Software Development Engineer Job Trends

Software Development Engineer
UK

The median Software Development Engineer salary in the UK is £72,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 September 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 657 751 711
Rank change year-on-year +94 -40 +236
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Development Engineer 19 45 66
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.038% 0.058% 0.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.043% 0.060% 0.12%
Number of salaries quoted 9 28 48
10th Percentile £55,750 £37,500 £44,346
25th Percentile £68,750 £38,750 £49,088
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £45,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +61.11% -25.00% -
75th Percentile £105,000 £50,000 £72,500
90th Percentile - £70,000 £85,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £66,250 £45,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +47.22% -25.00% -4.00%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 44,338 74,395 56,728
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.65% 95.25% 94.13%
Number of salaries quoted 26,053 44,780 43,966
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -

Software Development Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Software Development Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Software Development Engineer in the UK

Software Development Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

Software Development Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Development Engineer over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Salary histogram for Software Development Engineer in the UK

Software Development Engineer
Top 8 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Development Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 18 September 2025. 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 +88 16 £105,000 +140.00% 43
UK excluding London +87 13 £66,250 +47.22% 33
Midlands +44 11 £70,000 +55.56% 6
West Midlands +43 8 £70,000 +40.00% 5
London +67 5 £105,000 +142.77% 13
East Midlands +31 5 - - 1
Scotland +42 2 £55,000 - 3
Work from Home +59 1 - - 11

Software Development Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Software Development Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Software Development Engineer in the job title.

1 10 (52.63%) Software Engineering
2 9 (47.37%) Software Testing
3 8 (42.11%) Agile
4 6 (31.58%) BPSS Clearance
4 6 (31.58%) Systems Engineering
4 6 (31.58%) Full-Stack Development
4 6 (31.58%) Validation
4 6 (31.58%) Aerospace
4 6 (31.58%) Automotive
4 6 (31.58%) MATLAB
4 6 (31.58%) Simulink
4 6 (31.58%) Test Automation
4 6 (31.58%) TypeScript
5 5 (26.32%) Finance
5 5 (26.32%) Fintech
5 5 (26.32%) AWS
6 4 (21.05%) React
6 4 (21.05%) GraphQL
6 4 (21.05%) Front End Development
6 4 (21.05%) Svelte
6 4 (21.05%) HTML
6 4 (21.05%) Java
6 4 (21.05%) CSS
6 4 (21.05%) Web Application Development
7 3 (15.79%) Data Analytics
7 3 (15.79%) Test Strategy
7 3 (15.79%) Analytics
7 3 (15.79%) DevOps
7 3 (15.79%) Cypress.io
7 3 (15.79%) JavaScript

Software Development Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 6 (31.58%) Simulink
2 2 (10.53%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 5 (26.32%) AWS
2 1 (5.26%) Azure
2 1 (5.26%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 1 (5.26%) 3GPP
1 1 (5.26%) 4G
1 1 (5.26%) 5G
1 1 (5.26%) Diameter Protocol
1 1 (5.26%) HTTP
1 1 (5.26%) SCTP
Development Applications
1 3 (15.79%) Cypress.io
1 3 (15.79%) Postman
2 2 (10.53%) GitLab
2 2 (10.53%) SoapUI
3 1 (5.26%) Bitbucket
3 1 (5.26%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (5.26%) Jasmine
3 1 (5.26%) Jenkins
3 1 (5.26%) JUnit
3 1 (5.26%) Robot Framework
General
1 6 (31.58%) Aerospace
1 6 (31.58%) Automotive
2 5 (26.32%) Finance
3 2 (10.53%) Manufacturing
3 2 (10.53%) Organisational Skills
3 2 (10.53%) Social Skills
3 2 (10.53%) Tech for Good
4 1 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (5.26%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (21.05%) CSS
1 4 (21.05%) GraphQL
1 4 (21.05%) HTML
1 4 (21.05%) React
1 4 (21.05%) Svelte
2 3 (15.79%) Playwright
3 1 (5.26%) gRPC
3 1 (5.26%) OpenAPI
3 1 (5.26%) REST
3 1 (5.26%) RESTful
3 1 (5.26%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 1 (5.26%) Cloud Native
1 1 (5.26%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1 (5.26%) Debian
1 1 (5.26%) Linux
1 1 (5.26%) Ubuntu
1 1 (5.26%) Unix
1 1 (5.26%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (52.63%) Software Engineering
2 9 (47.37%) Software Testing
3 8 (42.11%) Agile
4 6 (31.58%) Full-Stack Development
4 6 (31.58%) Systems Engineering
4 6 (31.58%) Test Automation
4 6 (31.58%) Validation
5 5 (26.32%) Fintech
6 4 (21.05%) Front End Development
6 4 (21.05%) Web Application Development
7 3 (15.79%) Analytics
7 3 (15.79%) CI/CD
7 3 (15.79%) Data Analytics
7 3 (15.79%) DevOps
7 3 (15.79%) SDET
7 3 (15.79%) Test Strategy
8 2 (10.53%) API Testing
8 2 (10.53%) Artificial Intelligence
8 2 (10.53%) Computer Science
8 2 (10.53%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 6 (31.58%) MATLAB
1 6 (31.58%) TypeScript
2 4 (21.05%) Java
3 3 (15.79%) JavaScript
4 2 (10.53%) PHP
4 2 (10.53%) Python
4 2 (10.53%) VBA
5 1 (5.26%) C++
5 1 (5.26%) Go
5 1 (5.26%) Kotlin
5 1 (5.26%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (31.58%) BPSS Clearance
2 2 (10.53%) Computer Science Degree
2 2 (10.53%) Degree
System Software
1 2 (10.53%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (10.53%) Kubernetes
2 1 (5.26%) Opsgenie
Vendors
1 1 (5.26%) Dynatrace
1 1 (5.26%) Splunk