Software Development Engineer Job Trends

Software Development Engineer
UK

The median Software Development Engineer salary in the UK is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 21 May 2026.

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

 6 months to
21 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 629 641 818
Rank change year-on-year +12 +177 +9
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Development Engineer 103 21 70
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.048% 0.072%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.053% 0.076%
Number of salaries quoted 51 11 40
10th Percentile - £51,250 £37,500
25th Percentile £55,000 £55,625 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £87,500 £51,250
Median % change year-on-year -31.43% +70.73% -21.15%
75th Percentile £77,500 £105,000 £58,188
90th Percentile £100,000 - £65,375
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £51,250
% change year-on-year +9.09% +7.32% -14.58%

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 86,124 39,293 92,007
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.36% 89.47% 94.64%
Number of salaries quoted 56,991 22,669 67,426
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
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 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £51,729 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.34% +3.46% -5.66%

Software Development Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Software Development Engineer job vacancy trend 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 21 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Development Engineer in the UK

Software Development Engineer
Top 12 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 21 May 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 +24 97 £57,500 -34.29% 3
London +33 69 £55,000 -37.14% 3
Work from Home +72 48 £80,000 +4.92% 5
UK excluding London -37 30 £60,000 +9.09% 3
Midlands -19 14 £57,500 -
West Midlands -29 14 £57,500 -
North of England - 10 £65,000 -
North West - 5 £80,000 -
South East - 4 £70,000 -
North East - 4 £55,000 -
Wales -31 2 - - 1
Yorkshire - 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 2026, Software Development 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 Software Development Engineer in the job title.

1 46 (44.66%) Software Engineering
2 44 (42.72%) AWS
3 43 (41.75%) Software Testing
4 38 (36.89%) Java
5 37 (35.92%) SDET
6 34 (33.01%) OO
6 34 (33.01%) Roadmaps
7 31 (30.10%) SOA
8 30 (29.13%) Test Automation
9 29 (28.16%) HTTP
9 29 (28.16%) Product Management
9 29 (28.16%) Product Roadmap
9 29 (28.16%) REST
9 29 (28.16%) SOLID
9 29 (28.16%) Technical Leadership
10 22 (21.36%) Mentoring
10 22 (21.36%) TDD
11 19 (18.45%) AI
12 18 (17.48%) BDD
13 17 (16.50%) Architectural Design
14 16 (15.53%) JavaScript
15 15 (14.56%) Collaborative Working
15 15 (14.56%) E-Commerce
15 15 (14.56%) Pair Programming
15 15 (14.56%) Software Delivery
16 14 (13.59%) GitHub
16 14 (13.59%) GitHub Copilot
16 14 (13.59%) User Experience
17 13 (12.62%) Azure
17 13 (12.62%) CI/CD

Software Development 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:

Cloud Services
1 44 (42.72%) AWS
2 14 (13.59%) GitHub
2 14 (13.59%) GitHub Copilot
3 13 (12.62%) Azure
3 13 (12.62%) GCP
4 8 (7.77%) BrowserStack
5 3 (2.91%) Datadog
6 2 (1.94%) Amazon Kinesis
7 1 (0.97%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 29 (28.16%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.94%) Couchbase
1 2 (1.94%) DynamoDB
1 2 (1.94%) NoSQL
1 2 (1.94%) Redis
1 2 (1.94%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (4.85%) Cucumber
2 3 (2.91%) Cypress.io
2 3 (2.91%) GitLab
2 3 (2.91%) JIRA
2 3 (2.91%) Postman
3 2 (1.94%) JBehave
4 1 (0.97%) NUnit
General
1 40 (38.83%) Finance
2 32 (31.07%) Banking
3 14 (13.59%) Influencing Skills
4 10 (9.71%) Social Skills
5 8 (7.77%) Automotive
6 5 (4.85%) Health Technology
6 5 (4.85%) Pharmaceutical
7 4 (3.88%) Games
8 3 (2.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.94%) Aeronautics
9 2 (1.94%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.94%) Analytical Skills
10 1 (0.97%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (28.16%) REST
2 5 (4.85%) Node.js
2 5 (4.85%) React
2 5 (4.85%) React Native
3 3 (2.91%) Gherkin
4 2 (1.94%) Kafka
4 2 (1.94%) Memcached
4 2 (1.94%) Spring
5 1 (0.97%) .NET
5 1 (0.97%) .NET Framework
5 1 (0.97%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 29 (28.16%) Public Cloud
2 15 (14.56%) Product Ownership
3 8 (7.77%) Embedded Systems
4 5 (4.85%) Mobile Payment
4 5 (4.85%) Robotics
5 4 (3.88%) Online Games
6 3 (2.91%) Blockchain
6 3 (2.91%) Blog
7 2 (1.94%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.94%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (1.94%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.97%) Educational Technology
8 1 (0.97%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 3 (2.91%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (44.66%) Software Engineering
2 43 (41.75%) Software Testing
3 37 (35.92%) SDET
4 34 (33.01%) OO
4 34 (33.01%) Roadmaps
5 31 (30.10%) SOA
6 30 (29.13%) Test Automation
7 29 (28.16%) Product Management
7 29 (28.16%) Product Roadmap
7 29 (28.16%) SOLID
7 29 (28.16%) Technical Leadership
8 22 (21.36%) Mentoring
8 22 (21.36%) TDD
9 19 (18.45%) AI
10 18 (17.48%) BDD
11 17 (16.50%) Architectural Design
12 15 (14.56%) Collaborative Working
12 15 (14.56%) E-Commerce
12 15 (14.56%) Pair Programming
12 15 (14.56%) Software Delivery
Programming Languages
1 38 (36.89%) Java
2 16 (15.53%) JavaScript
3 13 (12.62%) TypeScript
4 6 (5.83%) Python
5 5 (4.85%) Kotlin
5 5 (4.85%) PHP
6 4 (3.88%) C#
7 3 (2.91%) C++
7 3 (2.91%) SQL
8 2 (1.94%) Scala
Qualifications
1 8 (7.77%) Degree
1 8 (7.77%) ISTQB
1 8 (7.77%) Master's Degree
2 5 (4.85%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (0.97%) SC Cleared
3 1 (0.97%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.74%) QA
2 8 (7.77%) Accessibility
System Software
1 2 (1.94%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (2.91%) Grafana
Vendors
1 5 (4.85%) Microsoft
Software Development Engineer jobs