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 22 January 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 184 228
Rank change year-on-year -29 +44 +26
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 620 873 868
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.64% 1.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.10% 1.78% 1.45%
Number of salaries quoted 488 569 654
10th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,750 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% -7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £80,500
90th Percentile £110,000 £122,500 £101,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year - +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 56,236 49,146 59,685
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.80% 92.50% 95.21%
Number of salaries quoted 34,885 25,424 46,340
10th Percentile £28,697 £33,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
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 £78,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -5.14%

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 22 January 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 22 January 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 -31 530 £75,000 +7.14% 589
UK excluding London -50 359 £65,000 - 556
London +2 226 £95,000 +5.56% 92
Work from Home -66 213 £77,500 +10.71% 256
South East -35 82 £70,000 +7.69% 166
North of England -15 78 £75,000 +15.38% 110
South West +14 72 £65,000 +8.33% 75
Scotland -18 58 £67,500 +8.00% 31
North West +3 39 £67,500 +3.85% 53
East of England -28 35 £70,000 +3.70% 81
Yorkshire -9 29 £75,000 -12.03% 44
Midlands +13 27 £65,000 +2.36% 66
East Midlands +2 16 £65,000 +8.33% 45
West Midlands +19 11 £65,000 +2.36% 20
North East -17 10 £75,000 +22.95% 13
Wales -2 7 £60,000 - 27

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

For the 6 months to 22 January 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.

1 607 (97.90%) Software Engineering
2 131 (21.13%) AWS
3 120 (19.35%) Agile
4 119 (19.19%) Java
5 98 (15.81%) .NET
5 98 (15.81%) C#
6 91 (14.68%) CI/CD
7 82 (13.23%) Full-Stack Development
8 81 (13.06%) Mentoring
9 80 (12.90%) Python
10 78 (12.58%) Microservices
11 77 (12.42%) React
12 73 (11.77%) TypeScript
13 71 (11.45%) Azure
14 69 (11.13%) DevOps
15 66 (10.65%) Kubernetes
16 62 (10.00%) C++
17 60 (9.68%) JavaScript
18 52 (8.39%) Problem-Solving
19 50 (8.06%) Linux
20 47 (7.58%) SQL
21 46 (7.42%) Computer Science
22 44 (7.10%) Degree
22 44 (7.10%) Technical Leadership
23 43 (6.94%) AI
24 42 (6.77%) SDLC
25 41 (6.61%) Containerisation
26 40 (6.45%) Docker
26 40 (6.45%) GCP
27 39 (6.29%) Fintech

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 23 (3.71%) Apache
2 22 (3.55%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.32%) Apache Solr
3 2 (0.32%) CMS
4 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.16%) Confluence
4 1 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 1 (0.16%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Photoshop
Cloud Services
1 131 (21.13%) AWS
2 71 (11.45%) Azure
3 40 (6.45%) GCP
4 33 (5.32%) SaaS
5 25 (4.03%) GitHub
6 23 (3.71%) dbt
6 23 (3.71%) Snowflake
7 11 (1.77%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (1.61%) Azure AKS
8 10 (1.61%) GitHub Copilot
9 9 (1.45%) Serverless
9 9 (1.45%) Stripe
10 8 (1.29%) Amazon EKS
11 6 (0.97%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 6 (0.97%) Azure Event Grid
12 5 (0.81%) Cloud Run
13 4 (0.65%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.65%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
14 3 (0.48%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.10%) Multicast
2 10 (1.61%) HTTP
3 4 (0.65%) Broadband
3 4 (0.65%) Ethernet
3 4 (0.65%) RS-232
4 1 (0.16%) DNS
4 1 (0.16%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.03%) SQL Server
2 23 (3.71%) Amazon Athena
3 22 (3.55%) Apache Arrow
3 22 (3.55%) Apache Iceberg
3 22 (3.55%) Apache Ignite
3 22 (3.55%) Data Lake
3 22 (3.55%) Dremio
3 22 (3.55%) NoSQL
3 22 (3.55%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (2.10%) Relational Database
5 10 (1.61%) BigQuery
6 9 (1.45%) MongoDB
7 8 (1.29%) Elasticsearch
8 7 (1.13%) Redis
9 6 (0.97%) MySQL
10 5 (0.81%) DynamoDB
11 4 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.32%) GIS
12 2 (0.32%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.32%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 32 (5.16%) Git
2 21 (3.39%) JIRA
3 10 (1.61%) TeamCity
4 8 (1.29%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.65%) JUnit
6 3 (0.48%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.48%) GitLab
6 3 (0.48%) JBehave
7 2 (0.32%) Android Studio
7 2 (0.32%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.32%) Maven
7 2 (0.32%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.32%) Xcode
8 1 (0.16%) Ant
8 1 (0.16%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.16%) Gradle
8 1 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.16%) Rational Rhapsody
8 1 (0.16%) Rational Statemate
8 1 (0.16%) Selenium
General
1 137 (22.10%) Finance
2 62 (10.00%) Banking
3 45 (7.26%) Social Skills
4 22 (3.55%) Front Office
4 22 (3.55%) Investment Banking
5 15 (2.42%) Financial Institution
5 15 (2.42%) Retail
6 13 (2.10%) Law
7 12 (1.94%) Games
7 12 (1.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 10 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (1.61%) Tech for Good
9 7 (1.13%) Automotive
10 6 (0.97%) Back Office
10 6 (0.97%) Health Technology
10 6 (0.97%) Public Sector
11 5 (0.81%) Aerospace
11 5 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.65%) Electronics
12 4 (0.65%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (15.81%) .NET
2 77 (12.42%) React
3 37 (5.97%) RESTful
4 27 (4.35%) REST
5 25 (4.03%) Node.js
6 24 (3.87%) React Native
7 23 (3.71%) AngularJS
8 22 (3.55%) .NET Core
8 22 (3.55%) gRPC
8 22 (3.55%) NumPy
8 22 (3.55%) Pandas
8 22 (3.55%) Protocol Buffers
8 22 (3.55%) SciPy
9 20 (3.23%) GraphQL
10 15 (2.42%) Ruby on Rails
11 14 (2.26%) Spring
12 13 (2.10%) Boost C++ Libraries
12 13 (2.10%) Django
12 13 (2.10%) FIX Protocol
12 13 (2.10%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 60 (9.68%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.81%) Derivative
3 35 (5.65%) Equities
3 35 (5.65%) Fixed Income
4 25 (4.03%) Hedge funds
5 23 (3.71%) Distributed Systems
6 22 (3.55%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 22 (3.55%) Pricing Data
7 21 (3.39%) Algorithms
8 20 (3.23%) Embedded Systems
9 12 (1.94%) Greenfield Project
10 11 (1.77%) Public Cloud
11 10 (1.61%) CAN bus
11 10 (1.61%) IoT
12 9 (1.45%) Legacy Code
12 9 (1.45%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (1.29%) Data Structures
14 7 (1.13%) Blog
15 4 (0.65%) Robotics
15 4 (0.65%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 50 (8.06%) Linux
2 16 (2.58%) Android
2 16 (2.58%) Embedded Linux
3 3 (0.48%) Apple iOS
4 2 (0.32%) Unix
4 2 (0.32%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 607 (97.90%) Software Engineering
2 120 (19.35%) Agile
3 91 (14.68%) CI/CD
4 82 (13.23%) Full-Stack Development
5 81 (13.06%) Mentoring
6 78 (12.58%) Microservices
7 69 (11.13%) DevOps
8 52 (8.39%) Problem-Solving
9 46 (7.42%) Computer Science
10 44 (7.10%) Technical Leadership
11 43 (6.94%) AI
12 42 (6.77%) SDLC
13 41 (6.61%) Containerisation
14 39 (6.29%) Fintech
15 38 (6.13%) Test Automation
16 32 (5.16%) Clean Code
17 31 (5.00%) Scrum
18 29 (4.68%) User Experience
19 28 (4.52%) Continuous Improvement
19 28 (4.52%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 119 (19.19%) Java
2 98 (15.81%) C#
3 80 (12.90%) Python
4 73 (11.77%) TypeScript
5 62 (10.00%) C++
6 60 (9.68%) JavaScript
7 47 (7.58%) SQL
8 29 (4.68%) C
9 21 (3.39%) Rust
10 20 (3.23%) Go
11 18 (2.90%) Kotlin
12 15 (2.42%) PHP
12 15 (2.42%) Ruby
13 6 (0.97%) Delphi
13 6 (0.97%) Embedded C
14 4 (0.65%) Scala
14 4 (0.65%) VB
15 3 (0.48%) Bash
15 3 (0.48%) Swift
16 2 (0.32%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 44 (7.10%) Degree
2 21 (3.39%) Computer Science Degree
3 13 (2.10%) Master's Degree
4 12 (1.94%) Security Cleared
5 8 (1.29%) SC Cleared
6 5 (0.81%) PhD
7 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.16%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.16%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.16%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.23%) QA
2 10 (1.61%) IEC 61508
2 10 (1.61%) MISRA
2 10 (1.61%) MISRA C
3 7 (1.13%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.32%) ISO 9000
4 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
4 2 (0.32%) JTAG
5 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.16%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.16%) ECSS
5 1 (0.16%) GDPR
5 1 (0.16%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.16%) PSD2
System Software
1 40 (6.45%) Docker
2 7 (1.13%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (1.13%) Virtual Servers
3 6 (0.97%) Firmware
4 3 (0.48%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 66 (10.65%) Kubernetes
2 24 (3.87%) Terraform
3 10 (1.61%) Functional Safety
4 8 (1.29%) Grafana
5 2 (0.32%) Ansible
5 2 (0.32%) Argo
6 1 (0.16%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 14 (2.26%) Google
2 10 (1.61%) Microsoft
3 8 (1.29%) HubSpot
4 2 (0.32%) Adobe
4 2 (0.32%) Atlassian
4 2 (0.32%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.32%) OpenAI
4 2 (0.32%) Oracle
4 2 (0.32%) SAP
5 1 (0.16%) Dynatrace
5 1 (0.16%) ForgeRock
5 1 (0.16%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.16%) MuleSoft
5 1 (0.16%) New Relic
5 1 (0.16%) SendGrid