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 27 March 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 197 209 167
Rank change year-on-year +12 -42 +105
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 857 611 1,558
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.10% 1.51% 1.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.20% 1.67% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 654 525 1,136
10th Percentile £57,725 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year - +15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £100,625
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -3.85%

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 71,448 36,544 83,806
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.09% 90.03% 94.60%
Number of salaries quoted 45,655 22,888 63,388
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,574 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -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 27 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Software Engineer in the UK

Senior Software Engineer
Top 16 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 27 March 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 +23 728 £75,000 - 239
UK excluding London +22 545 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +30 269 £100,000 +11.11% 82
Work from Home -43 256 £72,500 +2.47% 116
South East +10 126 £70,000 +7.69% 62
South West +37 117 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -42 108 £75,000 +15.38% 32
Scotland -8 85 £68,750 +5.77% 18
East of England -18 55 £70,000 +3.70% 21
North West -32 55 £75,000 +15.38% 19
Midlands +2 44 £65,000 -10.34% 22
Yorkshire -39 40 £75,000 -12.03% 10
West Midlands +4 23 £65,000 -7.14% 17
East Midlands -28 21 £65,000 -13.33% 5
North East -30 13 £75,000 +36.36% 3
Wales -23 10 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 27 March 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.

1 840 (98.02%) Software Engineering
2 150 (17.50%) Java
3 137 (15.99%) AWS
4 127 (14.82%) Agile
5 125 (14.59%) .NET
6 113 (13.19%) C#
7 107 (12.49%) C++
8 104 (12.14%) CI/CD
9 100 (11.67%) Full-Stack Development
10 93 (10.85%) Microservices
11 87 (10.15%) Azure
11 87 (10.15%) Python
12 82 (9.57%) Kubernetes
12 82 (9.57%) Mentoring
13 75 (8.75%) DevOps
14 73 (8.52%) React
15 71 (8.28%) Linux
16 67 (7.82%) SaaS
17 65 (7.58%) Test Automation
18 63 (7.35%) TypeScript
19 60 (7.00%) SQL
20 59 (6.88%) Fintech
21 55 (6.42%) GCP
22 53 (6.18%) Computer Science
22 53 (6.18%) Degree
22 53 (6.18%) JavaScript
22 53 (6.18%) Problem-Solving
23 52 (6.07%) AI
24 48 (5.60%) Docker
25 46 (5.37%) Containerisation

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 3 (0.35%) Apache
1 3 (0.35%) CMS
2 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.23%) Apache Solr
3 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 137 (15.99%) AWS
2 87 (10.15%) Azure
3 67 (7.82%) SaaS
4 55 (6.42%) GCP
5 34 (3.97%) GitHub
6 18 (2.10%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (1.98%) Azure AKS
8 11 (1.28%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 11 (1.28%) GitHub Copilot
9 10 (1.17%) Anthropic Claude
9 10 (1.17%) Azure Event Grid
9 10 (1.17%) Serverless
10 8 (0.93%) Stripe
11 6 (0.70%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (0.47%) Amazon S3
14 3 (0.35%) AWS Lambda
14 3 (0.35%) Cloud Run
14 3 (0.35%) Firebase
14 3 (0.35%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.63%) Multicast
2 12 (1.40%) RS-232
3 11 (1.28%) Ethernet
3 11 (1.28%) HTTP
4 5 (0.58%) Broadband
5 3 (0.35%) Wireless
6 1 (0.12%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.12%) LTE
6 1 (0.12%) Modbus
6 1 (0.12%) Profibus
6 1 (0.12%) RS-485
6 1 (0.12%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (3.97%) SQL Server
2 23 (2.68%) NoSQL
3 20 (2.33%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.52%) MongoDB
5 11 (1.28%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.17%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.82%) MySQL
8 6 (0.70%) Redis
9 5 (0.58%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.35%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.35%) Big Data
10 3 (0.35%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.23%) Apache Arrow
11 2 (0.23%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.23%) Apache Ignite
11 2 (0.23%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.23%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.23%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.23%) Dremio
11 2 (0.23%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 28 (3.27%) Git
2 23 (2.68%) JIRA
3 20 (2.33%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.17%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.17%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.82%) GitLab
6 4 (0.47%) JUnit
7 3 (0.35%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.35%) JBehave
7 3 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.23%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.23%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.23%) Xcode
9 1 (0.12%) NUnit
9 1 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.12%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.12%) Selenium
9 1 (0.12%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
General
1 150 (17.50%) Finance
2 60 (7.00%) Banking
3 38 (4.43%) Social Skills
4 26 (3.03%) Retail
5 24 (2.80%) Financial Institution
6 20 (2.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 20 (2.33%) Law
7 18 (2.10%) Games
8 17 (1.98%) Back Office
9 12 (1.40%) Public Sector
9 12 (1.40%) Tech for Good
10 11 (1.28%) Automotive
10 11 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
11 9 (1.05%) Manufacturing
12 7 (0.82%) Analytical Skills
13 6 (0.70%) Electronics
14 5 (0.58%) Aerospace
14 5 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (0.58%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.47%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 125 (14.59%) .NET
2 73 (8.52%) React
3 36 (4.20%) Node.js
3 36 (4.20%) RESTful
4 35 (4.08%) REST
5 26 (3.03%) .NET Core
6 25 (2.92%) React Native
7 19 (2.22%) .NET Framework
8 15 (1.75%) GraphQL
9 14 (1.63%) Boost C++ Libraries
9 14 (1.63%) FIX Protocol
9 14 (1.63%) pytest
10 13 (1.52%) Django
10 13 (1.52%) Ruby on Rails
10 13 (1.52%) Spring
11 12 (1.40%) Entity Framework
12 11 (1.28%) AngularJS
12 11 (1.28%) Dapper ORM
12 11 (1.28%) Spring Boot
12 11 (1.28%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 77 (8.98%) Cloud Native
2 31 (3.62%) Distributed Systems
3 25 (2.92%) Algorithms
4 22 (2.57%) Embedded Systems
5 17 (1.98%) Derivative
6 16 (1.87%) Equities
6 16 (1.87%) Fixed Income
7 14 (1.63%) IoT
8 12 (1.40%) Greenfield Project
8 12 (1.40%) Public Cloud
8 12 (1.40%) Robotics
9 11 (1.28%) CAN bus
9 11 (1.28%) Device Driver
10 10 (1.17%) Legacy Code
11 9 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.05%) Sports Betting
12 7 (0.82%) Blog
13 6 (0.70%) Hedge funds
14 5 (0.58%) Data Structures
15 4 (0.47%) Over-the-Top Content
Operating Systems
1 71 (8.28%) Linux
2 23 (2.68%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.10%) Android
4 6 (0.70%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.12%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 840 (98.02%) Software Engineering
2 127 (14.82%) Agile
3 104 (12.14%) CI/CD
4 100 (11.67%) Full-Stack Development
5 93 (10.85%) Microservices
6 82 (9.57%) Mentoring
7 75 (8.75%) DevOps
8 65 (7.58%) Test Automation
9 59 (6.88%) Fintech
10 53 (6.18%) Computer Science
10 53 (6.18%) Problem-Solving
11 52 (6.07%) AI
12 46 (5.37%) Containerisation
13 45 (5.25%) SDLC
13 45 (5.25%) Technical Leadership
14 37 (4.32%) Scrum
15 35 (4.08%) Low Latency
16 34 (3.97%) Continuous Improvement
17 32 (3.73%) Clean Code
18 29 (3.38%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 150 (17.50%) Java
2 113 (13.19%) C#
3 107 (12.49%) C++
4 87 (10.15%) Python
5 63 (7.35%) TypeScript
6 60 (7.00%) SQL
7 53 (6.18%) JavaScript
8 42 (4.90%) C
9 29 (3.38%) Rust
10 27 (3.15%) Go
11 19 (2.22%) Kotlin
12 17 (1.98%) PHP
13 13 (1.52%) Ruby
14 11 (1.28%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.58%) Delphi
16 4 (0.47%) Scala
16 4 (0.47%) VB
17 3 (0.35%) Swift
18 1 (0.12%) Bash
18 1 (0.12%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 53 (6.18%) Degree
2 30 (3.50%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.80%) Computer Science Degree
4 23 (2.68%) SC Cleared
5 18 (2.10%) Master's Degree
6 8 (0.93%) PhD
7 7 (0.82%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.12%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (2.80%) QA
2 13 (1.52%) IEC 61508
2 13 (1.52%) MISRA
2 13 (1.52%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.70%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.12%) ECSS
4 1 (0.12%) GDPR
4 1 (0.12%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 48 (5.60%) Docker
2 17 (1.98%) Firmware
3 5 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.47%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.23%) Embedded Firmware
5 2 (0.23%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.23%) KVM
5 2 (0.23%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 82 (9.57%) Kubernetes
2 38 (4.43%) Terraform
3 17 (1.98%) Grafana
4 11 (1.28%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.23%) Ansible
5 2 (0.23%) Argo
6 1 (0.12%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 12 (1.40%) Google
2 9 (1.05%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.93%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.23%) Adobe
4 2 (0.23%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.23%) SAP
4 2 (0.23%) VMware
5 1 (0.12%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.12%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.12%) New Relic