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 30 March 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 210 164
Rank change year-on-year +10 -46 +112
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 879 621 1,594
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.12% 1.51% 1.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.22% 1.67% 1.89%
Number of salaries quoted 665 535 1,150
10th Percentile £57,800 £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 £97,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,250 £100,125
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 72,225 37,083 84,557
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.12% 90.02% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 46,541 23,357 63,723
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,573
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £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 £79,045 £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 30 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 30 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 +19 746 £75,000 - 239
UK excluding London +22 559 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +32 274 £100,000 +9.59% 82
Work from Home -50 258 £72,500 +0.69% 116
South East +19 129 £70,000 +7.69% 62
South West +28 120 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -45 109 £75,000 +15.38% 32
Scotland -6 86 £68,750 +5.77% 18
East of England -20 58 £70,000 +3.70% 21
North West -35 56 £75,000 +15.38% 19
Midlands +8 47 £65,000 -10.34% 22
Yorkshire -34 40 £75,000 -12.03% 10
West Midlands +5 25 £65,000 -7.14% 17
East Midlands -19 22 £65,000 -13.33% 5
North East -20 13 £75,000 +36.36% 3
Wales -24 10 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 862 (98.07%) Software Engineering
2 152 (17.29%) Java
3 139 (15.81%) AWS
4 129 (14.68%) Agile
5 126 (14.33%) .NET
6 115 (13.08%) C#
7 110 (12.51%) C++
8 104 (11.83%) CI/CD
8 104 (11.83%) Full-Stack Development
9 94 (10.69%) Microservices
10 88 (10.01%) Azure
10 88 (10.01%) Python
11 84 (9.56%) Mentoring
12 83 (9.44%) Kubernetes
13 76 (8.65%) DevOps
14 75 (8.53%) React
15 71 (8.08%) Linux
16 69 (7.85%) SaaS
17 66 (7.51%) Test Automation
18 64 (7.28%) TypeScript
19 60 (6.83%) SQL
20 59 (6.71%) Fintech
21 56 (6.37%) GCP
22 55 (6.26%) JavaScript
23 54 (6.14%) AI
24 53 (6.03%) Computer Science
24 53 (6.03%) Degree
24 53 (6.03%) Problem-Solving
25 49 (5.57%) Docker
26 47 (5.35%) 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 (0.34%) Apache
1 3 (0.34%) CMS
2 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.23%) Apache Solr
3 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 139 (15.81%) AWS
2 88 (10.01%) Azure
3 69 (7.85%) SaaS
4 56 (6.37%) GCP
5 35 (3.98%) GitHub
6 18 (2.05%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (1.93%) Azure AKS
8 12 (1.37%) GitHub Copilot
9 11 (1.25%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 10 (1.14%) Anthropic Claude
10 10 (1.14%) Azure Event Grid
10 10 (1.14%) Serverless
11 8 (0.91%) Stripe
12 6 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.57%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.46%) Amazon S3
15 3 (0.34%) AWS Lambda
15 3 (0.34%) Cloud Run
15 3 (0.34%) Firebase
15 3 (0.34%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.59%) Multicast
2 12 (1.37%) HTTP
2 12 (1.37%) RS-232
3 11 (1.25%) Ethernet
4 5 (0.57%) Broadband
5 3 (0.34%) Wireless
6 1 (0.11%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.11%) LTE
6 1 (0.11%) Modbus
6 1 (0.11%) Profibus
6 1 (0.11%) RS-485
6 1 (0.11%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (3.87%) SQL Server
2 23 (2.62%) NoSQL
3 20 (2.28%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.48%) MongoDB
5 11 (1.25%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.14%) BigQuery
7 7 (0.80%) MySQL
8 6 (0.68%) Redis
9 5 (0.57%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.34%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.34%) Big Data
10 3 (0.34%) 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 (3.19%) Git
2 23 (2.62%) JIRA
3 20 (2.28%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.14%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.14%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.80%) GitLab
6 4 (0.46%) JUnit
7 3 (0.34%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.34%) JBehave
7 3 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.23%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.23%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.23%) Xcode
9 1 (0.11%) NUnit
9 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.11%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.11%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.11%) WinDbg
General
1 152 (17.29%) Finance
2 62 (7.05%) Banking
3 38 (4.32%) Social Skills
4 26 (2.96%) Retail
5 24 (2.73%) Financial Institution
6 20 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 20 (2.28%) Law
7 18 (2.05%) Games
8 17 (1.93%) Back Office
9 12 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (1.37%) Public Sector
9 12 (1.37%) Tech for Good
10 11 (1.25%) Automotive
11 10 (1.14%) Manufacturing
12 7 (0.80%) Analytical Skills
12 7 (0.80%) Electronics
13 6 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (0.57%) Aerospace
14 5 (0.57%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.46%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (14.33%) .NET
2 75 (8.53%) React
3 38 (4.32%) Node.js
4 36 (4.10%) REST
4 36 (4.10%) RESTful
5 26 (2.96%) .NET Core
5 26 (2.96%) React Native
6 19 (2.16%) .NET Framework
7 15 (1.71%) GraphQL
8 14 (1.59%) Boost C++ Libraries
8 14 (1.59%) FIX Protocol
8 14 (1.59%) pytest
9 13 (1.48%) Django
9 13 (1.48%) Ruby on Rails
9 13 (1.48%) Spring
10 12 (1.37%) Entity Framework
11 11 (1.25%) AngularJS
11 11 (1.25%) Dapper ORM
11 11 (1.25%) Spring Boot
11 11 (1.25%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 77 (8.76%) Cloud Native
2 31 (3.53%) Distributed Systems
3 26 (2.96%) Algorithms
4 23 (2.62%) Embedded Systems
5 17 (1.93%) Derivative
6 16 (1.82%) Equities
6 16 (1.82%) Fixed Income
7 14 (1.59%) IoT
8 13 (1.48%) Public Cloud
9 12 (1.37%) Greenfield Project
9 12 (1.37%) Robotics
10 11 (1.25%) CAN bus
10 11 (1.25%) Device Driver
11 10 (1.14%) Legacy Code
12 9 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
12 9 (1.02%) Sports Betting
13 7 (0.80%) Blog
14 6 (0.68%) Hedge funds
15 5 (0.57%) Data Structures
16 4 (0.46%) Mobile Payment
Operating Systems
1 71 (8.08%) Linux
2 23 (2.62%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (2.05%) Android
4 6 (0.68%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.34%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.11%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 862 (98.07%) Software Engineering
2 129 (14.68%) Agile
3 104 (11.83%) CI/CD
3 104 (11.83%) Full-Stack Development
4 94 (10.69%) Microservices
5 84 (9.56%) Mentoring
6 76 (8.65%) DevOps
7 66 (7.51%) Test Automation
8 59 (6.71%) Fintech
9 54 (6.14%) AI
10 53 (6.03%) Computer Science
10 53 (6.03%) Problem-Solving
11 47 (5.35%) Containerisation
12 46 (5.23%) Technical Leadership
13 45 (5.12%) SDLC
14 37 (4.21%) Low Latency
14 37 (4.21%) Scrum
15 34 (3.87%) Continuous Improvement
16 32 (3.64%) Clean Code
17 30 (3.41%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 152 (17.29%) Java
2 115 (13.08%) C#
3 110 (12.51%) C++
4 88 (10.01%) Python
5 64 (7.28%) TypeScript
6 60 (6.83%) SQL
7 55 (6.26%) JavaScript
8 44 (5.01%) C
9 31 (3.53%) Rust
10 27 (3.07%) Go
11 19 (2.16%) Kotlin
12 17 (1.93%) PHP
13 13 (1.48%) Ruby
14 11 (1.25%) Embedded C
15 5 (0.57%) Delphi
16 4 (0.46%) Scala
16 4 (0.46%) VB
17 3 (0.34%) Swift
18 2 (0.23%) Assembly Language
19 1 (0.11%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 53 (6.03%) Degree
2 31 (3.53%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
4 23 (2.62%) SC Cleared
5 18 (2.05%) Master's Degree
6 8 (0.91%) DV Cleared
6 8 (0.91%) PhD
7 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.11%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (2.73%) QA
2 13 (1.48%) IEC 61508
2 13 (1.48%) MISRA
2 13 (1.48%) MISRA C
3 6 (0.68%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.11%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.11%) ECSS
4 1 (0.11%) GDPR
4 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 49 (5.57%) Docker
2 17 (1.93%) Firmware
3 5 (0.57%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.46%) 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 83 (9.44%) Kubernetes
2 38 (4.32%) Terraform
3 18 (2.05%) Grafana
4 11 (1.25%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.23%) Ansible
5 2 (0.23%) Argo
5 2 (0.23%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 12 (1.37%) Google
2 10 (1.14%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.91%) 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 (0.11%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.11%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.11%) New Relic