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 8 January 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 33 33
Rank change year-on-year -38 0 +17
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,200 2,068 2,133
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.83% 5.66% 6.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.13% 6.09% 6.76%
Number of salaries quoted 921 997 1,297
10th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £41,159
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £87,500 £83,850
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -3.70%

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 38,350 33,985 31,530
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.47% 92.95% 95.32%
Number of salaries quoted 23,323 16,721 23,831
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,760
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £79,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 8 January 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 8 January 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 -38 292 £65,000 +8.33% 641
North of England -19 272 £65,000 +5.26% 398
South West -5 255 £65,000 +18.18% 338
East of England -25 133 £70,000 +3.70% 375
North West -10 121 £67,500 +8.00% 158
Yorkshire -10 116 £57,500 -4.17% 163
Scotland -30 110 £60,000 +4.35% 97
Midlands -30 109 £60,000 +4.35% 248
West Midlands -18 62 £60,000 - 67
East Midlands -21 50 £65,000 +30.00% 178
North East -25 35 £70,000 +14.75% 77
Wales -30 19 £75,000 - 124
Northern Ireland -24 11 £85,000 +3.03% 52
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 January 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 1,198 (99.83%) Software Engineering
2 188 (15.67%) C#
3 187 (15.58%) Agile
4 179 (14.92%) C++
5 162 (13.50%) .NET
6 158 (13.17%) Java
7 155 (12.92%) AWS
8 143 (11.92%) CI/CD
9 141 (11.75%) Security Cleared
10 134 (11.17%) React
11 132 (11.00%) DevOps
11 132 (11.00%) Full-Stack Development
12 129 (10.75%) Azure
12 129 (10.75%) Python
13 117 (9.75%) Degree
14 115 (9.58%) JavaScript
15 110 (9.17%) Mentoring
16 102 (8.50%) SQL
17 100 (8.33%) TypeScript
18 96 (8.00%) Linux
19 95 (7.92%) C
20 92 (7.67%) Microservices
21 86 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
22 76 (6.33%) SC Cleared
23 74 (6.17%) Kubernetes
24 72 (6.00%) AI
24 72 (6.00%) Computer Science
25 62 (5.17%) Docker
25 62 (5.17%) Firmware
26 54 (4.50%) AngularJS

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 12 (1.00%) IIS
2 11 (0.92%) Apache
3 6 (0.50%) Confluence
4 5 (0.42%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.25%) Apache Solr
5 3 (0.25%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) ArchestrA
6 2 (0.17%) FactoryTalk
6 2 (0.17%) NServiceBus
6 2 (0.17%) WinCC
7 1 (0.083%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.083%) Kinematics
Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.17%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.17%) Sketch
3 1 (0.083%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.083%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 9 (0.75%) Magento
2 2 (0.17%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.083%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 155 (12.92%) AWS
2 129 (10.75%) Azure
3 46 (3.83%) SaaS
4 36 (3.00%) Serverless
5 34 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
6 28 (2.33%) AWS Lambda
7 24 (2.00%) GCP
8 22 (1.83%) Amazon S3
8 22 (1.83%) GitHub
9 18 (1.50%) Amazon EKS
10 14 (1.17%) Amazon ECS
11 9 (0.75%) Azure AKS
12 8 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (0.67%) OpenShift
13 7 (0.58%) Amazon EC2
13 7 (0.58%) Stripe
14 6 (0.50%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
15 5 (0.42%) Amazon EventBridge
15 5 (0.42%) AWS Fargate
Communications & Networking
1 36 (3.00%) Wireless
2 17 (1.42%) RS-232
3 16 (1.33%) Software-Defined Radio
4 15 (1.25%) Bluetooth
5 6 (0.50%) HTTP
5 6 (0.50%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.42%) DNS
6 5 (0.42%) Modbus
7 4 (0.33%) AMQP
7 4 (0.33%) SMTP
8 3 (0.25%) ATM
8 3 (0.25%) Ethernet
9 2 (0.17%) 3G
9 2 (0.17%) Firewall
9 2 (0.17%) GPRS
9 2 (0.17%) GSM
9 2 (0.17%) Profibus
9 2 (0.17%) RS-485
9 2 (0.17%) SSL
9 2 (0.17%) UWB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.75%) PostgreSQL
1 33 (2.75%) SQL Server
2 23 (1.92%) NoSQL
3 21 (1.75%) Elasticsearch
4 18 (1.50%) Relational Database
5 16 (1.33%) MongoDB
5 16 (1.33%) MySQL
6 13 (1.08%) DynamoDB
7 12 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (0.75%) Redis
9 7 (0.58%) Neo4j
10 5 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.42%) Big Data
10 5 (0.42%) Hadoop
11 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.33%) Apache Cassandra
11 4 (0.33%) GIS
12 3 (0.25%) Cloudera CDH
12 3 (0.25%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.25%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 50 (4.17%) Git
2 16 (1.33%) GitLab
2 16 (1.33%) Visual Studio
3 15 (1.25%) JIRA
4 12 (1.00%) JUnit
5 10 (0.83%) Jenkins
6 8 (0.67%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.42%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.42%) Selenium
8 4 (0.33%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.17%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.17%) Maven
9 2 (0.17%) PROIV
9 2 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.17%) TestRail
10 1 (0.083%) Android Studio
10 1 (0.083%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (0.083%) Postman
10 1 (0.083%) Rational Statemate
10 1 (0.083%) REST Assured
General
1 98 (8.17%) Social Skills
2 76 (6.33%) Finance
3 45 (3.75%) Electronics
4 42 (3.50%) Manufacturing
5 21 (1.75%) Aerospace
6 20 (1.67%) Games
7 19 (1.58%) Analytical Skills
7 19 (1.58%) Pharmaceutical
8 18 (1.50%) Public Sector
9 16 (1.33%) Automotive
10 15 (1.25%) Retail
11 12 (1.00%) Tech for Good
12 9 (0.75%) Financial Institution
13 8 (0.67%) Law
14 7 (0.58%) Aeronautics
14 7 (0.58%) Marketing
14 7 (0.58%) Military
15 6 (0.50%) Legal
16 5 (0.42%) Health Technology
17 4 (0.33%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 162 (13.50%) .NET
2 134 (11.17%) React
3 54 (4.50%) AngularJS
4 48 (4.00%) Node.js
5 39 (3.25%) Spring
6 37 (3.08%) RESTful
6 37 (3.08%) Spring Boot
7 30 (2.50%) .NET Core
8 29 (2.42%) HTML
8 29 (2.42%) REST
9 28 (2.33%) .NET Framework
9 28 (2.33%) ASP.NET
9 28 (2.33%) CSS
10 27 (2.25%) Vue
11 20 (1.67%) Qt
12 18 (1.50%) Entity Framework
13 17 (1.42%) Next.js
14 16 (1.33%) WinForms
15 13 (1.08%) Kafka
16 12 (1.00%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 68 (5.67%) Cloud Native
2 59 (4.92%) Embedded Systems
3 25 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (1.92%) IoT
5 19 (1.58%) Robotics
6 18 (1.50%) e-Learning
7 16 (1.33%) Algorithms
8 14 (1.17%) Product Ownership
8 14 (1.17%) RISC-V
9 12 (1.00%) Manufacturing Execution System
9 12 (1.00%) MicroBlaze
9 12 (1.00%) Smart Energy
10 11 (0.92%) Driving Licence
10 11 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (0.67%) CAN bus
12 8 (0.67%) Hedge funds
12 8 (0.67%) Renewable Energy
13 7 (0.58%) AI Agents
13 7 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 96 (8.00%) Linux
2 34 (2.83%) Embedded Linux
2 34 (2.83%) Windows
3 14 (1.17%) Android
4 6 (0.50%) Unix
5 3 (0.25%) CentOS
5 3 (0.25%) Debian
5 3 (0.25%) FreeRTOS
5 3 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.25%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.17%) Mac OS X
6 2 (0.17%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.083%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.083%) Fedora
7 1 (0.083%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.083%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,198 (99.83%) Software Engineering
2 187 (15.58%) Agile
3 143 (11.92%) CI/CD
4 132 (11.00%) DevOps
4 132 (11.00%) Full-Stack Development
5 110 (9.17%) Mentoring
6 92 (7.67%) Microservices
7 86 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
8 72 (6.00%) AI
8 72 (6.00%) Computer Science
9 53 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
10 47 (3.92%) Containerisation
11 46 (3.83%) Scrum
12 45 (3.75%) Coaching
13 42 (3.50%) SDLC
14 41 (3.42%) Machine Learning
15 36 (3.00%) Fintech
16 34 (2.83%) TDD
16 34 (2.83%) Test Automation
17 32 (2.67%) E-Commerce
Programming Languages
1 188 (15.67%) C#
2 179 (14.92%) C++
3 158 (13.17%) Java
4 129 (10.75%) Python
5 115 (9.58%) JavaScript
6 102 (8.50%) SQL
7 100 (8.33%) TypeScript
8 95 (7.92%) C
9 37 (3.08%) PHP
10 24 (2.00%) Ada
11 22 (1.83%) Kotlin
12 19 (1.58%) Embedded C++
12 19 (1.58%) T-SQL
13 18 (1.50%) Ruby
14 14 (1.17%) Ada 95
15 13 (1.08%) PL/SQL
16 12 (1.00%) Embedded C
16 12 (1.00%) Rust
17 11 (0.92%) Scala
18 9 (0.75%) Bash
Qualifications
1 141 (11.75%) Security Cleared
2 117 (9.75%) Degree
3 76 (6.33%) SC Cleared
4 49 (4.08%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (3.33%) DV Cleared
6 16 (1.33%) Master's Degree
7 15 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
7 15 (1.25%) Chartered Engineer
8 11 (0.92%) PhD
9 4 (0.33%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.17%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.17%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.17%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.17%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (1.58%) QA
2 14 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 10 (0.83%) IEC 61508
3 10 (0.83%) MISRA
4 8 (0.67%) MISRA C
5 4 (0.33%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.25%) ECSS
6 3 (0.25%) GDPR
6 3 (0.25%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.25%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.17%) ISO 9000
7 2 (0.17%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.17%) JTAG
7 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.083%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.083%) Data Quality
System Software
1 62 (5.17%) Docker
1 62 (5.17%) Firmware
2 37 (3.08%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.17%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.083%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 74 (6.17%) Kubernetes
2 31 (2.58%) Terraform
3 8 (0.67%) Functional Safety
3 8 (0.67%) Kibana
4 7 (0.58%) Grafana
5 3 (0.25%) Ansible
5 3 (0.25%) Puppet
6 2 (0.17%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.083%) Istio
Vendors
1 18 (1.50%) Microsoft
2 16 (1.33%) Oracle
3 14 (1.17%) Xamarin
4 12 (1.00%) Sage
5 11 (0.92%) Adobe
6 10 (0.83%) Google
7 8 (0.67%) Atlassian
8 6 (0.50%) HubSpot
9 5 (0.42%) Guidewire
9 5 (0.42%) Zoho
10 4 (0.33%) Databricks
10 4 (0.33%) Red Hat
11 3 (0.25%) OpenAI
11 3 (0.25%) Rockwell
11 3 (0.25%) SaltStack
11 3 (0.25%) SAP
11 3 (0.25%) Siemens
12 2 (0.17%) Palantir
12 2 (0.17%) VMware
13 1 (0.083%) NVIDIA