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 18 April 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 174 214 160
Rank change year-on-year +40 -54 +118
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,039 621 1,733
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.20% 1.49% 1.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.29% 1.67% 1.94%
Number of salaries quoted 802 534 1,249
10th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,188 £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 £122,500 £101,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -7.41%

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 80,276 37,162 89,418
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.62% 89.30% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 51,387 23,373 66,316
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +12.15% -10.83%
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 18 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 18 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 +60 891 £75,000 - 209
UK excluding London +46 683 £70,000 +7.69% 167
London +46 301 £95,000 - 70
Work from Home -41 285 £72,500 -3.33% 105
South East +36 158 £70,000 +7.69% 56
South West +36 140 £70,000 +7.69% 22
North of England -33 139 £75,000 +15.38% 18
Scotland -4 89 £67,500 +3.85% 18
East of England -2 78 £70,000 +3.70% 23
North West -16 77 £75,000 +15.38% 11
Midlands +16 65 £65,000 -10.34% 27
Yorkshire -45 47 £75,000 -5.55% 7
West Midlands +6 40 £65,000 -10.34% 19
East Midlands -26 25 £65,000 -13.33% 8
North East -31 15 £77,500 +40.91%
Wales -23 13 £60,000 -7.69% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 18 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 1,023 (98.46%) Software Engineering
2 156 (15.01%) Java
3 152 (14.63%) AWS
4 144 (13.86%) Agile
5 140 (13.47%) C#
6 138 (13.28%) .NET
7 135 (12.99%) C++
8 120 (11.55%) Full-Stack Development
9 109 (10.49%) Python
10 108 (10.39%) CI/CD
11 98 (9.43%) Microservices
12 94 (9.05%) Mentoring
13 93 (8.95%) Azure
14 92 (8.85%) React
15 88 (8.47%) DevOps
16 83 (7.99%) Kubernetes
17 82 (7.89%) Linux
18 79 (7.60%) TypeScript
19 78 (7.51%) SaaS
20 72 (6.93%) Test Automation
21 67 (6.45%) SQL
22 66 (6.35%) Fintech
23 64 (6.16%) AI
24 62 (5.97%) Computer Science
24 62 (5.97%) JavaScript
25 61 (5.87%) C
26 60 (5.77%) Degree
27 59 (5.68%) Problem-Solving
28 58 (5.58%) Docker
28 58 (5.58%) GCP

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 (0.38%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.29%) CMS
3 2 (0.19%) Apache
3 2 (0.19%) Confluence
4 1 (0.096%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 152 (14.63%) AWS
2 93 (8.95%) Azure
3 78 (7.51%) SaaS
4 58 (5.58%) GCP
5 41 (3.95%) GitHub
6 18 (1.73%) Amazon EKS
6 18 (1.73%) Serverless
7 17 (1.64%) Azure AKS
7 17 (1.64%) GitHub Copilot
8 11 (1.06%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 10 (0.96%) Anthropic Claude
9 10 (0.96%) Azure Event Grid
10 8 (0.77%) Stripe
11 6 (0.58%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (0.48%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (0.48%) IaaS
13 4 (0.38%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 4 (0.38%) Amazon S3
14 3 (0.29%) Cloud Run
14 3 (0.29%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.64%) HTTP
1 17 (1.64%) RS-232
2 16 (1.54%) Ethernet
3 14 (1.35%) Multicast
4 6 (0.58%) Bluetooth
4 6 (0.58%) Wireless
5 5 (0.48%) Broadband
5 5 (0.48%) Modbus
6 3 (0.29%) Profibus
6 3 (0.29%) RS-485
6 3 (0.29%) ZigBee
7 1 (0.096%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (3.27%) SQL Server
2 27 (2.60%) NoSQL
3 22 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (1.44%) MongoDB
5 13 (1.25%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (0.96%) BigQuery
7 9 (0.87%) MySQL
8 5 (0.48%) Redis
8 5 (0.48%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.38%) Big Data
9 4 (0.38%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.38%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.29%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.19%) DB2
11 2 (0.19%) MariaDB
12 1 (0.096%) Amazon Athena
12 1 (0.096%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 38 (3.66%) Git
2 25 (2.41%) JIRA
3 20 (1.92%) TeamCity
4 12 (1.15%) GitLab
5 11 (1.06%) Jenkins
6 10 (0.96%) Claude Code
7 9 (0.87%) Visual Studio Code
8 4 (0.38%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.38%) JUnit
9 3 (0.29%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.29%) JBehave
10 2 (0.19%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.19%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.19%) GDB
10 2 (0.19%) Selenium
10 2 (0.19%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.19%) Xcode
11 1 (0.096%) Eclipse
11 1 (0.096%) NUnit
11 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio
General
1 161 (15.50%) Finance
2 68 (6.54%) Banking
3 45 (4.33%) Social Skills
4 23 (2.21%) Financial Institution
5 22 (2.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 22 (2.12%) Retail
6 20 (1.92%) Law
7 18 (1.73%) Electronics
8 17 (1.64%) Automotive
8 17 (1.64%) Back Office
8 17 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.44%) Manufacturing
10 14 (1.35%) Games
11 13 (1.25%) Public Sector
12 12 (1.15%) Tech for Good
13 8 (0.77%) Analytical Skills
13 8 (0.77%) Pharmaceutical
14 6 (0.58%) Aerospace
15 5 (0.48%) Agriculture
15 5 (0.48%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 138 (13.28%) .NET
2 92 (8.85%) React
3 51 (4.91%) Node.js
4 43 (4.14%) REST
5 35 (3.37%) RESTful
6 28 (2.69%) .NET Core
7 27 (2.60%) React Native
8 19 (1.83%) .NET Framework
9 14 (1.35%) Boost C++ Libraries
9 14 (1.35%) FIX Protocol
9 14 (1.35%) pytest
9 14 (1.35%) Yocto
10 13 (1.25%) Django
10 13 (1.25%) GraphQL
10 13 (1.25%) Ruby on Rails
10 13 (1.25%) Spring
10 13 (1.25%) WPF
11 12 (1.15%) AngularJS
11 12 (1.15%) Entity Framework
12 11 (1.06%) Dapper ORM
Miscellaneous
1 84 (8.08%) Cloud Native
2 35 (3.37%) Algorithms
3 29 (2.79%) Distributed Systems
4 28 (2.69%) Embedded Systems
5 18 (1.73%) Public Cloud
6 16 (1.54%) Derivative
7 15 (1.44%) Robotics
8 14 (1.35%) CAN bus
8 14 (1.35%) Device Driver
8 14 (1.35%) Equities
8 14 (1.35%) Fixed Income
8 14 (1.35%) IoT
9 12 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.87%) Sports Betting
12 7 (0.67%) Legacy Code
13 6 (0.58%) FMCG
13 6 (0.58%) Hedge funds
14 5 (0.48%) Blog
14 5 (0.48%) Mobile Payment
Operating Systems
1 82 (7.89%) Linux
2 27 (2.60%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.73%) Android
4 12 (1.15%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (0.58%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.19%) Windows
7 1 (0.096%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,023 (98.46%) Software Engineering
2 144 (13.86%) Agile
3 120 (11.55%) Full-Stack Development
4 108 (10.39%) CI/CD
5 98 (9.43%) Microservices
6 94 (9.05%) Mentoring
7 88 (8.47%) DevOps
8 72 (6.93%) Test Automation
9 66 (6.35%) Fintech
10 64 (6.16%) AI
11 62 (5.97%) Computer Science
12 59 (5.68%) Problem-Solving
13 54 (5.20%) SDLC
14 53 (5.10%) Technical Leadership
15 52 (5.00%) Containerisation
16 47 (4.52%) Scrum
17 40 (3.85%) Continuous Improvement
17 40 (3.85%) Embedded Software Development
17 40 (3.85%) Low Latency
18 36 (3.46%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 156 (15.01%) Java
2 140 (13.47%) C#
3 135 (12.99%) C++
4 109 (10.49%) Python
5 79 (7.60%) TypeScript
6 67 (6.45%) SQL
7 62 (5.97%) JavaScript
8 61 (5.87%) C
9 34 (3.27%) Rust
10 25 (2.41%) Go
11 19 (1.83%) PHP
12 18 (1.73%) Embedded C
13 16 (1.54%) Kotlin
14 13 (1.25%) Ruby
15 6 (0.58%) Scala
16 4 (0.38%) Delphi
16 4 (0.38%) VB
17 3 (0.29%) MATLAB
17 3 (0.29%) Swift
18 2 (0.19%) F#
Qualifications
1 60 (5.77%) Degree
2 41 (3.95%) Security Cleared
3 30 (2.89%) SC Cleared
4 25 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (1.83%) Master's Degree
6 12 (1.15%) DV Cleared
7 9 (0.87%) PhD
8 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.096%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (2.21%) QA
2 16 (1.54%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.54%) MISRA
2 16 (1.54%) MISRA C
3 7 (0.67%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.096%) ECSS
4 1 (0.096%) GDPR
4 1 (0.096%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 58 (5.58%) Docker
2 29 (2.79%) Firmware
3 12 (1.15%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.19%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.19%) KVM
5 2 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 83 (7.99%) Kubernetes
2 39 (3.75%) Terraform
3 21 (2.02%) Grafana
4 13 (1.25%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.48%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.19%) Ansible
6 2 (0.19%) Argo
7 1 (0.096%) Plesk
Vendors
1 14 (1.35%) Google
2 11 (1.06%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.77%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.19%) Adobe
4 2 (0.19%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.19%) SAP
4 2 (0.19%) VMware
5 1 (0.096%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.096%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.096%) New Relic
5 1 (0.096%) OpenAI