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 £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 October 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 69 22
Rank change year-on-year +47 -47 +39
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 4,534 1,287 3,544
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.22% 3.74% 7.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.64% 4.18% 7.40%
Number of salaries quoted 3,427 476 1,961
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £53,063 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +13.04% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £80,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year -12.50% +23.08% -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 80,405 30,801 47,868
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.51% 89.52% 95.38%
Number of salaries quoted 55,513 17,417 26,226
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £46,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +19.57% -8.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £58,500 £53,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.35% -2.73% -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 14 October 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 14 October 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
North of England +32 1,075 £70,000 +2.19% 354
South East +88 1,014 £70,000 +2.94% 301
South West +47 944 £67,500 +3.85% 202
East of England +117 636 £70,000 +7.69% 245
North West +9 606 £70,000 -6.67% 226
Midlands +60 456 £65,000 - 144
East Midlands +41 272 £55,000 -21.43% 62
Yorkshire +74 256 £60,000 - 75
Scotland +3 254 £80,000 +24.03% 238
North East +29 213 £70,000 +27.27% 53
West Midlands +36 184 £65,000 +4.00% 82
Wales +18 147 £60,000 - 27
Northern Ireland -69 9 £75,000 - 63
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 October 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 4,505 (99.36%) Software Engineering
2 656 (14.47%) C++
3 593 (13.08%) C#
4 588 (12.97%) Agile
5 544 (12.00%) Python
6 456 (10.06%) AI
7 448 (9.88%) AWS
8 411 (9.06%) Java
9 393 (8.67%) Security Cleared
10 384 (8.47%) CI/CD
11 377 (8.31%) Full-Stack Development
12 310 (6.84%) Linux
13 308 (6.79%) .NET
14 299 (6.59%) Azure
15 269 (5.93%) Degree
16 268 (5.91%) TypeScript
17 254 (5.60%) Mentoring
17 254 (5.60%) SC Cleared
18 246 (5.43%) JavaScript
19 234 (5.16%) DevOps
20 229 (5.05%) C
21 228 (5.03%) Problem-Solving
22 221 (4.87%) React
23 205 (4.52%) Microservices
24 204 (4.50%) Test Automation
25 199 (4.39%) SDLC
26 196 (4.32%) Docker
27 180 (3.97%) SQL
28 177 (3.90%) Continuous Improvement
29 172 (3.79%) Kubernetes

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 30 (0.66%) Apache
2 15 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
3 9 (0.20%) Apache Spark
4 7 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
4 7 (0.15%) WinCC
5 6 (0.13%) Confluence
6 5 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.11%) SharePoint
7 4 (0.088%) CMS
7 4 (0.088%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.066%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.066%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.044%) ArchestrA
10 1 (0.022%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.022%) Cloud Foundry
10 1 (0.022%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.022%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (0.46%) Lightworks
2 12 (0.26%) Simulink
3 4 (0.088%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.088%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.066%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.044%) EPLAN
6 1 (0.022%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.022%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
1 6 (0.13%) Visualfiles
2 3 (0.066%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.022%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 448 (9.88%) AWS
2 299 (6.59%) Azure
3 126 (2.78%) SaaS
4 110 (2.43%) GCP
5 76 (1.68%) Serverless
6 53 (1.17%) GitHub
7 42 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
8 37 (0.82%) Firebase
9 32 (0.71%) Anthropic Claude
10 29 (0.64%) AWS Lambda
11 22 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
12 20 (0.44%) Amazon EKS
12 20 (0.44%) Amazon S3
12 20 (0.44%) AWS CloudFormation
13 16 (0.35%) Cloud Run
14 14 (0.31%) Azure Service Bus
14 14 (0.31%) GitHub Copilot
14 14 (0.31%) OpenShift
15 13 (0.29%) Azure Functions
16 10 (0.22%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 72 (1.59%) Wireless
2 31 (0.68%) Ethernet
3 29 (0.64%) Bluetooth
4 28 (0.62%) TCP/IP
5 27 (0.60%) MQTT
6 24 (0.53%) Modbus
7 23 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (0.33%) ZigBee
9 14 (0.31%) LTE
10 13 (0.29%) 5G
10 13 (0.29%) RS-232
11 12 (0.26%) Profibus
12 10 (0.22%) ATM
12 10 (0.22%) RS-485
13 9 (0.20%) Internet
14 8 (0.18%) AMQP
15 7 (0.15%) Wireshark
16 5 (0.11%) HTTP
17 4 (0.088%) Software-Defined Radio
18 3 (0.066%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (2.21%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (1.39%) SQL Server
3 48 (1.06%) MongoDB
4 43 (0.95%) NoSQL
5 41 (0.90%) MySQL
5 41 (0.90%) Relational Database
6 27 (0.60%) Redis
7 17 (0.37%) Big Data
7 17 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
8 16 (0.35%) Chroma
8 16 (0.35%) DynamoDB
8 16 (0.35%) Pinecone
9 9 (0.20%) Hadoop
10 7 (0.15%) Azure SQL Database
10 7 (0.15%) Cloudera CDH
11 4 (0.088%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.088%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.066%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.066%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.066%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 133 (2.93%) Git
2 54 (1.19%) GitLab
3 37 (0.82%) Jenkins
4 31 (0.68%) JIRA
5 19 (0.42%) Claude Code
6 17 (0.37%) Cucumber
6 17 (0.37%) Visual Studio
7 16 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
8 11 (0.24%) SonarQube
9 9 (0.20%) JUnit
10 7 (0.15%) Cypress.io
10 7 (0.15%) GDB
10 7 (0.15%) Moq
10 7 (0.15%) PetaLinux
10 7 (0.15%) Rational Rhapsody
11 6 (0.13%) Eclipse
11 6 (0.13%) LabVIEW
11 6 (0.13%) Mockito
11 6 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
12 5 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 227 (5.01%) Finance
2 210 (4.63%) Electronics
3 208 (4.59%) Manufacturing
4 200 (4.41%) Social Skills
5 135 (2.98%) Aerospace
6 111 (2.45%) Public Sector
7 79 (1.74%) Automotive
8 68 (1.50%) Aviation
9 55 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 51 (1.12%) Analytical Skills
11 32 (0.71%) Tech for Good
12 31 (0.68%) Retail
13 30 (0.66%) Law
14 29 (0.64%) Games
15 28 (0.62%) Military
16 26 (0.57%) Banking
17 24 (0.53%) Financial Institution
18 21 (0.46%) Health Technology
19 19 (0.42%) Pharmaceutical
20 17 (0.37%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 308 (6.79%) .NET
2 221 (4.87%) React
3 123 (2.71%) Node.js
4 93 (2.05%) Terraform
5 88 (1.94%) Vue
6 81 (1.79%) Spring
7 80 (1.76%) Spring Boot
8 78 (1.72%) WPF
9 63 (1.39%) AngularJS
10 62 (1.37%) CSS
11 60 (1.32%) RESTful
12 57 (1.26%) REST
13 42 (0.93%) Next.js
14 40 (0.88%) HTML
14 40 (0.88%) Kafka
15 36 (0.79%) .NET Core
16 35 (0.77%) React Native
17 30 (0.66%) Django
18 29 (0.64%) .NET Framework
19 28 (0.62%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 188 (4.15%) Cloud Native
2 137 (3.02%) Robotics
3 129 (2.85%) Embedded Systems
4 100 (2.21%) Algorithms
5 86 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
6 74 (1.63%) Distributed Systems
7 68 (1.50%) AI Agents
8 57 (1.26%) Product Ownership
9 51 (1.12%) Public Cloud
10 50 (1.10%) IoT
11 47 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
12 42 (0.93%) Cyber Threat
13 24 (0.53%) Device Driver
13 24 (0.53%) Distributed Computing
13 24 (0.53%) Mobile App
14 23 (0.51%) Data Structures
15 19 (0.42%) NHS
16 17 (0.37%) ARM Cortex
17 16 (0.35%) Hedge funds
17 16 (0.35%) Raspberry Pi
Operating Systems
1 310 (6.84%) Linux
2 72 (1.59%) Windows
3 62 (1.37%) Embedded Linux
4 36 (0.79%) Android
5 27 (0.60%) FreeRTOS
6 15 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.26%) Debian
8 11 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 9 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 8 (0.18%) macOS
10 8 (0.18%) VxWorks
11 7 (0.15%) CentOS
12 5 (0.11%) Unix
13 3 (0.066%) Gentoo
13 3 (0.066%) Windows Server
14 2 (0.044%) Robot Operating System
14 2 (0.044%) Windows 10
14 2 (0.044%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.022%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,505 (99.36%) Software Engineering
2 588 (12.97%) Agile
3 456 (10.06%) AI
4 384 (8.47%) CI/CD
5 377 (8.31%) Full-Stack Development
6 254 (5.60%) Mentoring
7 234 (5.16%) DevOps
8 228 (5.03%) Problem-Solving
9 205 (4.52%) Microservices
10 204 (4.50%) Test Automation
11 199 (4.39%) SDLC
12 177 (3.90%) Continuous Improvement
13 163 (3.60%) Computer Science
14 147 (3.24%) Software Architecture
15 143 (3.15%) Technical Leadership
16 139 (3.07%) Code Quality
17 137 (3.02%) Containerisation
18 124 (2.73%) Machine Learning
19 110 (2.43%) Cybersecurity
20 108 (2.38%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 656 (14.47%) C++
2 593 (13.08%) C#
3 544 (12.00%) Python
4 411 (9.06%) Java
5 268 (5.91%) TypeScript
6 246 (5.43%) JavaScript
7 229 (5.05%) C
8 180 (3.97%) SQL
9 132 (2.91%) Rust
10 79 (1.74%) Go
11 59 (1.30%) PHP
12 39 (0.86%) Embedded C
13 31 (0.68%) Ruby
14 30 (0.66%) Embedded C++
15 28 (0.62%) Ada
16 27 (0.60%) Kotlin
17 23 (0.51%) Bash
18 22 (0.49%) MATLAB
19 14 (0.31%) Scala
20 7 (0.15%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 393 (8.67%) Security Cleared
2 269 (5.93%) Degree
3 254 (5.60%) SC Cleared
4 162 (3.57%) DV Cleared
5 114 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
6 44 (0.97%) Master's Degree
7 42 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (0.55%) PhD
9 19 (0.42%) Azure Certification
10 6 (0.13%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.088%) CEH
11 4 (0.088%) Chartered Engineer
11 4 (0.088%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (0.088%) OSCP
12 3 (0.066%) HND
13 2 (0.044%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.044%) Numerate Degree
14 1 (0.022%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
14 1 (0.022%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (1.41%) QA
2 50 (1.10%) Accessibility
3 8 (0.18%) DO-178B
3 8 (0.18%) IEC 61131
4 7 (0.15%) JTAG
5 5 (0.11%) WCAG
6 4 (0.088%) Data Quality
6 4 (0.088%) ECSS
7 3 (0.066%) Automotive SPICE
7 3 (0.066%) GAMP
7 3 (0.066%) ISO 26262
7 3 (0.066%) MIL-STD-1553
7 3 (0.066%) MISRA
7 3 (0.066%) MISRA C
8 2 (0.044%) AUTOSAR
8 2 (0.044%) GDPR
8 2 (0.044%) IEC 61508
8 2 (0.044%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.022%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.022%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 196 (4.32%) Docker
2 146 (3.22%) Firmware
3 42 (0.93%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (0.11%) QEMU
5 4 (0.088%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.044%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.044%) KVM
6 2 (0.044%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.022%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.022%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 172 (3.79%) Kubernetes
2 48 (1.06%) Ansible
3 15 (0.33%) Grafana
4 11 (0.24%) Podman
5 9 (0.20%) Puppet
6 8 (0.18%) Kibana
6 8 (0.18%) logstash
7 4 (0.088%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.088%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.044%) Packer
8 2 (0.044%) Plesk
8 2 (0.044%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.022%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.022%) SCCM
9 1 (0.022%) SCOM
9 1 (0.022%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 39 (0.86%) Microsoft
2 32 (0.71%) Siemens
3 30 (0.66%) Google
4 19 (0.42%) Salesforce
5 16 (0.35%) Databricks
6 14 (0.31%) Okta
6 14 (0.31%) Ping Identity
6 14 (0.31%) RedGate
7 12 (0.26%) Oracle
7 12 (0.26%) Rockwell
7 12 (0.26%) Splunk
8 11 (0.24%) OpenAI
8 11 (0.24%) Red Hat
9 9 (0.20%) Sage
10 7 (0.15%) SaltStack
11 6 (0.13%) Atlassian
11 6 (0.13%) Intel
11 6 (0.13%) LexisNexis
11 6 (0.13%) New Relic
11 6 (0.13%) Thales