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 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 212 109
Rank change year-on-year +79 -103 +168
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Software Engineer 1,571 779 1,902
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.46% 1.56% 2.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.55% 1.74% 2.41%
Number of salaries quoted 1,216 446 1,344
10th Percentile £57,500 £56,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,000 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +29.84% -3.02%
75th Percentile £90,000 £111,250 £87,813
90th Percentile £100,000 £135,000 £122,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +16.67% -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 101,050 44,873 78,946
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.99% 89.93% 95.07%
Number of salaries quoted 69,068 26,506 52,274
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,171 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.77% -4.00% -6.54%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 +79 1,402 £75,000 -15.49% 253
UK excluding London +100 1,095 £70,000 - 179
London -10 387 £95,000 -11.63% 119
Work from Home -71 296 £75,000 -12.03% 104
North of England -1 276 £75,000 +7.14% 48
South East +133 240 £80,000 +14.29% 31
South West +54 211 £70,000 - 26
North West -22 168 £75,000 +7.14% 29
East of England +91 164 £70,000 +7.69% 32
Midlands +70 118 £70,000 -5.08% 16
West Midlands +24 67 £70,000 -6.67% 4
Yorkshire +18 67 £70,000 -8.98% 3
East Midlands +20 51 £62,500 -10.71% 12
Scotland -7 49 £68,750 +5.77% 25
North East -30 41 £90,000 +800.00% 16
Wales -34 34 £65,500 +0.77% 7
Northern Ireland - 3 £75,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 20 August 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 1,566 (99.68%) Software Engineering
2 263 (16.74%) Python
3 250 (15.91%) C#
4 233 (14.83%) C++
5 230 (14.64%) Agile
6 221 (14.07%) Java
7 210 (13.37%) AWS
8 191 (12.16%) CI/CD
9 175 (11.14%) Mentoring
10 170 (10.82%) .NET
11 165 (10.50%) AI
12 158 (10.06%) Full-Stack Development
13 126 (8.02%) TypeScript
14 123 (7.83%) DevOps
14 123 (7.83%) Microservices
15 118 (7.51%) React
16 110 (7.00%) Azure
17 108 (6.87%) Linux
17 108 (6.87%) Security Cleared
18 102 (6.49%) Test Automation
19 101 (6.43%) JavaScript
20 90 (5.73%) Technical Leadership
21 88 (5.60%) SDLC
22 86 (5.47%) Code Quality
22 86 (5.47%) Problem-Solving
23 85 (5.41%) SQL
24 83 (5.28%) SaaS
25 82 (5.22%) Degree
26 79 (5.03%) C
27 78 (4.96%) Kubernetes

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 (1.02%) SharePoint Server
2 7 (0.45%) Apache
3 4 (0.25%) Confluence
4 3 (0.19%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.19%) WinCC
5 2 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.13%) Cloud Foundry
5 2 (0.13%) CMS
6 1 (0.064%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.19%) Blender
1 3 (0.19%) Maya
2 1 (0.064%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 210 (13.37%) AWS
2 110 (7.00%) Azure
3 83 (5.28%) SaaS
4 64 (4.07%) GCP
5 43 (2.74%) GitHub
6 38 (2.42%) Serverless
7 22 (1.40%) Amazon EKS
8 21 (1.34%) Anthropic Claude
9 20 (1.27%) GitHub Copilot
10 16 (1.02%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
12 10 (0.64%) Amazon S3
12 10 (0.64%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (0.57%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 6 (0.38%) Amazon SQS
14 6 (0.38%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (0.38%) Supabase
15 5 (0.32%) Azure AI
15 5 (0.32%) Dynamics 365
16 4 (0.25%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.27%) RS-232
2 14 (0.89%) Modbus
3 13 (0.83%) Bluetooth
3 13 (0.83%) Ethernet
4 12 (0.76%) Multicast
4 12 (0.76%) Profibus
4 12 (0.76%) Wireless
5 9 (0.57%) RS-485
5 9 (0.57%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.51%) HTTP
7 7 (0.45%) Broadband
8 4 (0.25%) Firewall
8 4 (0.25%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.064%) BGP
9 1 (0.064%) DNS
9 1 (0.064%) LTE
9 1 (0.064%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (3.88%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (2.10%) MySQL
3 28 (1.78%) Relational Database
4 18 (1.15%) MongoDB
4 18 (1.15%) NoSQL
4 18 (1.15%) Redis
4 18 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 9 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
5 9 (0.57%) Big Data
6 8 (0.51%) DynamoDB
7 7 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
9 4 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.25%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.19%) DocumentDB
10 3 (0.19%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.19%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.13%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 59 (3.76%) Git
2 30 (1.91%) JIRA
3 26 (1.65%) GitLab
4 20 (1.27%) Claude Code
5 15 (0.95%) TeamCity
6 11 (0.70%) Jenkins
7 10 (0.64%) Visual Studio Code
8 6 (0.38%) Mocha
8 6 (0.38%) Selenium
9 5 (0.32%) Jasmine
9 5 (0.32%) NUnit
10 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
10 4 (0.25%) Visual Studio
11 3 (0.19%) Eclipse RCP
11 3 (0.19%) JUnit
11 3 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
12 2 (0.13%) GDB
12 2 (0.13%) SonarQube
General
1 144 (9.17%) Finance
2 109 (6.94%) Social Skills
3 67 (4.26%) Electronics
4 55 (3.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 51 (3.25%) Banking
6 45 (2.86%) Manufacturing
7 44 (2.80%) Public Sector
8 40 (2.55%) Analytical Skills
9 35 (2.23%) Law
10 20 (1.27%) Aerospace
10 20 (1.27%) Retail
11 17 (1.08%) Marketing
12 13 (0.83%) Automotive
12 13 (0.83%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.76%) Military
14 10 (0.64%) Back Office
14 10 (0.64%) Games
14 10 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
16 7 (0.45%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 170 (10.82%) .NET
2 118 (7.51%) React
3 76 (4.84%) Node.js
4 61 (3.88%) Terraform
5 60 (3.82%) Spring
6 49 (3.12%) WPF
7 39 (2.48%) RESTful
8 37 (2.36%) Spring Boot
9 33 (2.10%) Kafka
10 29 (1.85%) REST
11 28 (1.78%) Next.js
12 24 (1.53%) AngularJS
13 18 (1.15%) FastAPI
14 17 (1.08%) Django
14 17 (1.08%) React Native
15 16 (1.02%) Vue
16 14 (0.89%) CSS
17 13 (0.83%) .NET Core
17 13 (0.83%) FIX Protocol
18 12 (0.76%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 117 (7.45%) Cloud Native
2 57 (3.63%) Distributed Systems
3 55 (3.50%) Legacy Systems
4 48 (3.06%) Algorithms
5 35 (2.23%) Robotics
6 33 (2.10%) Embedded Systems
7 29 (1.85%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (1.40%) AI Agents
8 22 (1.40%) Product Ownership
9 20 (1.27%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.95%) Blog
10 15 (0.95%) Derivative
11 14 (0.89%) Device Driver
12 13 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (0.83%) Fixed Income
13 12 (0.76%) Equities
13 12 (0.76%) Virtual Team
14 11 (0.70%) Blockchain
14 11 (0.70%) Cyber Threat
14 11 (0.70%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 108 (6.87%) Linux
2 28 (1.78%) Embedded Linux
3 19 (1.21%) FreeRTOS
3 19 (1.21%) Windows
4 5 (0.32%) Unix
5 4 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.13%) Android
7 1 (0.064%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,566 (99.68%) Software Engineering
2 230 (14.64%) Agile
3 191 (12.16%) CI/CD
4 175 (11.14%) Mentoring
5 165 (10.50%) AI
6 158 (10.06%) Full-Stack Development
7 123 (7.83%) DevOps
7 123 (7.83%) Microservices
8 102 (6.49%) Test Automation
9 90 (5.73%) Technical Leadership
10 88 (5.60%) SDLC
11 86 (5.47%) Code Quality
11 86 (5.47%) Problem-Solving
12 72 (4.58%) Computer Science
12 72 (4.58%) Fintech
13 67 (4.26%) Continuous Improvement
14 54 (3.44%) Machine Learning
15 53 (3.37%) Infrastructure as Code
16 49 (3.12%) Containerisation
16 49 (3.12%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 263 (16.74%) Python
2 250 (15.91%) C#
3 233 (14.83%) C++
4 221 (14.07%) Java
5 126 (8.02%) TypeScript
6 101 (6.43%) JavaScript
7 85 (5.41%) SQL
8 79 (5.03%) C
9 44 (2.80%) Rust
10 36 (2.29%) Go
11 20 (1.27%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.02%) Scala
13 15 (0.95%) Ruby
14 14 (0.89%) PHP
15 13 (0.83%) F#
15 13 (0.83%) Haskell
16 11 (0.70%) Kotlin
16 11 (0.70%) MATLAB
17 10 (0.64%) Julia
18 8 (0.51%) R
Qualifications
1 108 (6.87%) Security Cleared
2 82 (5.22%) Degree
3 75 (4.77%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.44%) DV Cleared
5 23 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.15%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.76%) PhD
8 8 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.38%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.13%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.064%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.064%) HND
11 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (2.55%) QA
2 18 (1.15%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.32%) Data Quality
3 5 (0.32%) GDPR
3 5 (0.32%) IEC 61508
3 5 (0.32%) MISRA
3 5 (0.32%) MISRA C
4 4 (0.25%) DO-178B
5 3 (0.19%) IEC 61131
6 2 (0.13%) SLA
7 1 (0.064%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 77 (4.90%) Docker
2 53 (3.37%) Firmware
3 22 (1.40%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.064%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 78 (4.96%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.08%) Grafana
3 10 (0.64%) Ansible
4 5 (0.32%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.19%) Plesk
6 2 (0.13%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.13%) kaniko
6 2 (0.13%) Puppet
7 1 (0.064%) Argo
7 1 (0.064%) Istio
7 1 (0.064%) Kibana
Vendors
1 20 (1.27%) Microsoft
2 11 (0.70%) Salesforce
3 10 (0.64%) Google
4 9 (0.57%) Splunk
5 8 (0.51%) Siemens
6 7 (0.45%) Databricks
7 6 (0.38%) Oracle
8 5 (0.32%) Intel
8 5 (0.32%) OpenAI
9 4 (0.25%) Foundry
10 3 (0.19%) Atlassian
10 3 (0.19%) New Relic
10 3 (0.19%) Revolut
10 3 (0.19%) Rockwell
11 2 (0.13%) ADVA
11 2 (0.13%) Sage
12 1 (0.064%) Bloomberg
12 1 (0.064%) Palantir
12 1 (0.064%) RedGate
12 1 (0.064%) Reuters