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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 211 106
Rank change year-on-year +87 -105 +183
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,609 763 1,918
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.47% 1.53% 2.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.57% 1.70% 2.42%
Number of salaries quoted 1,253 430 1,356
10th Percentile £57,500 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,000 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +29.84% -3.02%
75th Percentile £90,000 £115,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £122,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% -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 102,724 44,889 79,411
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.88% 89.80% 95.11%
Number of salaries quoted 70,515 26,591 51,705
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £74,258 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -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 August 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 August 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 +76 1,443 £75,000 -16.67% 1,004
UK excluding London +106 1,122 £70,000 - 443
London +1 399 £95,000 -11.63% 650
Work from Home -68 298 £80,000 -6.16% 379
North of England -3 287 £75,000 +7.14% 96
South East +129 243 £80,000 +14.29% 82
South West +50 214 £70,000 +7.69% 52
North West -29 175 £75,000 +3.81% 77
East of England +91 171 £70,000 +7.69% 88
Midlands +72 123 £70,000 -5.08% 42
West Midlands +29 72 £70,000 -6.67% 12
Yorkshire +9 66 £70,000 -8.98% 12
East Midlands +18 51 £62,500 -10.71% 30
North East -19 46 £85,000 +750.00% 7
Scotland 0 45 £70,000 +7.69% 65
Wales -42 36 £66,000 +1.54% 8
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 16

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

For the 6 months to 28 August 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 1,603 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 265 (16.47%) Python
3 248 (15.41%) C#
4 232 (14.42%) C++
5 231 (14.36%) Agile
6 222 (13.80%) Java
7 213 (13.24%) AWS
8 193 (12.00%) CI/CD
9 176 (10.94%) Mentoring
10 170 (10.57%) AI
11 166 (10.32%) .NET
12 155 (9.63%) Full-Stack Development
13 129 (8.02%) TypeScript
14 123 (7.64%) DevOps
15 122 (7.58%) Microservices
16 117 (7.27%) React
17 110 (6.84%) Linux
18 108 (6.71%) Azure
19 107 (6.65%) Security Cleared
20 101 (6.28%) Test Automation
21 98 (6.09%) JavaScript
22 88 (5.47%) SDLC
22 88 (5.47%) Technical Leadership
23 85 (5.28%) Problem-Solving
23 85 (5.28%) SQL
24 83 (5.16%) Code Quality
25 82 (5.10%) SaaS
26 81 (5.03%) Degree
27 79 (4.91%) Node.js
28 78 (4.85%) C

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 (0.99%) SharePoint Server
2 7 (0.44%) Apache
3 4 (0.25%) Confluence
4 3 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.19%) WinCC
5 2 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.12%) Apache Solr
5 2 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
5 2 (0.12%) CMS
6 1 (0.062%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) Blender
1 3 (0.19%) Maya
2 1 (0.062%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 213 (13.24%) AWS
2 108 (6.71%) Azure
3 82 (5.10%) SaaS
4 64 (3.98%) GCP
5 42 (2.61%) GitHub
6 37 (2.30%) Serverless
7 22 (1.37%) Amazon EKS
8 20 (1.24%) Anthropic Claude
8 20 (1.24%) GitHub Copilot
9 17 (1.06%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (0.75%) AWS Lambda
11 10 (0.62%) Amazon S3
11 10 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (0.50%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 6 (0.37%) Amazon SQS
13 6 (0.37%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (0.37%) Supabase
14 5 (0.31%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.31%) Dynamics 365
15 4 (0.25%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.18%) RS-232
2 14 (0.87%) Modbus
3 13 (0.81%) Bluetooth
4 12 (0.75%) Ethernet
4 12 (0.75%) Profibus
4 12 (0.75%) Wireless
5 11 (0.68%) Multicast
6 9 (0.56%) RS-485
6 9 (0.56%) ZigBee
7 8 (0.50%) HTTP
8 7 (0.44%) Broadband
9 4 (0.25%) Firewall
9 4 (0.25%) TCP/IP
10 1 (0.062%) BGP
10 1 (0.062%) DNS
10 1 (0.062%) LTE
10 1 (0.062%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (3.79%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (2.05%) MySQL
3 28 (1.74%) Relational Database
4 20 (1.24%) MongoDB
5 18 (1.12%) NoSQL
5 18 (1.12%) Redis
6 16 (0.99%) SQL Server
7 10 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
8 9 (0.56%) Big Data
8 9 (0.56%) DynamoDB
9 6 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.31%) Geospatial Data
11 4 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.25%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.12%) DocumentDB
13 2 (0.12%) Flink
13 2 (0.12%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.12%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 58 (3.60%) Git
2 29 (1.80%) JIRA
3 26 (1.62%) GitLab
4 19 (1.18%) Claude Code
5 15 (0.93%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.68%) Jenkins
7 10 (0.62%) Visual Studio Code
8 6 (0.37%) Mocha
8 6 (0.37%) Selenium
9 5 (0.31%) Jasmine
9 5 (0.31%) NUnit
10 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
10 4 (0.25%) Visual Studio
11 3 (0.19%) Eclipse RCP
11 3 (0.19%) JUnit
11 3 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
12 2 (0.12%) CMake
12 2 (0.12%) GDB
General
1 148 (9.20%) Finance
2 111 (6.90%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.16%) Electronics
4 55 (3.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 49 (3.05%) Banking
6 44 (2.73%) Manufacturing
6 44 (2.73%) Public Sector
7 40 (2.49%) Analytical Skills
8 35 (2.18%) Law
9 21 (1.31%) Aerospace
10 20 (1.24%) Retail
11 17 (1.06%) Marketing
12 13 (0.81%) Automotive
12 13 (0.81%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.75%) Military
14 10 (0.62%) Back Office
14 10 (0.62%) Games
14 10 (0.62%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
16 7 (0.44%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 166 (10.32%) .NET
2 117 (7.27%) React
3 79 (4.91%) Node.js
4 60 (3.73%) Spring
4 60 (3.73%) Terraform
5 49 (3.05%) WPF
6 40 (2.49%) RESTful
7 37 (2.30%) Spring Boot
8 34 (2.11%) Kafka
9 28 (1.74%) Next.js
9 28 (1.74%) REST
10 23 (1.43%) AngularJS
11 18 (1.12%) FastAPI
11 18 (1.12%) React Native
12 17 (1.06%) Django
13 16 (0.99%) Vue
14 14 (0.87%) CSS
15 13 (0.81%) .NET Core
15 13 (0.81%) FIX Protocol
16 12 (0.75%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 115 (7.15%) Cloud Native
2 57 (3.54%) Distributed Systems
3 55 (3.42%) Legacy Systems
4 47 (2.92%) Algorithms
5 36 (2.24%) Robotics
6 34 (2.11%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.80%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (1.37%) AI Agents
8 22 (1.37%) Product Ownership
9 20 (1.24%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.93%) Blockchain
10 15 (0.93%) Blog
11 14 (0.87%) Derivative
12 13 (0.81%) Device Driver
12 13 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (0.75%) Fixed Income
13 12 (0.75%) Virtual Team
14 11 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
14 11 (0.68%) Equities
14 11 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 110 (6.84%) Linux
2 29 (1.80%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.18%) FreeRTOS
3 19 (1.18%) Windows
4 8 (0.50%) Unix
5 5 (0.31%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.19%) Android
7 1 (0.062%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,603 (99.63%) Software Engineering
2 231 (14.36%) Agile
3 193 (12.00%) CI/CD
4 176 (10.94%) Mentoring
5 170 (10.57%) AI
6 155 (9.63%) Full-Stack Development
7 123 (7.64%) DevOps
8 122 (7.58%) Microservices
9 101 (6.28%) Test Automation
10 88 (5.47%) SDLC
10 88 (5.47%) Technical Leadership
11 85 (5.28%) Problem-Solving
12 83 (5.16%) Code Quality
13 72 (4.47%) Fintech
14 70 (4.35%) Computer Science
15 66 (4.10%) Continuous Improvement
16 56 (3.48%) Machine Learning
17 52 (3.23%) Infrastructure as Code
18 51 (3.17%) Containerisation
18 51 (3.17%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 265 (16.47%) Python
2 248 (15.41%) C#
3 232 (14.42%) C++
4 222 (13.80%) Java
5 129 (8.02%) TypeScript
6 98 (6.09%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.28%) SQL
8 78 (4.85%) C
9 44 (2.73%) Rust
10 35 (2.18%) Go
11 19 (1.18%) Embedded C
12 16 (0.99%) Scala
13 15 (0.93%) Ruby
14 13 (0.81%) F#
14 13 (0.81%) Haskell
14 13 (0.81%) PHP
15 11 (0.68%) Kotlin
15 11 (0.68%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.62%) Julia
17 8 (0.50%) R
Qualifications
1 107 (6.65%) Security Cleared
2 81 (5.03%) Degree
3 73 (4.54%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.36%) DV Cleared
5 23 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (1.06%) Master's Degree
7 11 (0.68%) PhD
8 8 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.37%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.12%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.12%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.062%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.062%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (2.36%) QA
2 18 (1.12%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.37%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.31%) GDPR
4 5 (0.31%) IEC 61508
4 5 (0.31%) MISRA
4 5 (0.31%) MISRA C
5 4 (0.25%) DO-178B
6 3 (0.19%) IEC 61131
7 2 (0.12%) SLA
8 1 (0.062%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (4.72%) Docker
2 58 (3.60%) Firmware
3 22 (1.37%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.062%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 76 (4.72%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.06%) Grafana
3 10 (0.62%) Ansible
4 5 (0.31%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.19%) Plesk
6 2 (0.12%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.12%) kaniko
6 2 (0.12%) Puppet
7 1 (0.062%) Argo
7 1 (0.062%) Istio
7 1 (0.062%) Kibana
Vendors
1 21 (1.31%) Microsoft
2 13 (0.81%) Salesforce
3 11 (0.68%) Google
4 9 (0.56%) Splunk
5 8 (0.50%) Siemens
6 7 (0.44%) Databricks
7 6 (0.37%) Oracle
8 5 (0.31%) Intel
8 5 (0.31%) OpenAI
9 4 (0.25%) Foundry
9 4 (0.25%) Sage
10 3 (0.19%) Atlassian
10 3 (0.19%) New Relic
10 3 (0.19%) RedGate
10 3 (0.19%) Revolut
10 3 (0.19%) Rockwell
11 2 (0.12%) ADVA
11 2 (0.12%) Okta
12 1 (0.062%) Palantir
12 1 (0.062%) Virgin Media