Software Development Manager Job Trends

Software Development Manager
UK

The median Software Development Manager salary in the UK is £93,750 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 June 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 628 634 715
Rank change year-on-year +6 +81 +53
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Development Manager 106 32 203
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.072% 0.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.080% 0.20%
Number of salaries quoted 90 26 168
10th Percentile £65,000 £61,250 £50,000
25th Percentile £80,000 £69,375 £62,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £93,750 £85,000 £73,750
Median % change year-on-year +10.29% +15.25% -1.67%
75th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £88,125
90th Percentile - £120,000 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £85,000 £80,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +6.25% +14.29% -

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 88,029 40,047 103,056
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.98% 89.54% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 60,387 22,686 74,432
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,000 £38,620
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - - -6.54%

Software Development Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Software Development Manager' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Software Development Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Development Manager
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Software Development Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Software Development Manager job vacancies in the UK

Software Development Manager
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Development Manager over the 6 months to 18 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Development Manager in the UK

Software Development Manager
Top 10 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Development Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 18 June 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 +7 99 £95,000 +11.76% 8
UK excluding London -10 74 £85,000 +6.25% 6
Work from Home +46 53 £90,000 +36.88% 4
North of England -10 30 £90,000 +53.19% 2
London -2 29 £100,000 -14.89% 3
South East -8 22 £100,000 +17.65% 3
North West +29 21 £90,000 +16.13% 2
South West -47 16 £73,750 -7.81%
Yorkshire -28 9 £80,000 +100.00%
Scotland - 6 £85,000 -

Software Development Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 June 2026, Software Development Manager 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 Software Development Manager in the job title.

1 35 (33.02%) Software Engineering
2 30 (28.30%) .NET
3 24 (22.64%) Node.js
4 23 (21.70%) Agile
5 22 (20.75%) C#
5 22 (20.75%) SaaS
6 13 (12.26%) NestJS
6 13 (12.26%) React
6 13 (12.26%) Software Delivery
7 12 (11.32%) CI/CD
7 12 (11.32%) DevOps
8 11 (10.38%) Continuous Improvement
8 11 (10.38%) Technology Transformation
9 10 (9.43%) SDLC
10 9 (8.49%) SQL Server
11 8 (7.55%) Cost Reduction
11 8 (7.55%) Decision-Making
11 8 (7.55%) iPaaS
11 8 (7.55%) React Native
11 8 (7.55%) Roadmaps
12 7 (6.60%) Project Management
12 7 (6.60%) QA
13 6 (5.66%) .NET Core
13 6 (5.66%) Azure
13 6 (5.66%) Collaborative Culture
13 6 (5.66%) Observability
13 6 (5.66%) Problem-Solving
14 5 (4.72%) AWS
14 5 (4.72%) Containerisation
14 5 (4.72%) Microsoft

Software Development Manager 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 2 (1.89%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.89%) Infor SunSystems
Cloud Services
1 22 (20.75%) SaaS
2 8 (7.55%) iPaaS
3 6 (5.66%) Azure
4 5 (4.72%) AWS
5 3 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
5 3 (2.83%) Power Platform
5 3 (2.83%) PowerApps
6 2 (1.89%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (1.89%) Azure Functions
6 2 (1.89%) Azure Logic Apps
6 2 (1.89%) GitHub
6 2 (1.89%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (1.89%) PaaS
6 2 (1.89%) Power Automate
6 2 (1.89%) Serverless
7 1 (0.94%) Azure App Service
7 1 (0.94%) Azure Key Vault
7 1 (0.94%) Azure Service Bus
7 1 (0.94%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.77%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (8.49%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.77%) Redis
3 3 (2.83%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (1.89%) MariaDB
4 2 (1.89%) MySQL
5 1 (0.94%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (0.94%) Jenkins
1 1 (0.94%) JIRA
General
1 16 (15.09%) Retail
2 14 (13.21%) Legal
3 13 (12.26%) Social Skills
4 8 (7.55%) Finance
5 2 (1.89%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (0.94%) Back Office
6 1 (0.94%) Banking
6 1 (0.94%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (28.30%) .NET
2 24 (22.64%) Node.js
3 13 (12.26%) NestJS
3 13 (12.26%) React
4 8 (7.55%) React Native
5 6 (5.66%) .NET Core
6 4 (3.77%) Series 60
7 3 (2.83%) REST
7 3 (2.83%) Symfony
8 2 (1.89%) CSS
8 2 (1.89%) HTML
8 2 (1.89%) JSON
8 2 (1.89%) Middleware
8 2 (1.89%) RESTful
8 2 (1.89%) Smarty
9 1 (0.94%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.94%) ASP.NET
9 1 (0.94%) Next.js
9 1 (0.94%) Ruby on Rails
9 1 (0.94%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.43%) Product Ownership
2 5 (4.72%) Cloud Native
2 5 (4.72%) Enterprise Software
3 4 (3.77%) Virtual Team
4 3 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (2.83%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (2.83%) Onboarding
5 1 (0.94%) Credit Risk
5 1 (0.94%) Culture of Ownership
5 1 (0.94%) Market Risk
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (33.02%) Software Engineering
2 23 (21.70%) Agile
3 13 (12.26%) Software Delivery
4 12 (11.32%) CI/CD
4 12 (11.32%) DevOps
5 11 (10.38%) Continuous Improvement
5 11 (10.38%) Technology Transformation
6 10 (9.43%) SDLC
7 8 (7.55%) Cost Reduction
7 8 (7.55%) Decision-Making
7 8 (7.55%) Roadmaps
8 7 (6.60%) Project Management
9 6 (5.66%) Collaborative Culture
9 6 (5.66%) Observability
9 6 (5.66%) Problem-Solving
10 5 (4.72%) Containerisation
10 5 (4.72%) Release Management
10 5 (4.72%) Resource Management
11 4 (3.77%) Test Automation
11 4 (3.77%) Video Processing
Programming Languages
1 22 (20.75%) C#
2 4 (3.77%) JavaScript
2 4 (3.77%) Python
2 4 (3.77%) SQL
2 4 (3.77%) TypeScript
3 3 (2.83%) PHP
4 2 (1.89%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.94%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 2 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
1 2 (1.89%) Degree
1 2 (1.89%) Master's Degree
2 1 (0.94%) PMI Certification
2 1 (0.94%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (6.60%) QA
2 4 (3.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.83%) GDPR
System Software
1 1 (0.94%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (3.77%) Grafana
2 3 (2.83%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.94%) Ansible
Vendors
1 5 (4.72%) Microsoft
2 2 (1.89%) Infor
2 2 (1.89%) Salesforce
3 1 (0.94%) Databricks
3 1 (0.94%) ServiceNow