Software Engineering Manager Job Trends

Software Engineering Manager
UK

The median Software Engineering Manager salary in the UK is £95,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 577 597 616
Rank change year-on-year +20 +19 +177
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineering Manager 198 84 267
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.17% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.19% 0.28%
Number of salaries quoted 75 58 80
10th Percentile £72,500 £70,125 £55,000
25th Percentile £82,500 £75,625 £60,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £95,000 £86,250 £76,250
Median % change year-on-year +10.14% +13.11% -15.28%
75th Percentile £100,000 £103,438 £86,250
90th Percentile - £115,000 £95,175
UK excluding London median annual salary £95,000 £85,000 £75,000
% change year-on-year +11.76% +13.33% -1.64%

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 92,998 44,238 95,769
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.19% 89.85% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 63,730 26,125 68,419
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%

Software Engineering Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Software Engineering Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Salary Trend

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

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

Software Engineering Manager
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering Manager over the 6 months to 13 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineering Manager in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineering Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 13 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 +29 175 £100,000 +14.29% 37
UK excluding London -27 96 £95,000 +11.76% 24
London +29 85 £100,000 +3.90% 17
Work from Home +31 74 £85,000 -5.56% 14
North of England -17 34 £85,000 -1.45% 9
South East -6 29 £100,000 +17.65% 9
North West -3 20 £100,000 +15.94% 3
Yorkshire -35 14 £80,000 -11.11% 6
East of England - 14 - - 1
South West -54 12 £75,000 -16.67% 2
Scotland +10 6 - -
East Midlands -30 1 - -
Midlands -37 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 13 July 2026, Software Engineering 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 Engineering Manager in the job title.

1 198 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 62 (31.31%) Roadmaps
3 61 (30.81%) AWS
4 46 (23.23%) CI/CD
5 37 (18.69%) Java
5 37 (18.69%) Technical Leadership
6 36 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
7 34 (17.17%) Agile
7 34 (17.17%) Test Automation
8 27 (13.64%) Spring
9 23 (11.62%) Continuous Improvement
10 22 (11.11%) DevOps
10 22 (11.11%) Product Roadmap
11 18 (9.09%) Azure
11 18 (9.09%) Coaching
11 18 (9.09%) Mentoring
12 17 (8.59%) React
13 16 (8.08%) JavaScript
14 15 (7.58%) AI
15 13 (6.57%) Azure DevOps
15 13 (6.57%) CSS
15 13 (6.57%) Decision-Making
15 13 (6.57%) HTML
15 13 (6.57%) LLM
15 13 (6.57%) Microsoft
15 13 (6.57%) Scrum
16 12 (6.06%) Wireless
17 10 (5.05%) Full-Stack Development
17 10 (5.05%) Sprint Planning
18 9 (4.55%) GCP

Software Engineering 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 6 (3.03%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (3.03%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 61 (30.81%) AWS
2 18 (9.09%) Azure
3 13 (6.57%) Azure DevOps
4 9 (4.55%) GCP
5 8 (4.04%) SaaS
6 7 (3.54%) Azure Key Vault
6 7 (3.54%) Cloudflare
6 7 (3.54%) Entra ID
6 7 (3.54%) Vercel
7 6 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.06%) Wireless
2 2 (1.01%) Broadband
3 1 (0.51%) 5G
3 1 (0.51%) LTE
Development Applications
1 1 (0.51%) Git
1 1 (0.51%) Subversion
General
1 86 (43.43%) Finance
2 38 (19.19%) Banking
3 17 (8.59%) Retail
4 8 (4.04%) Social Skills
5 7 (3.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 7 (3.54%) Law
5 7 (3.54%) Legal
5 7 (3.54%) Legal Technology
6 3 (1.52%) Health Technology
7 2 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.01%) Marketing
8 1 (0.51%) Aeronautics
8 1 (0.51%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (0.51%) Aviation
8 1 (0.51%) Electronics
8 1 (0.51%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.51%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (13.64%) Spring
2 17 (8.59%) React
3 13 (6.57%) CSS
3 13 (6.57%) HTML
4 7 (3.54%) Node.js
5 6 (3.03%) REST
6 3 (1.52%) .NET
7 2 (1.01%) .NET Core
8 1 (0.51%) Qt
Miscellaneous
1 28 (14.14%) Product Ownership
2 27 (13.64%) Public Cloud
3 10 (5.05%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.54%) Culture of Ownership
4 7 (3.54%) Onboarding
4 7 (3.54%) Podcast
5 4 (2.02%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (2.02%) Mobile App
6 3 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.01%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.01%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.01%) PMI
7 2 (1.01%) Taxonomies
8 1 (0.51%) Distributed Architecture
8 1 (0.51%) Embedded Systems
8 1 (0.51%) FPGA
Processes & Methodologies
1 198 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 62 (31.31%) Roadmaps
3 46 (23.23%) CI/CD
4 37 (18.69%) Technical Leadership
5 36 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
6 34 (17.17%) Agile
6 34 (17.17%) Test Automation
7 23 (11.62%) Continuous Improvement
8 22 (11.11%) DevOps
8 22 (11.11%) Product Roadmap
9 18 (9.09%) Coaching
9 18 (9.09%) Mentoring
10 15 (7.58%) AI
11 13 (6.57%) Decision-Making
11 13 (6.57%) LLM
11 13 (6.57%) Scrum
12 10 (5.05%) Full-Stack Development
12 10 (5.05%) Sprint Planning
13 9 (4.55%) Observability
13 9 (4.55%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 37 (18.69%) Java
2 16 (8.08%) JavaScript
3 8 (4.04%) C++
4 4 (2.02%) C#
5 3 (1.52%) Python
6 2 (1.01%) SQL
7 1 (0.51%) C
7 1 (0.51%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 7 (3.54%) Degree
2 5 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (1.01%) PMI Certification
4 1 (0.51%) Master's Degree
4 1 (0.51%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.54%) Accessibility
1 7 (3.54%) GRC
2 4 (2.02%) QA
3 2 (1.01%) GDPR
3 2 (1.01%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.51%) MISRA
Systems Management
1 2 (1.01%) Grafana
1 2 (1.01%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.51%) Terraform
Vendors
1 13 (6.57%) Microsoft