Software Engineer Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Software Engineer salary in the UK excluding London is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 July 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 52 15
Rank change year-on-year +29 -37 +63
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 3,567 1,571 5,430
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.87% 4.61% 8.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.14% 5.14% 8.95%
Number of salaries quoted 2,855 716 3,077
10th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £38,750
25th Percentile £53,750 £52,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +18.18% -8.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £78,810 £60,000
% change year-on-year -11.18% +31.35% -13.60%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 excluding London with a recognized job title 69,417 30,555 60,700
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.86% 89.66% 94.82%
Number of salaries quoted 47,979 17,575 41,766
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,929 £28,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £33,125 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - - -8.33%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Salary distribution trend for Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 26 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 26 July 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
South East +78 964 £65,000 - 152
North of England +17 930 £65,000 -7.14% 147
South West +29 637 £65,000 - 122
North West +3 528 £70,000 -6.67% 87
East of England +68 427 £70,000 +7.69% 119
Midlands +47 353 £61,250 -5.77% 66
Yorkshire +75 249 £60,000 -10.11% 35
West Midlands +39 181 £65,000 +4.00% 31
East Midlands +19 172 £54,000 -22.86% 35
North East +11 153 £70,000 +27.27% 25
Scotland -15 144 £65,000 - 39
Wales +2 98 £48,310 -28.96% 22
Northern Ireland -52 15 £90,000 +80.00% 15
Software Engineer
UK

Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 26 July 2026, Software 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 across the UK excluding London region featuring Software Engineer in the job title.

1 3,525 (98.82%) Software Engineering
2 611 (17.13%) C++
3 555 (15.56%) C#
4 475 (13.32%) Python
5 432 (12.11%) Agile
6 380 (10.65%) AWS
7 357 (10.01%) Full-Stack Development
8 347 (9.73%) Security Cleared
9 322 (9.03%) CI/CD
10 315 (8.83%) .NET
11 303 (8.49%) Java
12 292 (8.19%) AI
12 292 (8.19%) Degree
13 275 (7.71%) Azure
14 265 (7.43%) C
15 256 (7.18%) JavaScript
16 245 (6.87%) Linux
17 236 (6.62%) DevOps
17 236 (6.62%) Mentoring
18 224 (6.28%) TypeScript
19 219 (6.14%) SC Cleared
20 198 (5.55%) Problem-Solving
21 194 (5.44%) React
22 193 (5.41%) Microservices
23 188 (5.27%) Test Automation
24 187 (5.24%) SDLC
25 186 (5.21%) SQL
26 176 (4.93%) Computer Science
27 172 (4.82%) Docker
28 168 (4.71%) Continuous Improvement

Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 17 (0.48%) Apache
2 15 (0.42%) SharePoint Server
3 8 (0.22%) Confluence
3 8 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
4 6 (0.17%) WinCC
5 4 (0.11%) Apache Solr
5 4 (0.11%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.11%) CMS
5 4 (0.11%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.056%) ArchestrA
6 2 (0.056%) Headless CMS
6 2 (0.056%) WordPress
7 1 (0.028%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.028%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (0.31%) Lightworks
2 5 (0.14%) Simulink
3 4 (0.11%) EPLAN
3 4 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.11%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.084%) CANalyzer
5 2 (0.056%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.056%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.028%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.028%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.028%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.056%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.028%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 380 (10.65%) AWS
2 275 (7.71%) Azure
3 153 (4.29%) SaaS
4 97 (2.72%) GCP
5 66 (1.85%) Serverless
6 43 (1.21%) GitHub
7 39 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (0.93%) Firebase
9 30 (0.84%) Anthropic Claude
10 20 (0.56%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (0.45%) Amazon S3
12 15 (0.42%) Cloud Run
12 15 (0.42%) GitHub Actions
13 14 (0.39%) Azure AKS
14 12 (0.34%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.31%) Amazon EKS
16 8 (0.22%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 8 (0.22%) Azure Functions
16 8 (0.22%) OpenShift
17 7 (0.20%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 58 (1.63%) Wireless
2 36 (1.01%) Ethernet
3 27 (0.76%) Bluetooth
4 24 (0.67%) RS-232
5 23 (0.64%) Modbus
6 17 (0.48%) MQTT
6 17 (0.48%) ZigBee
7 16 (0.45%) TCP/IP
7 16 (0.45%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (0.42%) Profibus
9 12 (0.34%) RS-485
10 9 (0.25%) ATM
10 9 (0.25%) LTE
11 8 (0.22%) Network Security
12 5 (0.14%) Broadband
12 5 (0.14%) Wireshark
13 4 (0.11%) AMQP
13 4 (0.11%) Software-Defined Radio
14 3 (0.084%) Software-Defined Networking
15 2 (0.056%) LoRaWAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (2.16%) PostgreSQL
2 65 (1.82%) SQL Server
3 64 (1.79%) MongoDB
4 56 (1.57%) NoSQL
5 48 (1.35%) MySQL
6 21 (0.59%) Relational Database
7 16 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
8 15 (0.42%) Pinecone
8 15 (0.42%) Redis
9 13 (0.36%) Big Data
10 9 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 7 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
12 6 (0.17%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.14%) FileMaker
13 5 (0.14%) Neo4j
14 4 (0.11%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.11%) Geospatial Data
14 4 (0.11%) GIS
14 4 (0.11%) MariaDB
14 4 (0.11%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 128 (3.59%) Git
2 48 (1.35%) GitLab
3 32 (0.90%) JIRA
4 31 (0.87%) Jenkins
5 22 (0.62%) Visual Studio Code
6 18 (0.50%) Claude Code
7 13 (0.36%) Visual Studio
8 11 (0.31%) Cucumber
9 9 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 7 (0.20%) GDB
10 7 (0.20%) JUnit
10 7 (0.20%) Moq
11 6 (0.17%) Bitbucket
11 6 (0.17%) Eclipse
11 6 (0.17%) LabVIEW
11 6 (0.17%) Yeoman
12 5 (0.14%) Postman
13 4 (0.11%) CMake
13 4 (0.11%) Robot Framework
13 4 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 216 (6.06%) Manufacturing
2 184 (5.16%) Electronics
3 166 (4.65%) Social Skills
4 101 (2.83%) Finance
5 94 (2.64%) Aerospace
6 82 (2.30%) Automotive
7 81 (2.27%) Public Sector
8 46 (1.29%) Analytical Skills
9 36 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
10 35 (0.98%) Aviation
11 27 (0.76%) Retail
12 25 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 19 (0.53%) Games
13 19 (0.53%) Military
13 19 (0.53%) Telecoms
14 14 (0.39%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.34%) Tech for Good
16 9 (0.25%) Agriculture
16 9 (0.25%) Health Technology
16 9 (0.25%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 315 (8.83%) .NET
2 194 (5.44%) React
3 116 (3.25%) Node.js
4 101 (2.83%) Vue
5 72 (2.02%) AngularJS
5 72 (2.02%) WPF
6 65 (1.82%) CSS
7 61 (1.71%) REST
7 61 (1.71%) RESTful
8 60 (1.68%) HTML
8 60 (1.68%) Spring
9 53 (1.49%) Spring Boot
10 40 (1.12%) .NET Core
11 38 (1.07%) Next.js
12 35 (0.98%) .NET Framework
12 35 (0.98%) Django
13 26 (0.73%) Yocto
14 23 (0.64%) ASP.NET
15 22 (0.62%) Entity Framework
16 21 (0.59%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 153 (4.29%) Cloud Native
2 123 (3.45%) Embedded Systems
3 90 (2.52%) Algorithms
4 89 (2.50%) Robotics
5 76 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
6 65 (1.82%) Product Ownership
7 59 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
8 58 (1.63%) AI Agents
8 58 (1.63%) IoT
9 47 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
10 31 (0.87%) Mobile App
11 30 (0.84%) Device Driver
12 21 (0.59%) Client/Server
13 20 (0.56%) ARM Cortex
13 20 (0.56%) Hedge funds
14 19 (0.53%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.53%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.53%) Public Cloud
15 18 (0.50%) Distributed Computing
15 18 (0.50%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 245 (6.87%) Linux
2 51 (1.43%) Windows
3 50 (1.40%) Embedded Linux
4 31 (0.87%) FreeRTOS
5 29 (0.81%) Android
6 9 (0.25%) Debian
7 7 (0.20%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.14%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.11%) CentOS
9 4 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.084%) Gentoo
11 2 (0.056%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.056%) SafeRTOS
11 2 (0.056%) Unix
11 2 (0.056%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.056%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.056%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.056%) zOS
12 1 (0.028%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 3,525 (98.82%) Software Engineering
2 432 (12.11%) Agile
3 357 (10.01%) Full-Stack Development
4 322 (9.03%) CI/CD
5 292 (8.19%) AI
6 236 (6.62%) DevOps
6 236 (6.62%) Mentoring
7 198 (5.55%) Problem-Solving
8 193 (5.41%) Microservices
9 188 (5.27%) Test Automation
10 187 (5.24%) SDLC
11 176 (4.93%) Computer Science
12 168 (4.71%) Continuous Improvement
13 128 (3.59%) Containerisation
14 120 (3.36%) Software Architecture
15 114 (3.20%) TDD
16 112 (3.14%) Software Testing
17 104 (2.92%) Scrum
18 100 (2.80%) Code Quality
19 94 (2.64%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 611 (17.13%) C++
2 555 (15.56%) C#
3 475 (13.32%) Python
4 303 (8.49%) Java
5 265 (7.43%) C
6 256 (7.18%) JavaScript
7 224 (6.28%) TypeScript
8 186 (5.21%) SQL
9 126 (3.53%) Rust
10 59 (1.65%) PHP
11 58 (1.63%) Go
12 53 (1.49%) Embedded C
13 26 (0.73%) Ruby
14 25 (0.70%) Embedded C++
15 18 (0.50%) Bash
16 17 (0.48%) COBOL
16 17 (0.48%) Kotlin
17 14 (0.39%) Scala
18 13 (0.36%) Ada
18 13 (0.36%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 347 (9.73%) Security Cleared
2 292 (8.19%) Degree
3 219 (6.14%) SC Cleared
4 144 (4.04%) DV Cleared
5 133 (3.73%) Computer Science Degree
6 52 (1.46%) Master's Degree
7 24 (0.67%) PhD
8 16 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (0.28%) HND
10 9 (0.25%) DBS Check
11 8 (0.22%) Azure Certification
12 6 (0.17%) HNC
13 5 (0.14%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.14%) CEH
13 5 (0.14%) OSCP
14 4 (0.11%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (0.056%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 2 (0.056%) NVQ Level 3
16 1 (0.028%) Chartered Engineer
16 1 (0.028%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.10%) QA
2 30 (0.84%) Accessibility
3 9 (0.25%) IEC 61131
4 8 (0.22%) IEC 61508
5 7 (0.20%) MISRA
5 7 (0.20%) MISRA C
6 6 (0.17%) JTAG
7 4 (0.11%) DO-178B
8 3 (0.084%) ECSS
8 3 (0.084%) GAMP
8 3 (0.084%) GDPR
8 3 (0.084%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.056%) ISO 26262
9 2 (0.056%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.028%) Automotive SPICE
10 1 (0.028%) DO-254
10 1 (0.028%) HAZOP
10 1 (0.028%) IEC 62304
10 1 (0.028%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.028%) WCAG
System Software
1 172 (4.82%) Docker
2 156 (4.37%) Firmware
3 52 (1.46%) Embedded Firmware
4 11 (0.31%) KVM
4 11 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (0.28%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.17%) QEMU
8 2 (0.056%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.028%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 133 (3.73%) Kubernetes
2 83 (2.33%) Terraform
3 32 (0.90%) Ansible
4 8 (0.22%) Grafana
5 7 (0.20%) Kibana
5 7 (0.20%) logstash
5 7 (0.20%) Podman
6 5 (0.14%) Functional Safety
6 5 (0.14%) Puppet
7 3 (0.084%) Plesk
7 3 (0.084%) SCCM
7 3 (0.084%) SCOM
7 3 (0.084%) SCOrch
8 2 (0.056%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.056%) Packer
8 2 (0.056%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.028%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 31 (0.87%) Siemens
2 30 (0.84%) Microsoft
3 19 (0.53%) Rockwell
4 18 (0.50%) Google
5 16 (0.45%) Oracle
6 13 (0.36%) VMware
7 12 (0.34%) Okta
7 12 (0.34%) Ping Identity
7 12 (0.34%) Salesforce
8 10 (0.28%) Allen-Bradley
9 9 (0.25%) OpenAI
10 7 (0.20%) Atlassian
10 7 (0.20%) Splunk
11 6 (0.17%) Intel
12 5 (0.14%) Xamarin
13 4 (0.11%) ForgeRock
13 4 (0.11%) Peregrine
13 4 (0.11%) Red Hat
13 4 (0.11%) SaltStack
14 3 (0.084%) Typelevel