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 23 June 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 198 128
Rank change year-on-year +60 -70 +162
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,346 786 2,251
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.42% 1.74% 2.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.51% 1.95% 2.18%
Number of salaries quoted 1,094 455 1,644
10th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £80,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +23.08% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £105,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £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 89,062 40,399 103,075
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.02% 89.44% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 61,111 23,040 74,444
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,750 £38,567
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 £98,474 £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 23 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 23 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 +65 1,187 £75,000 -6.25% 204
UK excluding London +83 950 £70,000 +3.70% 158
London -11 324 £95,000 -5.00% 66
Work from Home -34 310 £70,000 -11.84% 70
South East +142 242 £75,000 +15.38% 44
North of England -19 236 £75,000 +3.45% 30
South West +50 160 £70,000 -9.68% 23
North West -22 143 £75,000 +0.33% 19
East of England +57 113 £70,000 +18.64% 38
Midlands +48 107 £65,000 -10.34% 14
West Midlands +31 69 £68,403 -7.25% 6
Scotland +17 69 £67,500 +3.85% 2
Yorkshire +12 63 £70,000 -12.50% 2
East Midlands +10 38 £65,000 -7.14% 8
North East -38 30 £85,000 +54.55% 9
Wales -28 22 £56,250 -13.46% 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 7

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

For the 6 months to 23 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 1,341 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 222 (16.49%) C++
3 220 (16.34%) C#
4 207 (15.38%) Python
5 192 (14.26%) AWS
5 192 (14.26%) Java
6 189 (14.04%) Agile
7 174 (12.93%) .NET
8 151 (11.22%) Full-Stack Development
9 140 (10.40%) CI/CD
10 118 (8.77%) Mentoring
10 118 (8.77%) Microservices
11 108 (8.02%) Azure
12 104 (7.73%) Linux
13 103 (7.65%) React
14 102 (7.58%) AI
15 101 (7.50%) TypeScript
16 97 (7.21%) DevOps
17 93 (6.91%) SaaS
18 90 (6.69%) JavaScript
19 88 (6.54%) Security Cleared
20 87 (6.46%) SQL
21 86 (6.39%) Test Automation
22 84 (6.24%) Kubernetes
23 83 (6.17%) Computer Science
23 83 (6.17%) SDLC
24 82 (6.09%) C
25 80 (5.94%) Degree
26 76 (5.65%) Docker
27 71 (5.27%) 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 (1.19%) SharePoint Server
2 3 (0.22%) Apache
2 3 (0.22%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
2 3 (0.22%) WinCC
3 2 (0.15%) CMS
3 2 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (0.22%) Blender
1 3 (0.22%) Maya
Cloud Services
1 192 (14.26%) AWS
2 108 (8.02%) Azure
3 93 (6.91%) SaaS
4 53 (3.94%) GCP
5 36 (2.67%) GitHub
6 32 (2.38%) Serverless
7 23 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
8 17 (1.26%) Anthropic Claude
8 17 (1.26%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 14 (1.04%) Azure AKS
10 13 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.89%) GitHub Copilot
12 8 (0.59%) Azure Event Grid
13 6 (0.45%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (0.37%) Amazon S3
14 5 (0.37%) Pulumi
15 4 (0.30%) Azure AI
15 4 (0.30%) Dynamics 365
15 4 (0.30%) GitHub Actions
15 4 (0.30%) Stripe
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.71%) RS-232
2 17 (1.26%) Ethernet
2 17 (1.26%) Multicast
3 13 (0.97%) Modbus
4 12 (0.89%) Bluetooth
5 11 (0.82%) Broadband
5 11 (0.82%) Profibus
5 11 (0.82%) Wireless
6 10 (0.74%) HTTP
7 8 (0.59%) RS-485
7 8 (0.59%) ZigBee
8 1 (0.074%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.15%) SQL Server
2 23 (1.71%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (1.63%) MySQL
4 20 (1.49%) NoSQL
5 12 (0.89%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
7 7 (0.52%) Big Data
8 5 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
8 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.30%) Delta Lake
9 4 (0.30%) Redis
10 3 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.22%) DocumentDB
10 3 (0.22%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.22%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.22%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.15%) BigQuery
12 1 (0.074%) Db2
Development Applications
1 59 (4.38%) Git
2 30 (2.23%) JIRA
3 24 (1.78%) GitLab
4 22 (1.63%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.26%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.97%) Visual Studio Code
7 10 (0.74%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.22%) Eclipse
8 3 (0.22%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.15%) Eclipse RCP
9 2 (0.15%) GDB
9 2 (0.15%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.074%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.074%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.074%) JUnit
10 1 (0.074%) LabVIEW
10 1 (0.074%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 139 (10.33%) Finance
2 62 (4.61%) Social Skills
3 61 (4.53%) Banking
4 46 (3.42%) Electronics
5 33 (2.45%) Manufacturing
5 33 (2.45%) Public Sector
6 32 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 27 (2.01%) Analytical Skills
8 21 (1.56%) Retail
9 20 (1.49%) Automotive
9 20 (1.49%) Law
10 14 (1.04%) Back Office
10 14 (1.04%) Financial Institution
11 12 (0.89%) Aerospace
11 12 (0.89%) Games
11 12 (0.89%) Tech for Good
12 10 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
13 8 (0.59%) Military
13 8 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 174 (12.93%) .NET
2 103 (7.65%) React
3 71 (5.27%) Node.js
4 42 (3.12%) WPF
5 37 (2.75%) REST
6 36 (2.67%) Spring
7 35 (2.60%) RESTful
8 27 (2.01%) Spring Boot
9 23 (1.71%) .NET Core
10 22 (1.63%) Next.js
11 20 (1.49%) React Native
12 18 (1.34%) AngularJS
12 18 (1.34%) Ruby on Rails
13 17 (1.26%) Boost C++ Libraries
13 17 (1.26%) FIX Protocol
13 17 (1.26%) pytest
14 16 (1.19%) .NET Framework
15 15 (1.11%) Vue
15 15 (1.11%) Yocto
16 13 (0.97%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 92 (6.84%) Cloud Native
2 55 (4.09%) Algorithms
3 49 (3.64%) Legacy Systems
4 36 (2.67%) Embedded Systems
5 34 (2.53%) Distributed Systems
6 31 (2.30%) Greenfield Project
7 18 (1.34%) Derivative
8 17 (1.26%) Equities
8 17 (1.26%) Fixed Income
9 16 (1.19%) IoT
10 15 (1.11%) Device Driver
10 15 (1.11%) Robotics
11 13 (0.97%) Product Ownership
12 12 (0.89%) AI Agents
13 11 (0.82%) CAN bus
14 10 (0.74%) Public Cloud
15 9 (0.67%) Client/Server
15 9 (0.67%) Sports Betting
16 8 (0.59%) Legacy Applications
16 8 (0.59%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 104 (7.73%) Linux
2 31 (2.30%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.34%) FreeRTOS
4 9 (0.67%) Windows
5 8 (0.59%) Android
6 3 (0.22%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.074%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,341 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 189 (14.04%) Agile
3 151 (11.22%) Full-Stack Development
4 140 (10.40%) CI/CD
5 118 (8.77%) Mentoring
5 118 (8.77%) Microservices
6 102 (7.58%) AI
7 97 (7.21%) DevOps
8 86 (6.39%) Test Automation
9 83 (6.17%) Computer Science
9 83 (6.17%) SDLC
10 62 (4.61%) Problem-Solving
11 60 (4.46%) Fintech
12 58 (4.31%) Containerisation
13 56 (4.16%) Code Quality
14 55 (4.09%) Technical Leadership
15 52 (3.86%) Continuous Improvement
16 47 (3.49%) Mathematics
17 44 (3.27%) Scrum
18 41 (3.05%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 222 (16.49%) C++
2 220 (16.34%) C#
3 207 (15.38%) Python
4 192 (14.26%) Java
5 101 (7.50%) TypeScript
6 90 (6.69%) JavaScript
7 87 (6.46%) SQL
8 82 (6.09%) C
9 47 (3.49%) Rust
10 26 (1.93%) Go
11 20 (1.49%) Embedded C
12 18 (1.34%) Ruby
13 17 (1.26%) PHP
14 13 (0.97%) Scala
15 10 (0.74%) Julia
15 10 (0.74%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.74%) VB
16 8 (0.59%) F#
16 8 (0.59%) Haskell
16 8 (0.59%) R
Qualifications
1 88 (6.54%) Security Cleared
2 80 (5.94%) Degree
3 67 (4.98%) SC Cleared
4 37 (2.75%) DV Cleared
5 25 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (1.56%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.04%) PhD
8 3 (0.22%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.15%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.074%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (2.45%) QA
2 12 (0.89%) Accessibility
2 12 (0.89%) IEC 61508
2 12 (0.89%) MISRA
2 12 (0.89%) MISRA C
3 5 (0.37%) GDPR
4 3 (0.22%) DO-178B
4 3 (0.22%) IEC 61131
5 1 (0.074%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (5.65%) Docker
2 48 (3.57%) Firmware
3 21 (1.56%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.15%) KVM
4 2 (0.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.074%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 84 (6.24%) Kubernetes
2 45 (3.34%) Terraform
3 21 (1.56%) Grafana
4 9 (0.67%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.45%) Ansible
6 5 (0.37%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.22%) Plesk
Vendors
1 10 (0.74%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.59%) Siemens
3 7 (0.52%) Google
4 6 (0.45%) Splunk
5 4 (0.30%) Databricks
5 4 (0.30%) HubSpot
5 4 (0.30%) OpenAI
6 3 (0.22%) Foundry
6 3 (0.22%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.15%) Intel
7 2 (0.15%) VMware
8 1 (0.074%) Palantir
8 1 (0.074%) TOWER Software