Software Developer Job Trends

Software Developer
UK

The median Software Developer salary in the UK is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 193 220 177
Rank change year-on-year +27 -43 -4
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Developer 737 739 973
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.25% 1.34% 1.90%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.38% 1.44% 1.99%
Number of salaries quoted 662 633 857
10th Percentile £28,250 £40,200 £38,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £47,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - +5.02%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £85,000 £107,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +2.80% +7.00%

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 53,514 51,440 48,883
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.46% 93.14% 95.23%
Number of salaries quoted 32,905 27,168 37,760
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,200 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,956 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Software Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Software Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Developer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the UK

Software Developer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Developer over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Developer in the UK

Software Developer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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 +32 658 £55,000 -4.35% 207
UK excluding London +42 580 £50,000 -9.09% 190
Work from Home +14 238 £62,500 +13.64% 89
South East +5 174 £60,000 - 51
North of England +55 163 £45,000 -10.00% 47
London +9 126 £76,000 - 49
South West +10 81 £52,500 -8.70% 23
North West +41 80 £50,000 - 25
Midlands +27 78 £50,000 -4.76% 31
Yorkshire +9 58 £30,500 -38.38% 13
West Midlands +22 43 £50,000 -4.76% 15
East Midlands -4 35 £50,000 -2.44% 16
East of England +28 34 £45,000 -15.09% 27
North East +26 27 £42,250 -39.64% 10
Wales +17 26 £45,000 -4.88% 7
Scotland -11 17 £30,500 -39.00% 6
Northern Ireland 0 9 £70,000 -1.75% 1

Software Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 January 2026, Software Developer 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 Developer in the job title.

1 303 (41.11%) Azure
2 251 (34.06%) JavaScript
3 237 (32.16%) AWS
4 236 (32.02%) .NET
5 227 (30.80%) C#
6 199 (27.00%) Python
7 193 (26.19%) Agile
8 181 (24.56%) Mentoring
9 175 (23.74%) CSS
10 174 (23.61%) Microsoft
11 169 (22.93%) HTML
12 154 (20.90%) Git
13 140 (19.00%) GitHub
14 125 (16.96%) Software Engineering
15 120 (16.28%) Internet
16 117 (15.88%) Azure Certification
17 116 (15.74%) AWS Certification
17 116 (15.74%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
17 116 (15.74%) Cybersecurity
17 116 (15.74%) Microsoft Certification
18 107 (14.52%) SQL
19 102 (13.84%) Problem-Solving
20 98 (13.30%) SQL Server
21 89 (12.08%) CI/CD
22 85 (11.53%) TypeScript
23 77 (10.45%) Full-Stack Development
24 75 (10.18%) SaaS
25 73 (9.91%) .NET Core
26 69 (9.36%) .NET Framework
27 68 (9.23%) Continuous Improvement

Software Developer 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 (0.81%) Apache
2 4 (0.54%) Camunda
3 3 (0.41%) CMS
3 3 (0.41%) Confluence
3 3 (0.41%) IIS
3 3 (0.41%) nginx
3 3 (0.41%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.27%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.27%) Drupal
4 2 (0.27%) EPiServer
4 2 (0.27%) HCL Notes
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.27%) Umbraco
Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.27%) Photoshop
2 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (0.95%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.27%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.14%) ION Anvil
Cloud Services
1 303 (41.11%) Azure
2 237 (32.16%) AWS
3 140 (19.00%) GitHub
4 75 (10.18%) SaaS
5 44 (5.97%) GCP
6 38 (5.16%) Serverless
7 22 (2.99%) Azure DevOps
8 20 (2.71%) AWS Lambda
9 15 (2.04%) Amazon S3
10 11 (1.49%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (1.09%) Amazon SQS
12 7 (0.95%) Power Platform
13 6 (0.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (0.81%) Azure AKS
13 6 (0.81%) OpenShift
14 5 (0.68%) Azure Event Grid
14 5 (0.68%) Azure Logic Apps
14 5 (0.68%) Entra ID
15 4 (0.54%) Azure App Service
15 4 (0.54%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 120 (16.28%) Internet
2 3 (0.41%) Broadband
3 2 (0.27%) Network Security
3 2 (0.27%) SSH
4 1 (0.14%) 3G
4 1 (0.14%) AMQP
4 1 (0.14%) Bluetooth
4 1 (0.14%) GPRS
4 1 (0.14%) GSM
4 1 (0.14%) Modbus
4 1 (0.14%) MQTT
4 1 (0.14%) RS-232
4 1 (0.14%) RS-485
4 1 (0.14%) SSL
4 1 (0.14%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.14%) UWB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (13.30%) SQL Server
2 45 (6.11%) MySQL
3 28 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.90%) MongoDB
5 11 (1.49%) NoSQL
5 11 (1.49%) Relational Database
6 7 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.81%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (0.68%) Power BI
8 5 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.27%) GIS
9 2 (0.27%) MariaDB
9 2 (0.27%) Metadata
9 2 (0.27%) MS Access
9 2 (0.27%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.27%) Redis
9 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.14%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 154 (20.90%) Git
2 23 (3.12%) Jenkins
3 16 (2.17%) GitLab
4 14 (1.90%) Selenium
5 10 (1.36%) Cypress.io
5 10 (1.36%) Visual Studio
6 8 (1.09%) Cucumber
6 8 (1.09%) JUnit
7 7 (0.95%) JIRA
7 7 (0.95%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.95%) WebDriver
8 6 (0.81%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.54%) TeamCity
11 3 (0.41%) Postman
12 2 (0.27%) Gatling
12 2 (0.27%) gulp
12 2 (0.27%) JMeter
12 2 (0.27%) Subversion
12 2 (0.27%) webpack
General
1 116 (15.74%) Multimedia
2 97 (13.16%) Social Skills
3 90 (12.21%) Finance
4 22 (2.99%) Law
5 21 (2.85%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.44%) Analytical Skills
7 16 (2.17%) Health Technology
7 16 (2.17%) Organisational Skills
8 15 (2.04%) Marketing
8 15 (2.04%) Publishing
8 15 (2.04%) Tech for Good
9 14 (1.90%) Legal
10 13 (1.76%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.36%) Retail
12 9 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.54%) Military
15 3 (0.41%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.41%) Automotive
15 3 (0.41%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 236 (32.02%) .NET
2 175 (23.74%) CSS
3 169 (22.93%) HTML
4 73 (9.91%) .NET Core
5 69 (9.36%) .NET Framework
6 68 (9.23%) RESTful
7 60 (8.14%) React
8 55 (7.46%) ASP.NET
9 31 (4.21%) Node.js
10 24 (3.26%) AngularJS
11 20 (2.71%) HTML5
11 20 (2.71%) jQuery
11 20 (2.71%) Vue
12 19 (2.58%) Entity Framework
12 19 (2.58%) REST
13 18 (2.44%) CSS3
14 16 (2.17%) Blazor
14 16 (2.17%) Flask
14 16 (2.17%) WPF
15 15 (2.04%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 27 (3.66%) Greenfield Project
2 17 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (2.04%) Cloud Native
3 15 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (1.22%) Marketing Technology
4 9 (1.22%) Product Ownership
5 7 (0.95%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 6 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (0.68%) Distributed Systems
7 5 (0.68%) Mobile App
7 5 (0.68%) Onboarding
8 3 (0.41%) Fixed Income
8 3 (0.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 3 (0.41%) Hedge funds
8 3 (0.41%) Virtual Team
9 2 (0.27%) Client/Server
9 2 (0.27%) Credit Risk
9 2 (0.27%) Derivative
9 2 (0.27%) Graphic Design
9 2 (0.27%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.12%) Windows
2 10 (1.36%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
3 1 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (26.19%) Agile
2 181 (24.56%) Mentoring
3 125 (16.96%) Software Engineering
4 116 (15.74%) Cybersecurity
5 102 (13.84%) Problem-Solving
6 89 (12.08%) CI/CD
7 77 (10.45%) Full-Stack Development
8 68 (9.23%) Continuous Improvement
9 61 (8.28%) AI
10 58 (7.87%) Computer Science
11 57 (7.73%) DevOps
12 56 (7.60%) Roadmaps
13 49 (6.65%) Microservices
14 48 (6.51%) Clean Code
15 45 (6.11%) Business Strategy
16 39 (5.29%) Code Quality
17 38 (5.16%) Containerisation
17 38 (5.16%) TDD
18 35 (4.75%) Collaborative Culture
18 35 (4.75%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 251 (34.06%) JavaScript
2 227 (30.80%) C#
3 199 (27.00%) Python
4 107 (14.52%) SQL
5 85 (11.53%) TypeScript
6 63 (8.55%) PHP
7 58 (7.87%) Java
8 50 (6.78%) C++
9 12 (1.63%) C
10 9 (1.22%) Delphi
10 9 (1.22%) Scala
11 6 (0.81%) Go
11 6 (0.81%) VB.NET
12 4 (0.54%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.54%) VB
12 4 (0.54%) VBA
12 4 (0.54%) XAML
13 3 (0.41%) F#
13 3 (0.41%) Haskell
13 3 (0.41%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 117 (15.88%) Azure Certification
2 116 (15.74%) AWS Certification
2 116 (15.74%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
2 116 (15.74%) Microsoft Certification
3 49 (6.65%) Degree
4 33 (4.48%) Computer Science Degree
5 25 (3.39%) Security Cleared
6 15 (2.04%) SC Cleared
7 6 (0.81%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.27%) PhD
10 1 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.14%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.14%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (4.75%) QA
2 18 (2.44%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.54%) WCAG
4 1 (0.14%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.14%) EU AI Act
4 1 (0.14%) HL7
4 1 (0.14%) MISRA
4 1 (0.14%) NIST
System Software
1 42 (5.70%) Docker
2 3 (0.41%) Firmware
3 2 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 28 (3.80%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.36%) Grafana
3 9 (1.22%) Terraform
4 2 (0.27%) Ansible
5 1 (0.14%) Kibana
5 1 (0.14%) logstash
Vendors
1 174 (23.61%) Microsoft
2 21 (2.85%) Oracle
3 7 (0.95%) Syncfusion
3 7 (0.95%) Telerik
4 4 (0.54%) SAP
5 3 (0.41%) Databricks
5 3 (0.41%) Zend
6 2 (0.27%) ESRI
6 2 (0.27%) HubSpot
6 2 (0.27%) Lotus
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe
7 1 (0.14%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.14%) Foundry
7 1 (0.14%) Google
7 1 (0.14%) IBM
7 1 (0.14%) ION Trading
7 1 (0.14%) IONA
7 1 (0.14%) Xamarin