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 22 July 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 201 120
Rank change year-on-year +64 -81 +173
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,422 804 2,023
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.42% 1.63% 2.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.51% 1.82% 2.28%
Number of salaries quoted 1,155 472 1,461
10th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £56,250
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 £111,250 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £68,750 £60,000
% change year-on-year +1.82% +14.58% -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 94,464 44,263 88,687
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.30% 90.01% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 64,822 26,191 62,318
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year - +1.85% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,183
90th Percentile £96,000 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 +72 1,273 £75,000 -11.76% 414
UK excluding London +88 1,018 £70,000 +1.82% 205
London -18 328 £95,000 -9.52% 238
Work from Home -54 298 £70,000 -13.58% 143
South East +144 255 £77,500 +10.71% 37
North of England -15 241 £75,000 +2.04% 47
South West +48 183 £70,000 - 42
East of England +90 151 £70,000 +12.00% 37
North West -27 148 £75,000 - 33
Midlands +65 112 £67,500 -6.90% 24
West Midlands +35 66 £70,000 -5.08% 6
Yorkshire +8 62 £70,000 -6.67% 7
Scotland +3 49 £67,500 +3.85% 9
East Midlands +16 46 £65,000 -7.14% 18
North East -36 31 £90,000 +63.64% 7
Wales -41 24 £56,250 -13.46% 5
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 7

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

For the 6 months to 22 July 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 1,417 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 244 (17.16%) Python
3 243 (17.09%) C++
4 238 (16.74%) C#
5 198 (13.92%) Agile
6 194 (13.64%) AWS
7 192 (13.50%) Java
8 166 (11.67%) .NET
9 153 (10.76%) CI/CD
10 151 (10.62%) Full-Stack Development
11 139 (9.77%) AI
12 136 (9.56%) Mentoring
13 113 (7.95%) Azure
14 111 (7.81%) Linux
15 110 (7.74%) TypeScript
16 109 (7.67%) Microservices
17 107 (7.52%) React
18 103 (7.24%) DevOps
19 99 (6.96%) Security Cleared
20 98 (6.89%) JavaScript
21 93 (6.54%) Test Automation
22 91 (6.40%) SaaS
23 85 (5.98%) C
23 85 (5.98%) SQL
24 84 (5.91%) Degree
25 82 (5.77%) SDLC
26 78 (5.49%) Computer Science
27 77 (5.41%) Kubernetes
28 75 (5.27%) Docker
29 72 (5.06%) 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 (1.13%) SharePoint Server
2 4 (0.28%) Apache
3 3 (0.21%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.21%) WinCC
4 2 (0.14%) Confluence
5 1 (0.070%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.070%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Blender
1 3 (0.21%) Maya
2 1 (0.070%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 194 (13.64%) AWS
2 113 (7.95%) Azure
3 91 (6.40%) SaaS
4 56 (3.94%) GCP
5 36 (2.53%) GitHub
6 33 (2.32%) Serverless
7 24 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
8 18 (1.27%) Anthropic Claude
9 14 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (0.91%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 12 (0.84%) GitHub Copilot
12 9 (0.63%) Azure AKS
13 8 (0.56%) Amazon S3
14 7 (0.49%) AWS Lambda
14 7 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (0.35%) Amazon SQS
15 5 (0.35%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.35%) Pulumi
16 4 (0.28%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.28%) Supabase
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.62%) RS-232
2 16 (1.13%) Ethernet
3 15 (1.05%) Multicast
4 14 (0.98%) Modbus
5 13 (0.91%) Bluetooth
6 12 (0.84%) Profibus
6 12 (0.84%) Wireless
7 9 (0.63%) RS-485
7 9 (0.63%) ZigBee
8 8 (0.56%) HTTP
9 7 (0.49%) Broadband
10 1 (0.070%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (2.81%) PostgreSQL
2 26 (1.83%) MySQL
3 24 (1.69%) SQL Server
4 18 (1.27%) NoSQL
5 15 (1.05%) MongoDB
6 13 (0.91%) Redis
7 10 (0.70%) Big Data
8 8 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (0.56%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.28%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.28%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.21%) DocumentDB
12 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.21%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.14%) Hadoop
14 1 (0.070%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 60 (4.22%) Git
2 31 (2.18%) JIRA
3 27 (1.90%) GitLab
4 18 (1.27%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.20%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.91%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (0.63%) Jenkins
8 4 (0.28%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.21%) Eclipse RCP
9 3 (0.21%) NUnit
9 3 (0.21%) Rational Rhapsody
9 3 (0.21%) Selenium
9 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.14%) GDB
10 2 (0.14%) Jasmine
10 2 (0.14%) Mocha
10 2 (0.14%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.070%) GoogleTest
11 1 (0.070%) Yeoman
General
1 115 (8.09%) Finance
2 70 (4.92%) Social Skills
3 63 (4.43%) Electronics
4 51 (3.59%) Banking
5 43 (3.02%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.53%) Analytical Skills
6 36 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 35 (2.46%) Public Sector
8 21 (1.48%) Law
8 21 (1.48%) Retail
9 15 (1.05%) Automotive
10 14 (0.98%) Back Office
10 14 (0.98%) Financial Institution
11 11 (0.77%) Military
12 9 (0.63%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (0.56%) Aerospace
13 8 (0.56%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (0.49%) Billing
14 7 (0.49%) Games
14 7 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 166 (11.67%) .NET
2 107 (7.52%) React
3 72 (5.06%) Node.js
4 48 (3.38%) WPF
5 38 (2.67%) Spring
6 31 (2.18%) RESTful
7 29 (2.04%) REST
8 28 (1.97%) Spring Boot
9 26 (1.83%) Next.js
10 18 (1.27%) AngularJS
11 16 (1.13%) Vue
12 15 (1.05%) .NET Core
12 15 (1.05%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 15 (1.05%) FastAPI
12 15 (1.05%) FIX Protocol
12 15 (1.05%) pytest
12 15 (1.05%) React Native
13 14 (0.98%) Django
13 14 (0.98%) Ruby on Rails
13 14 (0.98%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 101 (7.10%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.66%) Legacy Systems
3 51 (3.59%) Algorithms
4 43 (3.02%) Distributed Systems
5 33 (2.32%) Robotics
6 32 (2.25%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (2.04%) Greenfield Project
8 17 (1.20%) Derivative
8 17 (1.20%) Device Driver
8 17 (1.20%) Product Ownership
9 15 (1.05%) Equities
9 15 (1.05%) Fixed Income
10 13 (0.91%) AI Agents
11 11 (0.77%) Client/Server
11 11 (0.77%) Public Cloud
12 10 (0.70%) IoT
12 10 (0.70%) Legacy Applications
13 9 (0.63%) Renewable Energy
14 8 (0.56%) Cyber Threat
15 7 (0.49%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 111 (7.81%) Linux
2 29 (2.04%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.34%) FreeRTOS
4 15 (1.05%) Windows
5 5 (0.35%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.21%) Unix
7 2 (0.14%) Android
8 1 (0.070%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,417 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 198 (13.92%) Agile
3 153 (10.76%) CI/CD
4 151 (10.62%) Full-Stack Development
5 139 (9.77%) AI
6 136 (9.56%) Mentoring
7 109 (7.67%) Microservices
8 103 (7.24%) DevOps
9 93 (6.54%) Test Automation
10 82 (5.77%) SDLC
11 78 (5.49%) Computer Science
12 70 (4.92%) Problem-Solving
13 68 (4.78%) Code Quality
14 62 (4.36%) Technical Leadership
15 61 (4.29%) Fintech
16 58 (4.08%) Continuous Improvement
17 48 (3.38%) Containerisation
18 46 (3.23%) Software Testing
19 42 (2.95%) Mathematics
19 42 (2.95%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 244 (17.16%) Python
2 243 (17.09%) C++
3 238 (16.74%) C#
4 192 (13.50%) Java
5 110 (7.74%) TypeScript
6 98 (6.89%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.98%) C
7 85 (5.98%) SQL
8 51 (3.59%) Rust
9 24 (1.69%) Go
10 21 (1.48%) Embedded C
11 15 (1.05%) Scala
12 14 (0.98%) Ruby
13 13 (0.91%) F#
13 13 (0.91%) Haskell
13 13 (0.91%) PHP
14 11 (0.77%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.70%) Julia
16 8 (0.56%) R
16 8 (0.56%) VB
Qualifications
1 99 (6.96%) Security Cleared
2 84 (5.91%) Degree
3 70 (4.92%) SC Cleared
4 46 (3.23%) DV Cleared
5 24 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.27%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.77%) PhD
8 3 (0.21%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.21%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.070%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (2.74%) QA
2 12 (0.84%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.42%) IEC 61508
3 6 (0.42%) MISRA
3 6 (0.42%) MISRA C
4 5 (0.35%) GDPR
5 3 (0.21%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.070%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 75 (5.27%) Docker
2 49 (3.45%) Firmware
3 22 (1.55%) Embedded Firmware
4 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.14%) KVM
4 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.070%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 77 (5.41%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.23%) Terraform
3 21 (1.48%) Grafana
4 6 (0.42%) Ansible
4 6 (0.42%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.21%) Functional Safety
5 3 (0.21%) Plesk
6 2 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 16 (1.13%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.56%) Siemens
3 6 (0.42%) Google
3 6 (0.42%) Splunk
4 5 (0.35%) Databricks
4 5 (0.35%) Intel
4 5 (0.35%) OpenAI
5 4 (0.28%) Foundry
6 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.14%) ADVA
7 2 (0.14%) VMware
8 1 (0.070%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.070%) Oracle
8 1 (0.070%) Palantir
8 1 (0.070%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.070%) TOWER Software