%) Broadband
6 5 (0.45%) Profibus
7 4 (0.36%) RS-485
7 4 (0.36%) ZigBee
8 1 (0.090%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.17%) SQL Server
2 26 (2.35%) NoSQL
3 20 (1.81%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.27%) MongoDB
5 13 (1.18%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (0.90%) BigQuery
7 9 (0.81%) MySQL
8 5 (0.45%) Redis
9 4 (0.36%) Big Data
9 4 (0.36%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.36%) Neo4j
9 4 (0.36%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.18%) DB2
11 1 (0.090%) Amazon Athena
11 1 (0.090%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.090%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.090%) DynamoDB
11 1 (0.090%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 43 (3.89%) Git
2 24 (2.17%) JIRA
3 16 (1.45%) GitLab
3 16 (1.45%) TeamCity
4 13 (1.18%) Visual Studio Code
5 11 (1.00%) Claude Code
5 11 (1.00%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.36%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.36%) JUnit
7 3 (0.27%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.27%) JBehave
8 2 (0.18%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.18%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.18%) GDB
8 2 (0.18%) Selenium
8 2 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.18%) Xcode
9 1 (0.090%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.090%) NUnit
9 1 (0.090%) Visual Studio
General
1 159 (14.39%) Finance
2 65 (5.88%) Banking
3 45 (4.07%) Social Skills
4 23 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 22 (1.99%) Electronics
6 18 (1.63%) Automotive
6 18 (1.63%) Financial Institution
6 18 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
6 18 (1.63%) Manufacturing
6 18 (1.63%) Retail
7 16 (1.45%) Law
8 14 (1.27%) Games
8 14 (1.27%) Public Sector
9 13 (1.18%) Back Office
10 12 (1.09%) Tech for Good
11 8 (0.72%) Analytical Skills
11 8 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
12 7 (0.63%) Aerospace
13 5 (0.45%) Agriculture
13 5 (0.45%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 148 (13.39%) .NET
2 88 (7.96%) React
3 54 (4.89%) Node.js
4 43 (3.89%) REST
5 33 (2.99%) RESTful
6 28 (2.53%) .NET Core
7 26 (2.35%) React Native
8 19 (1.72%) .NET Framework
9 18 (1.63%) WPF
10 14 (1.27%) Boost C++ Libraries
10 14 (1.27%) FIX Protocol
10 14 (1.27%) pytest
10 14 (1.27%) Yocto
11 13 (1.18%) Ruby on Rails
12 12 (1.09%) AngularJS
12 12 (1.09%) Django
12 12 (1.09%) Entity Framework
12 12 (1.09%) Spring
13 11 (1.00%) Dapper ORM
13 11 (1.00%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 80 (7.24%) Cloud Native
2 42 (3.80%) Algorithms
3 31 (2.81%) Embedded Systems
4 27 (2.44%) Distributed Systems
5 19 (1.72%) Public Cloud
6 17 (1.54%) Robotics
7 16 (1.45%) Derivative
8 15 (1.36%) CAN bus
9 14 (1.27%) Device Driver
9 14 (1.27%) Equities
9 14 (1.27%) Fixed Income
9 14 (1.27%) IoT
10 12 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (0.81%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.81%) Sports Betting
12 6 (0.54%) FMCG
12 6 (0.54%) Hedge funds
12 6 (0.54%) Legacy Code
13 5 (0.45%) Blog
13 5 (0.45%) Mobile Payment
Operating Systems
1 84 (7.60%) Linux
2 28 (2.53%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.63%) Android
4 14 (1.27%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (0.54%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.18%) Windows
7 1 (0.090%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,089 (98.55%) Software Engineering
2 153 (13.85%) Agile
3 126 (11.40%) Full-Stack Development
4 104 (9.41%) CI/CD
5 102 (9.23%) Mentoring
6 93 (8.42%) Microservices
7 88 (7.96%) DevOps
8 68 (6.15%) AI
8 68 (6.15%) Test Automation
9 66 (5.97%) Fintech
10 64 (5.79%) Computer Science
11 59 (5.34%) Problem-Solving
12 57 (5.16%) SDLC
13 56 (5.07%) Technical Leadership
14 52 (4.71%) Containerisation
15 50 (4.52%) Scrum
16 45 (4.07%) Embedded Software Development
17 43 (3.89%) Low Latency
18 40 (3.62%) Continuous Improvement
18 40 (3.62%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 158 (14.30%) Java
2 157 (14.21%) C#
3 149 (13.48%) C++
4 125 (11.31%) Python
5 77 (6.97%) TypeScript
6 66 (5.97%) SQL
7 65 (5.88%) C
8 64 (5.79%) JavaScript
9 38 (3.44%) Rust
10 27 (2.44%) Go
11 19 (1.72%) Embedded C
12 17 (1.54%) PHP
13 16 (1.45%) Kotlin
14 13 (1.18%) Ruby
15 10 (0.90%) Scala
16 6 (0.54%) F#
16 6 (0.54%) Haskell
17 4 (0.36%) VB
18 3 (0.27%) Delphi
18 3 (0.27%) Swift
Qualifications
1 63 (5.70%) Degree
2 47 (4.25%) Security Cleared
3 35 (3.17%) SC Cleared
4 24 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
5 21 (1.90%) Master's Degree
6 13 (1.18%) DV Cleared
7 9 (0.81%) PhD
8 1 (0.090%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.090%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.090%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (1.99%) QA
2 16 (1.45%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.45%) MISRA
2 16 (1.45%) MISRA C
3 8 (0.72%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.090%) ECSS
4 1 (0.090%) GDPR
4 1 (0.090%) IEC 61131
4 1 (0.090%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 58 (5.25%) Docker
2 33 (2.99%) Firmware
3 15 (1.36%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.18%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.18%) KVM
4 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.090%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 75 (6.79%) Kubernetes
2 34 (3.08%) Terraform
3 17 (1.54%) Grafana
4 13 (1.18%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.45%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.18%) Ansible
6 2 (0.18%) Argo
7 1 (0.090%) Plesk
Vendors
1 14 (1.27%) Google
2 10 (0.90%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.72%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.18%) Adobe
4 2 (0.18%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.18%) OpenAI
4 2 (0.18%) SAP
4 2 (0.18%) VMware
5 1 (0.090%) New Relic
5 1 (0.090%) Rockwell
5 1 (0.090%) Siemens