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 8 April 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 200 162
Rank change year-on-year +19 -38 +115
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 965 618 1,655
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.17% 1.51% 1.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.26% 1.68% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 739 531 1,194
10th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,375 £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 £122,500 £99,250
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 76,515 36,725 86,098
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 89.80% 94.54%
Number of salaries quoted 49,212 23,272 64,527
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,501
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +10.09% -9.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -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 8 April 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 8 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 +35 823 £75,000 - 239
UK excluding London +32 624 £70,000 +7.69% 184
London +33 289 £100,000 +5.26% 82
Work from Home -48 274 £75,000 +1.69% 116
South East +30 143 £70,000 +7.69% 62
South West +38 132 £70,000 +7.69% 27
North of England -45 125 £75,000 +15.38% 32
Scotland -1 89 £67,500 +3.85% 18
North West -36 68 £75,000 +15.38% 19
East of England -19 67 £70,000 +3.70% 21
Midlands +3 57 £65,000 -10.34% 22
Yorkshire -36 42 £75,000 -4.83% 10
West Midlands +20 34 £65,000 -10.34% 17
East Midlands -35 23 £65,000 -13.33% 5
North East -26 15 £77,500 +40.91% 3
Wales -25 11 £60,000 -7.69% 6

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

For the 6 months to 8 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.

1 948 (98.24%) Software Engineering
2 159 (16.48%) Java
3 148 (15.34%) AWS
4 139 (14.40%) Agile
5 132 (13.68%) .NET
6 121 (12.54%) C#
6 121 (12.54%) C++
7 115 (11.92%) Full-Stack Development
8 106 (10.98%) CI/CD
9 96 (9.95%) Microservices
10 95 (9.84%) Python
11 90 (9.33%) Azure
12 88 (9.12%) Mentoring
13 84 (8.70%) React
14 82 (8.50%) Kubernetes
15 81 (8.39%) DevOps
16 75 (7.77%) Linux
17 74 (7.67%) SaaS
17 74 (7.67%) TypeScript
18 71 (7.36%) Test Automation
19 65 (6.74%) SQL
20 62 (6.42%) Fintech
21 61 (6.32%) JavaScript
22 57 (5.91%) AI
22 57 (5.91%) Computer Science
22 57 (5.91%) GCP
23 56 (5.80%) Problem-Solving
24 55 (5.70%) Degree
25 54 (5.60%) C
26 52 (5.39%) 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 3 (0.31%) Apache
1 3 (0.31%) Apache Solr
1 3 (0.31%) CMS
2 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.10%) Confluence
3 1 (0.10%) Tuxedo
Cloud Services
1 148 (15.34%) AWS
2 90 (9.33%) Azure
3 74 (7.67%) SaaS
4 57 (5.91%) GCP
5 38 (3.94%) GitHub
6 18 (1.87%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (1.76%) Azure AKS
8 14 (1.45%) GitHub Copilot
8 14 (1.45%) Serverless
9 11 (1.14%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 10 (1.04%) Anthropic Claude
10 10 (1.04%) 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%) RS-232
2 14 (1.45%) HTTP
2 14 (1.45%) Multicast
3 5 (0.52%) Broadband
3 5 (0.52%) Wireless
4 4 (0.41%) Modbus
5 3 (0.31%) Bluetooth
6 2 (0.21%) Profibus
6 2 (0.21%) RS-485
6 2 (0.21%) ZigBee
7 1 (0.10%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.63%) SQL Server
2 25 (2.59%) NoSQL
3 22 (2.28%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.45%) MongoDB
5 12 (1.24%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.04%) BigQuery
7 9 (0.93%) MySQL
8 5 (0.52%) Redis
8 5 (0.52%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.31%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.31%) Big Data
9 3 (0.31%) DocumentDB
9 3 (0.31%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.31%) Neo4j
10 2 (0.21%) Apache Arrow
10 2 (0.21%) Apache Iceberg
10 2 (0.21%) Apache Ignite
10 2 (0.21%) DB2
10 2 (0.21%) Dremio
10 2 (0.21%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 32 (3.32%) Git
2 24 (2.49%) JIRA
3 20 (2.07%) TeamCity
4 10 (1.04%) Claude Code
4 10 (1.04%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.83%) GitLab
6 4 (0.41%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.41%) JUnit
6 4 (0.41%) Visual Studio Code
7 3 (0.31%) JBehave
8 2 (0.21%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.21%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.21%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.21%) GDB
8 2 (0.21%) Selenium
8 2 (0.21%) Xcode
9 1 (0.10%) Gradle
9 1 (0.10%) Rational Statemate
9 1 (0.10%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 162 (16.79%) Finance
2 67 (6.94%) Banking
3 41 (4.25%) Social Skills
4 26 (2.69%) Retail
5 23 (2.38%) Financial Institution
6 21 (2.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 20 (2.07%) Law
8 18 (1.87%) Games
9 17 (1.76%) Back Office
10 14 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (1.45%) Public Sector
11 13 (1.35%) Automotive
11 13 (1.35%) Electronics
12 12 (1.24%) Manufacturing
12 12 (1.24%) Tech for Good
13 7 (0.73%) Analytical Skills
13 7 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (0.52%) Aerospace
14 5 (0.52%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.41%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 132 (13.68%) .NET
2 84 (8.70%) React
3 44 (4.56%) Node.js
4 39 (4.04%) REST
4 39 (4.04%) RESTful
5 28 (2.90%) .NET Core
6 27 (2.80%) React Native
7 19 (1.97%) .NET Framework
8 14 (1.45%) Boost C++ Libraries
8 14 (1.45%) FIX Protocol
8 14 (1.45%) GraphQL
8 14 (1.45%) pytest
8 14 (1.45%) Spring
9 13 (1.35%) Django
9 13 (1.35%) Ruby on Rails
9 13 (1.35%) Yocto
10 12 (1.24%) AngularJS
10 12 (1.24%) Entity Framework
11 11 (1.14%) Dapper ORM
11 11 (1.14%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 80 (8.29%) Cloud Native
2 29 (3.01%) Algorithms
2 29 (3.01%) Distributed Systems
3 25 (2.59%) Embedded Systems
4 18 (1.87%) Derivative
5 16 (1.66%) Equities
5 16 (1.66%) Fixed Income
6 15 (1.55%) Public Cloud
7 14 (1.45%) IoT
8 13 (1.35%) Device Driver
8 13 (1.35%) Robotics
9 12 (1.24%) CAN bus
9 12 (1.24%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (1.04%) 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 75 (7.77%) Linux
2 25 (2.59%) Embedded Linux
3 18 (1.87%) Android
4 8 (0.83%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.10%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 948 (98.24%) Software Engineering
2 139 (14.40%) Agile
3 115 (11.92%) Full-Stack Development
4 106 (10.98%) CI/CD
5 96 (9.95%) Microservices
6 88 (9.12%) Mentoring
7 81 (8.39%) DevOps
8 71 (7.36%) Test Automation
9 62 (6.42%) Fintech
10 57 (5.91%) AI
10 57 (5.91%) Computer Science
11 56 (5.80%) Problem-Solving
12 49 (5.08%) SDLC
12 49 (5.08%) Technical Leadership
13 48 (4.97%) Containerisation
14 42 (4.35%) Scrum
15 38 (3.94%) Continuous Improvement
15 38 (3.94%) Low Latency
16 35 (3.63%) Embedded Software Development
17 33 (3.42%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 159 (16.48%) Java
2 121 (12.54%) C#
2 121 (12.54%) C++
3 95 (9.84%) Python
4 74 (7.67%) TypeScript
5 65 (6.74%) SQL
6 61 (6.32%) JavaScript
7 54 (5.60%) C
8 32 (3.32%) Rust
9 26 (2.69%) Go
10 18 (1.87%) PHP
11 17 (1.76%) Kotlin
12 14 (1.45%) Embedded C
13 13 (1.35%) Ruby
14 5 (0.52%) 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 55 (5.70%) Degree
2 34 (3.52%) Security Cleared
3 25 (2.59%) Computer Science Degree
4 24 (2.49%) SC Cleared
5 18 (1.87%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.04%) DV Cleared
7 9 (0.93%) PhD
8 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.10%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (2.69%) QA
2 16 (1.66%) IEC 61508
2 16 (1.66%) MISRA
2 16 (1.66%) MISRA C
3 7 (0.73%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.10%) ECSS
4 1 (0.10%) GDPR
4 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 52 (5.39%) Docker
2 23 (2.38%) Firmware
3 6 (0.62%) 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 (8.50%) Kubernetes
2 39 (4.04%) Terraform
3 19 (1.97%) Grafana
4 13 (1.35%) 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 (1.35%) 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