Software Development Engineer Job Trends

Software Development Engineer
UK

The median Software Development Engineer salary in the UK is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 20 September 2026.

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

 6 months to
20 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 720 665 736
Rank change year-on-year -55 +71 -32
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Development Engineer 89 18 45
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.077% 0.037% 0.058%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.082% 0.041% 0.061%
Number of salaries quoted 41 8 28
10th Percentile £45,000 £54,250 £37,500
25th Percentile - £66,250 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £71,250 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -22.81% +58.33% -25.00%
75th Percentile £60,000 £105,000 £50,000
90th Percentile £85,000 - £70,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £66,250 £45,000
% change year-on-year -16.98% +47.22% -25.00%

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 108,283 44,200 74,178
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.18% 89.65% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 74,199 25,992 44,363
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.36% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

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 20 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Development Engineer in the UK

Software Development Engineer
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 Development Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 20 September 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 -71 77 £55,000 -38.03% 86
Work from Home +2 44 £80,000 - 35
London -29 44 £100,000 -4.76% 51
UK excluding London -115 44 £55,000 -16.98% 41
North of England - 20 £55,000 - 4
Yorkshire - 14 £55,000 - 2
Wales - 11 £45,000 - 3
Midlands -51 8 £60,000 -14.29% 10
West Midlands -48 7 £60,000 -14.29%
South East - 5 £70,000 - 4
North East - 4 £55,000 -
North West - 2 £70,000 - 2
East Midlands -39 1 - - 10

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

For the 6 months to 20 September 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 54 (60.67%) Software Engineering
2 39 (43.82%) AWS
3 37 (41.57%) Java
3 37 (41.57%) OO
4 36 (40.45%) Roadmaps
5 34 (38.20%) Product Management
5 34 (38.20%) REST
6 33 (37.08%) HTTP
6 33 (37.08%) Product Roadmap
6 33 (37.08%) SOA
6 33 (37.08%) SOLID
6 33 (37.08%) Technical Leadership
7 32 (35.96%) BDD
8 29 (32.58%) TDD
9 27 (30.34%) Software Testing
10 26 (29.21%) Pair Programming
10 26 (29.21%) Test Automation
11 25 (28.09%) Collaborative Working
12 23 (25.84%) SDET
13 12 (13.48%) Agile
13 12 (13.48%) AI
14 11 (12.36%) Mentoring
15 10 (11.24%) QA
16 9 (10.11%) Architectural Design
16 9 (10.11%) GitHub
17 8 (8.99%) Continuous Integration
17 8 (8.99%) GitHub Copilot
17 8 (8.99%) Test Strategy
17 8 (8.99%) User Experience
18 7 (7.87%) Python

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 39 (43.82%) AWS
2 9 (10.11%) GitHub
3 8 (8.99%) GitHub Copilot
4 4 (4.49%) Azure
4 4 (4.49%) GCP
5 3 (3.37%) Serverless
6 2 (2.25%) Copilot Studio
6 2 (2.25%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (2.25%) Microsoft Copilot
6 2 (2.25%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 33 (37.08%) HTTP
Development Applications
1 6 (6.74%) Cucumber
2 1 (1.12%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.12%) Cypress.io
2 1 (1.12%) Gatling
2 1 (1.12%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.12%) JIRA
2 1 (1.12%) JMeter
2 1 (1.12%) Pa11y
2 1 (1.12%) Postman
2 1 (1.12%) REST Assured
2 1 (1.12%) Selenium
2 1 (1.12%) Zephyr
General
1 39 (43.82%) Finance
2 35 (39.33%) Banking
3 8 (8.99%) Influencing Skills
4 5 (5.62%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (4.49%) Games
6 2 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.12%) Automotive
7 1 (1.12%) Health Technology
7 1 (1.12%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.12%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (38.20%) REST
2 5 (5.62%) Gherkin
3 4 (4.49%) Node.js
3 4 (4.49%) React
4 3 (3.37%) React Native
5 1 (1.12%) GraphQL
5 1 (1.12%) Playwright
5 1 (1.12%) Ruby on Rails
5 1 (1.12%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 33 (37.08%) Public Cloud
2 31 (34.83%) Product Ownership
3 4 (4.49%) Online Games
4 3 (3.37%) Embedded Systems
4 3 (3.37%) Mobile Payment
5 2 (2.25%) Algorithms
6 1 (1.12%) Blockchain
6 1 (1.12%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (1.12%) Educational Technology
6 1 (1.12%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (1.12%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 3 (3.37%) Linux
2 1 (1.12%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (60.67%) Software Engineering
2 37 (41.57%) OO
3 36 (40.45%) Roadmaps
4 34 (38.20%) Product Management
5 33 (37.08%) Product Roadmap
5 33 (37.08%) SOA
5 33 (37.08%) SOLID
5 33 (37.08%) Technical Leadership
6 32 (35.96%) BDD
7 29 (32.58%) TDD
8 27 (30.34%) Software Testing
9 26 (29.21%) Pair Programming
9 26 (29.21%) Test Automation
10 25 (28.09%) Collaborative Working
11 23 (25.84%) SDET
12 12 (13.48%) Agile
12 12 (13.48%) AI
13 11 (12.36%) Mentoring
14 9 (10.11%) Architectural Design
15 8 (8.99%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 37 (41.57%) Java
2 7 (7.87%) Python
3 6 (6.74%) Ruby
4 5 (5.62%) C#
5 4 (4.49%) JavaScript
5 4 (4.49%) TypeScript
6 2 (2.25%) C++
6 2 (2.25%) SQL
7 1 (1.12%) C
7 1 (1.12%) PHP
7 1 (1.12%) Rust
Qualifications
1 3 (3.37%) Computer Science Degree
1 3 (3.37%) Degree
1 3 (3.37%) Master's Degree
2 1 (1.12%) ISTQB
2 1 (1.12%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
2 1 (1.12%) SC Cleared
2 1 (1.12%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (11.24%) QA
2 6 (6.74%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 2 (2.25%) Firmware
2 1 (1.12%) Docker
2 1 (1.12%) KVM
2 1 (1.12%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (1.12%) Podman
Vendors
1 3 (3.37%) Microsoft
2 1 (1.12%) VMware
99 Software Development Engineer jobs Nationwide