Software Engineering Manager Job Trends

Software Engineering Manager
UK

The median Software Engineering Manager salary in the UK is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 September 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 573 619 655
Rank change year-on-year +46 +36 +43
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineering Manager 235 61 147
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.12% 0.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.14% 0.20%
Number of salaries quoted 120 44 55
10th Percentile £75,000 £62,500 £55,000
25th Percentile £85,000 £71,250 £73,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £85,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% +6.25% -11.11%
75th Percentile - £102,500 £92,500
90th Percentile - £108,375 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £100,000 £77,500 £77,500
% change year-on-year +29.03% - -3.13%

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 106,506 44,266 74,164
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.35% 89.67% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 73,200 26,014 44,625
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -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 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 16 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineering Manager in the UK

Software Engineering Manager
Top 14 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 16 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 +43 216 £100,000 +17.65% 113
UK excluding London -33 125 £100,000 +29.03% 71
London +22 98 £100,000 +3.90% 53
Work from Home +24 76 £85,000 - 60
North of England -26 49 £100,000 +37.93% 12
South East -33 36 £100,000 +17.65% 14
North West +9 31 £100,000 +12.68% 8
Yorkshire -20 18 £75,000 +7.14%
South West -59 16 £85,000 -5.56% 8
East of England - 16 £95,000 - 8
Scotland +12 6 £100,000 +35.14% 16
East Midlands -31 1 - - 11
Midlands -35 1 - - 12
Wales -77 1 £80,000 +23.08% 3

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

For the 6 months to 16 September 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.

1 235 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 65 (27.66%) AWS
3 64 (27.23%) Roadmaps
4 46 (19.57%) Technical Leadership
5 42 (17.87%) CI/CD
6 37 (15.74%) Problem-Solving
7 35 (14.89%) Test Automation
8 34 (14.47%) Java
9 32 (13.62%) Spring
10 29 (12.34%) Agile
11 26 (11.06%) Product Roadmap
12 22 (9.36%) Continuous Improvement
13 21 (8.94%) Wireless
14 19 (8.09%) Azure
15 16 (6.81%) AI
15 16 (6.81%) DevOps
15 16 (6.81%) Mentoring
16 15 (6.38%) Scrum
17 11 (4.68%) Coaching
18 10 (4.26%) JavaScript
19 9 (3.83%) .NET
19 9 (3.83%) Microsoft
19 9 (3.83%) Sprint Planning
20 8 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
20 8 (3.40%) CSS
20 8 (3.40%) HTML
20 8 (3.40%) LLM
20 8 (3.40%) React
21 7 (2.98%) Degree
21 7 (2.98%) PMI Certification

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 5 (2.13%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (2.13%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 65 (27.66%) AWS
2 19 (8.09%) Azure
3 8 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
4 7 (2.98%) SaaS
5 5 (2.13%) GCP
5 5 (2.13%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.28%) Azure Key Vault
6 3 (1.28%) Cloudflare
6 3 (1.28%) Entra ID
6 3 (1.28%) Vercel
7 1 (0.43%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 21 (8.94%) Wireless
2 1 (0.43%) 5G
2 1 (0.43%) LTE
General
1 79 (33.62%) Finance
2 47 (20.00%) Banking
3 9 (3.83%) Retail
4 7 (2.98%) Social Skills
5 4 (1.70%) Law
5 4 (1.70%) Manufacturing
6 3 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (1.28%) Legal
6 3 (1.28%) Legal Technology
7 2 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.43%) Electronics
8 1 (0.43%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.43%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (13.62%) Spring
2 9 (3.83%) .NET
3 8 (3.40%) CSS
3 8 (3.40%) HTML
3 8 (3.40%) React
4 5 (2.13%) Node.js
4 5 (2.13%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 32 (13.62%) Product Ownership
1 32 (13.62%) Public Cloud
2 12 (5.11%) Cloud Native
3 7 (2.98%) PMI
4 6 (2.55%) Data Centre
5 3 (1.28%) Culture of Ownership
5 3 (1.28%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.28%) Podcast
5 3 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (0.85%) Algorithms
6 2 (0.85%) Data Structures
6 2 (0.85%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.43%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.43%) Mobile App
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 64 (27.23%) Roadmaps
3 46 (19.57%) Technical Leadership
4 42 (17.87%) CI/CD
5 37 (15.74%) Problem-Solving
6 35 (14.89%) Test Automation
7 29 (12.34%) Agile
8 26 (11.06%) Product Roadmap
9 22 (9.36%) Continuous Improvement
10 16 (6.81%) AI
10 16 (6.81%) DevOps
10 16 (6.81%) Mentoring
11 15 (6.38%) Scrum
12 11 (4.68%) Coaching
13 9 (3.83%) Sprint Planning
14 8 (3.40%) LLM
15 7 (2.98%) SDLC
15 7 (2.98%) Stakeholder Management
16 6 (2.55%) Computer Science
16 6 (2.55%) Performance Engineering
Programming Languages
1 34 (14.47%) Java
2 10 (4.26%) JavaScript
3 4 (1.70%) C++
4 1 (0.43%) C#
Qualifications
1 7 (2.98%) Degree
1 7 (2.98%) PMI Certification
2 5 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
2 5 (2.13%) SC Cleared
2 5 (2.13%) Security Cleared
3 1 (0.43%) Azure Certification
3 1 (0.43%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (1.28%) Accessibility
1 3 (1.28%) GRC
Vendors
1 9 (3.83%) Microsoft
2 2 (0.85%) Becrypt