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 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 197 121
Rank change year-on-year +62 -76 +172
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,415 804 2,028
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.41% 1.63% 2.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.50% 1.82% 2.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,151 471 1,464
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 94,323 44,218 88,743
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.27% 89.88% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 64,728 26,167 62,366
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £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 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £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 21 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 21 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 +71 1,266 £75,000 -11.76% 359
UK excluding London +88 1,012 £70,000 +1.82% 177
London -8 327 £95,000 -9.52% 208
Work from Home -63 298 £70,000 -14.37% 116
South East +134 254 £77,500 +10.71% 31
North of England -12 239 £75,000 +2.04% 41
South West +54 182 £70,000 - 35
East of England +82 149 £70,000 +12.00% 34
North West -23 147 £75,000 - 30
Midlands +56 112 £67,500 -6.90% 20
West Midlands +30 66 £70,000 -5.08% 3
Yorkshire +10 61 £70,000 -7.47% 6
Scotland 0 49 £67,500 +3.85% 9
East Midlands +19 46 £65,000 -7.14% 17
North East -32 31 £90,000 +63.64% 5
Wales -40 24 £56,250 -13.46% 6
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 21 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 1,410 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 242 (17.10%) C++
3 241 (17.03%) Python
4 238 (16.82%) C#
5 195 (13.78%) Agile
6 194 (13.71%) AWS
7 193 (13.64%) Java
8 167 (11.80%) .NET
9 149 (10.53%) CI/CD
9 149 (10.53%) Full-Stack Development
10 136 (9.61%) Mentoring
11 134 (9.47%) AI
12 112 (7.92%) Azure
12 112 (7.92%) Linux
13 109 (7.70%) Microservices
13 109 (7.70%) TypeScript
14 106 (7.49%) React
15 103 (7.28%) DevOps
16 98 (6.93%) JavaScript
16 98 (6.93%) Security Cleared
17 92 (6.50%) Test Automation
18 89 (6.29%) SaaS
19 85 (6.01%) C
19 85 (6.01%) Degree
19 85 (6.01%) SQL
20 82 (5.80%) SDLC
21 79 (5.58%) Computer Science
22 78 (5.51%) Kubernetes
23 75 (5.30%) Docker
24 73 (5.16%) 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 (0.071%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Blender
1 3 (0.21%) Maya
2 1 (0.071%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 194 (13.71%) AWS
2 112 (7.92%) Azure
3 89 (6.29%) SaaS
4 55 (3.89%) GCP
5 34 (2.40%) GitHub
6 32 (2.26%) Serverless
7 24 (1.70%) Amazon EKS
8 17 (1.20%) Anthropic Claude
9 13 (0.92%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 13 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
10 11 (0.78%) GitHub Copilot
11 9 (0.64%) Azure AKS
12 7 (0.49%) Amazon S3
13 6 (0.42%) AWS Lambda
13 6 (0.42%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.35%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.35%) Pulumi
15 4 (0.28%) Azure Event Grid
15 4 (0.28%) Copilot Studio
15 4 (0.28%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.63%) RS-232
2 16 (1.13%) Ethernet
3 15 (1.06%) Multicast
4 14 (0.99%) Modbus
5 13 (0.92%) Bluetooth
6 12 (0.85%) Profibus
6 12 (0.85%) Wireless
7 9 (0.64%) RS-485
7 9 (0.64%) ZigBee
8 8 (0.57%) HTTP
9 7 (0.49%) Broadband
10 1 (0.071%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.54%) PostgreSQL
2 25 (1.77%) MySQL
3 24 (1.70%) SQL Server
4 18 (1.27%) NoSQL
5 15 (1.06%) MongoDB
6 12 (0.85%) Redis
7 9 (0.64%) Big Data
8 8 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.49%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.28%) Delta Lake
12 4 (0.28%) DynamoDB
13 3 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.21%) DocumentDB
13 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
13 3 (0.21%) Neo4j
14 2 (0.14%) Hadoop
15 1 (0.071%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 60 (4.24%) Git
2 31 (2.19%) JIRA
3 27 (1.91%) GitLab
4 18 (1.27%) TeamCity
5 17 (1.20%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
7 8 (0.57%) 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 (0.071%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.071%) Storybook
General
1 116 (8.20%) Finance
2 68 (4.81%) Social Skills
3 63 (4.45%) Electronics
4 52 (3.67%) Banking
5 43 (3.04%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.47%) Analytical Skills
6 35 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 34 (2.40%) Public Sector
8 20 (1.41%) Law
8 20 (1.41%) Retail
9 16 (1.13%) Automotive
10 14 (0.99%) Back Office
10 14 (0.99%) Financial Institution
11 11 (0.78%) Military
12 9 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (0.57%) Aerospace
13 8 (0.57%) Games
13 8 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (0.49%) Billing
14 7 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (11.80%) .NET
2 106 (7.49%) React
3 73 (5.16%) Node.js
4 47 (3.32%) WPF
5 37 (2.61%) Spring
6 32 (2.26%) RESTful
7 27 (1.91%) REST
7 27 (1.91%) Spring Boot
8 25 (1.77%) Next.js
9 18 (1.27%) AngularJS
10 17 (1.20%) Vue
11 15 (1.06%) .NET Core
11 15 (1.06%) Boost C++ Libraries
11 15 (1.06%) FastAPI
11 15 (1.06%) FIX Protocol
11 15 (1.06%) pytest
11 15 (1.06%) React Native
12 14 (0.99%) Django
12 14 (0.99%) Ruby on Rails
12 14 (0.99%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 98 (6.93%) Cloud Native
2 52 (3.67%) Legacy Systems
3 51 (3.60%) Algorithms
4 44 (3.11%) Distributed Systems
5 33 (2.33%) Robotics
6 32 (2.26%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (2.05%) Greenfield Project
8 17 (1.20%) Derivative
8 17 (1.20%) Device Driver
8 17 (1.20%) Product Ownership
9 15 (1.06%) Equities
9 15 (1.06%) Fixed Income
10 13 (0.92%) AI Agents
11 11 (0.78%) Client/Server
11 11 (0.78%) Public Cloud
12 10 (0.71%) IoT
13 9 (0.64%) Legacy Applications
13 9 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
14 8 (0.57%) Cyber Threat
15 7 (0.49%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 112 (7.92%) Linux
2 29 (2.05%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.34%) FreeRTOS
4 15 (1.06%) Windows
5 5 (0.35%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.21%) Unix
7 2 (0.14%) Android
8 1 (0.071%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,410 (99.65%) Software Engineering
2 195 (13.78%) Agile
3 149 (10.53%) CI/CD
3 149 (10.53%) Full-Stack Development
4 136 (9.61%) Mentoring
5 134 (9.47%) AI
6 109 (7.70%) Microservices
7 103 (7.28%) DevOps
8 92 (6.50%) Test Automation
9 82 (5.80%) SDLC
10 79 (5.58%) Computer Science
11 70 (4.95%) Problem-Solving
12 67 (4.73%) Code Quality
13 63 (4.45%) Technical Leadership
14 60 (4.24%) Fintech
15 56 (3.96%) Continuous Improvement
16 48 (3.39%) Containerisation
17 46 (3.25%) Software Testing
18 43 (3.04%) Mathematics
19 41 (2.90%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 242 (17.10%) C++
2 241 (17.03%) Python
3 238 (16.82%) C#
4 193 (13.64%) Java
5 109 (7.70%) TypeScript
6 98 (6.93%) JavaScript
7 85 (6.01%) C
7 85 (6.01%) SQL
8 52 (3.67%) Rust
9 25 (1.77%) Go
10 21 (1.48%) Embedded C
11 15 (1.06%) Scala
12 14 (0.99%) Ruby
13 13 (0.92%) F#
13 13 (0.92%) Haskell
13 13 (0.92%) PHP
14 11 (0.78%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.71%) Julia
16 8 (0.57%) R
16 8 (0.57%) VB
Qualifications
1 98 (6.93%) Security Cleared
2 85 (6.01%) Degree
3 69 (4.88%) SC Cleared
4 46 (3.25%) DV Cleared
5 24 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.34%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.85%) PhD
8 3 (0.21%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.21%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.071%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (2.69%) QA
2 12 (0.85%) 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 (0.071%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 75 (5.30%) Docker
2 49 (3.46%) 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 (0.071%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 78 (5.51%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.25%) 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 15 (1.06%) Microsoft
2 8 (0.57%) Siemens
3 6 (0.42%) Google
3 6 (0.42%) Splunk
4 5 (0.35%) Intel
4 5 (0.35%) OpenAI
5 4 (0.28%) Databricks
5 4 (0.28%) Foundry
6 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
7 2 (0.14%) ADVA
7 2 (0.14%) VMware
8 1 (0.071%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.071%) Palantir
8 1 (0.071%) TOWER Software