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 9 April 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 180 205 159
Rank change year-on-year +25 -46 +122
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 969 620 1,685
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.17% 1.52% 1.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.26% 1.69% 1.93%
Number of salaries quoted 740 533 1,215
10th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £55,500
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 £122,500 £97,500
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 76,620 36,654 87,216
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.42% 89.66% 94.54%
Number of salaries quoted 49,282 23,303 65,248
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,734
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 9 April 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 9 April 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 +46 827 £75,000 - 239
UK excluding London +27 626 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +21 291 £100,000 +5.26% 82
Work from Home -38 271 £72,500 -3.33% 116
South East +29 143 £70,000 +7.69% 62
South West +46 132 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -62 125 £75,000 +15.38% 32
Scotland +5 88 £67,500 +3.85% 18
East of England -5 68 £70,000 +3.70% 21
North West -34 68 £75,000 +15.38% 19
Midlands +7 58 £65,000 -10.34% 22
Yorkshire -43 42 £75,000 -4.83% 10
West Midlands +5 35 £65,000 -10.34% 17
East Midlands -32 23 £65,000 -13.33% 5
North East -32 15 £77,500 +40.91% 3
Wales -27 11 £60,000 -7.69% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 9 April 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.

1 952 (98.25%) Software Engineering
2 158 (16.31%) Java
3 145 (14.96%) AWS
4 137 (14.14%) Agile
5 133 (13.73%) .NET
6 124 (12.80%) C++
7 123 (12.69%) C#
8 115 (11.87%) Full-Stack Development
9 104 (10.73%) CI/CD
10 98 (10.11%) Python
11 97 (10.01%) Microservices
12 90 (9.29%) Azure
13 86 (8.88%) Mentoring
14 85 (8.77%) React
15 82 (8.46%) DevOps
15 82 (8.46%) Kubernetes
16 77 (7.95%) Linux
17 75 (7.74%) SaaS
18 74 (7.64%) TypeScript
19 68 (7.02%) Test Automation
20 65 (6.71%) SQL
21 62 (6.40%) Fintech
21 62 (6.40%) JavaScript
22 58 (5.99%) AI
22 58 (5.99%) Computer Science
23 57 (5.88%) GCP
23 57 (5.88%) Problem-Solving
24 56 (5.78%) C
24 56 (5.78%) Degree
25 53 (5.47%) Docker

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 4 (0.41%) Apache
2 3 (0.31%) Apache Solr
2 3 (0.31%) CMS
3 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.10%) Confluence
4 1 (0.10%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 145 (14.96%) AWS
2 90 (9.29%) Azure
3 75 (7.74%) SaaS
4 57 (5.88%) GCP
5 39 (4.02%) GitHub
6 18 (1.86%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (1.75%) Azure AKS
8 15 (1.55%) GitHub Copilot
8 15 (1.55%) Serverless
9 11 (1.14%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 10 (1.03%) Anthropic Claude
10 10 (1.03%) Azure Event Grid
11 8 (0.83%) Stripe
12 6 (0.62%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.41%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.41%) IaaS
15 3 (0.31%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 3 (0.31%) dbt
15 3 (0.31%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.55%) Ethernet
1 15 (1.55%) HTTP
1 15 (1.55%) RS-232
2 14 (1.44%) Multicast
3 5 (0.52%) Broadband
3 5 (0.52%) Wireless
4 4 (0.41%) Bluetooth
4 4 (0.41%) Modbus
5 2 (0.21%) Profibus
5 2 (0.21%) RS-485
5 2 (0.21%) ZigBee
6 1 (0.10%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.61%) SQL Server
2 25 (2.58%) NoSQL
3 22 (2.27%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.44%) MongoDB
5 12 (1.24%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.03%) BigQuery
7 9 (0.93%) MySQL
8 5 (0.52%) Redis
8 5 (0.52%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.41%) Big Data
10 3 (0.31%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.31%) DocumentDB
10 3 (0.31%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.31%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.21%) Apache Arrow
11 2 (0.21%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.21%) Apache Ignite
11 2 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.21%) DB2
11 2 (0.21%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 34 (3.51%) Git
2 24 (2.48%) JIRA
3 20 (2.06%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.03%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.03%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.93%) GitLab
6 5 (0.52%) Visual Studio Code
7 4 (0.41%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.41%) JUnit
8 3 (0.31%) JBehave
9 2 (0.21%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.21%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.21%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.21%) GDB
9 2 (0.21%) Selenium
9 2 (0.21%) Xcode
10 1 (0.10%) Gradle
10 1 (0.10%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.10%) Rational Statemate
10 1 (0.10%) SonarQube
General
1 160 (16.51%) Finance
2 68 (7.02%) Banking
3 41 (4.23%) Social Skills
4 23 (2.37%) Financial Institution
5 22 (2.27%) Retail
6 21 (2.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 20 (2.06%) Law
8 17 (1.75%) Back Office
9 15 (1.55%) Automotive
9 15 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (1.44%) Electronics
10 14 (1.44%) Games
10 14 (1.44%) Public Sector
11 12 (1.24%) Manufacturing
11 12 (1.24%) Tech for Good
12 7 (0.72%) Analytical Skills
12 7 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.52%) Aerospace
13 5 (0.52%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.41%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 133 (13.73%) .NET
2 85 (8.77%) React
3 44 (4.54%) Node.js
4 40 (4.13%) REST
5 35 (3.61%) RESTful
6 28 (2.89%) .NET Core
7 27 (2.79%) React Native
8 19 (1.96%) .NET Framework
9 14 (1.44%) Boost C++ Libraries
9 14 (1.44%) FIX Protocol
9 14 (1.44%) GraphQL
9 14 (1.44%) pytest
9 14 (1.44%) Spring
10 13 (1.34%) Django
10 13 (1.34%) Ruby on Rails
10 13 (1.34%) Yocto
11 12 (1.24%) AngularJS
11 12 (1.24%) Entity Framework
12 11 (1.14%) Dapper ORM
12 11 (1.14%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 80 (8.26%) Cloud Native
2 30 (3.10%) Algorithms
3 29 (2.99%) Distributed Systems
4 25 (2.58%) Embedded Systems
5 18 (1.86%) Derivative
6 16 (1.65%) Equities
6 16 (1.65%) Fixed Income
6 16 (1.65%) Public Cloud
7 14 (1.44%) IoT
8 13 (1.34%) CAN bus
8 13 (1.34%) Device Driver
8 13 (1.34%) Robotics
9 12 (1.24%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.93%) Legacy Code
11 9 (0.93%) Sports Betting
12 8 (0.83%) Hedge funds
13 6 (0.62%) Blog
14 5 (0.52%) FMCG
14 5 (0.52%) Mobile Payment
Operating Systems
1 77 (7.95%) Linux
2 25 (2.58%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.86%) Android
4 9 (0.93%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.21%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 952 (98.25%) Software Engineering
2 137 (14.14%) Agile
3 115 (11.87%) Full-Stack Development
4 104 (10.73%) CI/CD
5 97 (10.01%) Microservices
6 86 (8.88%) Mentoring
7 82 (8.46%) DevOps
8 68 (7.02%) Test Automation
9 62 (6.40%) Fintech
10 58 (5.99%) AI
10 58 (5.99%) Computer Science
11 57 (5.88%) Problem-Solving
12 50 (5.16%) SDLC
12 50 (5.16%) Technical Leadership
13 48 (4.95%) Containerisation
14 43 (4.44%) Scrum
15 38 (3.92%) Continuous Improvement
15 38 (3.92%) Low Latency
16 36 (3.72%) Embedded Software Development
17 34 (3.51%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 158 (16.31%) Java
2 124 (12.80%) C++
3 123 (12.69%) C#
4 98 (10.11%) Python
5 74 (7.64%) TypeScript
6 65 (6.71%) SQL
7 62 (6.40%) JavaScript
8 56 (5.78%) C
9 32 (3.30%) Rust
10 26 (2.68%) Go
11 18 (1.86%) PHP
12 17 (1.75%) Kotlin
13 15 (1.55%) Embedded C
14 13 (1.34%) Ruby
15 4 (0.41%) Delphi
15 4 (0.41%) Scala
15 4 (0.41%) VB
16 3 (0.31%) MATLAB
16 3 (0.31%) Swift
17 2 (0.21%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 56 (5.78%) Degree
2 36 (3.72%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.68%) SC Cleared
4 25 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (1.96%) Master's Degree
6 11 (1.14%) DV Cleared
7 9 (0.93%) PhD
8 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.10%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.27%) QA
2 16 (1.65%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.65%) MISRA
2 16 (1.65%) MISRA C
3 7 (0.72%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.10%) ECSS
4 1 (0.10%) GDPR
4 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 53 (5.47%) Docker
2 24 (2.48%) Firmware
3 7 (0.72%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.21%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.21%) KVM
6 2 (0.21%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 82 (8.46%) Kubernetes
2 39 (4.02%) Terraform
3 19 (1.96%) Grafana
4 13 (1.34%) Functional Safety
5 3 (0.31%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.21%) Ansible
6 2 (0.21%) Argo
7 1 (0.10%) Plesk
Vendors
1 13 (1.34%) Google
2 11 (1.14%) Microsoft
3 8 (0.83%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.21%) Adobe
4 2 (0.21%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.21%) SAP
4 2 (0.21%) VMware
5 1 (0.10%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.10%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.10%) New Relic