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 3 October 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 69 22
Rank change year-on-year +47 -47 +41
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 4,483 1,295 3,726
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.18% 3.74% 7.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.57% 4.18% 7.42%
Number of salaries quoted 3,481 476 2,119
10th Percentile £45,000 £44,375 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £54,875 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £56,509
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +15.03% -5.03%
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 80,427 30,960 50,218
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.91% 89.49% 95.29%
Number of salaries quoted 55,661 17,214 28,172
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,890
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £58,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.36% - -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 3 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 3 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 +36 1,089 £70,000 +7.69% 565
South East +90 1,019 £70,000 - 454
South West +44 927 £70,000 +7.69% 412
North West +19 620 £70,000 -6.35% 328
East of England +110 605 £70,000 +7.69% 391
Midlands +71 460 £65,000 +1.96% 326
East Midlands +42 267 £55,000 -21.43% 173
Yorkshire +72 261 £60,000 - 147
Scotland 0 232 £80,000 +24.03% 739
North East +30 208 £70,000 +25.56% 97
West Midlands +41 193 £65,000 +4.00% 153
Wales +16 141 £60,000 +4.35% 196
Northern Ireland - 11 £82,500 - 212
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 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 4,454 (99.35%) Software Engineering
2 665 (14.83%) C++
3 608 (13.56%) C#
4 569 (12.69%) Agile
5 541 (12.07%) Python
6 440 (9.81%) AWS
7 438 (9.77%) AI
8 405 (9.03%) Security Cleared
9 392 (8.74%) Java
10 381 (8.50%) CI/CD
11 371 (8.28%) Full-Stack Development
12 311 (6.94%) .NET
13 303 (6.76%) Linux
14 288 (6.42%) Azure
15 276 (6.16%) Degree
16 269 (6.00%) TypeScript
17 262 (5.84%) SC Cleared
18 255 (5.69%) Mentoring
19 254 (5.67%) JavaScript
20 235 (5.24%) DevOps
21 234 (5.22%) C
22 227 (5.06%) React
23 225 (5.02%) Problem-Solving
24 200 (4.46%) Microservices
25 198 (4.42%) SDLC
26 194 (4.33%) Test Automation
27 187 (4.17%) Docker
28 179 (3.99%) Continuous Improvement
29 178 (3.97%) SQL
30 173 (3.86%) DV Cleared

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 29 (0.65%) Apache
2 15 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
3 9 (0.20%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
5 7 (0.16%) WinCC
6 6 (0.13%) Confluence
7 5 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.067%) CMS
8 3 (0.067%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.067%) SharePoint
8 3 (0.067%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.067%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.045%) Apache Solr
9 2 (0.045%) ArchestrA
9 2 (0.045%) WordPress
10 1 (0.022%) Cloud Foundry
10 1 (0.022%) OpenStack
Applications
1 20 (0.45%) Lightworks
2 12 (0.27%) Simulink
3 4 (0.089%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.089%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.067%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.045%) EPLAN
6 1 (0.022%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.022%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
2 4 (0.089%) Visualfiles
3 2 (0.045%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.022%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 440 (9.81%) AWS
2 288 (6.42%) Azure
3 136 (3.03%) SaaS
4 111 (2.48%) GCP
5 78 (1.74%) Serverless
6 50 (1.12%) GitHub
7 39 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
8 37 (0.83%) Firebase
9 30 (0.67%) Anthropic Claude
9 30 (0.67%) AWS Lambda
10 21 (0.47%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (0.42%) Amazon EKS
11 19 (0.42%) Amazon S3
11 19 (0.42%) AWS CloudFormation
12 17 (0.38%) Cloud Run
13 14 (0.31%) OpenShift
14 13 (0.29%) GitHub Copilot
15 11 (0.25%) Azure Service Bus
15 11 (0.25%) Slack
16 10 (0.22%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 73 (1.63%) Wireless
2 33 (0.74%) Ethernet
3 31 (0.69%) Bluetooth
4 27 (0.60%) TCP/IP
5 25 (0.56%) Modbus
6 24 (0.54%) MQTT
7 22 (0.49%) Wi-Fi
8 16 (0.36%) ZigBee
9 15 (0.33%) RS-232
10 13 (0.29%) 5G
10 13 (0.29%) LTE
10 13 (0.29%) Profibus
11 11 (0.25%) RS-485
12 10 (0.22%) ATM
13 9 (0.20%) Internet
14 7 (0.16%) AMQP
14 7 (0.16%) Wireshark
15 4 (0.089%) HTTP
15 4 (0.089%) Software-Defined Radio
16 3 (0.067%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (2.14%) PostgreSQL
2 61 (1.36%) SQL Server
3 50 (1.12%) MongoDB
4 46 (1.03%) NoSQL
5 43 (0.96%) MySQL
6 38 (0.85%) Relational Database
7 21 (0.47%) Redis
8 17 (0.38%) DynamoDB
8 17 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
9 16 (0.36%) Chroma
9 16 (0.36%) Pinecone
10 14 (0.31%) Big Data
11 9 (0.20%) Hadoop
12 7 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.16%) Cloudera CDH
13 4 (0.089%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.089%) Data Lake
13 4 (0.089%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.067%) Data Warehouse
14 3 (0.067%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 142 (3.17%) Git
2 55 (1.23%) GitLab
3 34 (0.76%) Jenkins
4 31 (0.69%) JIRA
5 19 (0.42%) Visual Studio Code
6 18 (0.40%) Claude Code
7 16 (0.36%) Cucumber
7 16 (0.36%) Visual Studio
8 10 (0.22%) JUnit
8 10 (0.22%) SonarQube
9 8 (0.18%) Cypress.io
10 7 (0.16%) GDB
10 7 (0.16%) LabVIEW
10 7 (0.16%) Mockito
10 7 (0.16%) Moq
10 7 (0.16%) Rational Rhapsody
11 6 (0.13%) PetaLinux
11 6 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
12 5 (0.11%) CMake
12 5 (0.11%) Yeoman
General
1 218 (4.86%) Manufacturing
2 212 (4.73%) Electronics
3 202 (4.51%) Finance
4 198 (4.42%) Social Skills
5 130 (2.90%) Aerospace
6 108 (2.41%) Public Sector
7 84 (1.87%) Automotive
8 66 (1.47%) Aviation
9 55 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 49 (1.09%) Analytical Skills
11 34 (0.76%) Retail
12 29 (0.65%) Law
13 28 (0.62%) Military
14 27 (0.60%) Games
14 27 (0.60%) Tech for Good
15 22 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
16 21 (0.47%) Financial Institution
17 19 (0.42%) Banking
18 17 (0.38%) Health Technology
18 17 (0.38%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 311 (6.94%) .NET
2 227 (5.06%) React
3 119 (2.65%) Node.js
4 94 (2.10%) Vue
5 92 (2.05%) Terraform
6 83 (1.85%) WPF
7 81 (1.81%) Spring
8 80 (1.78%) Spring Boot
9 68 (1.52%) AngularJS
10 67 (1.49%) CSS
11 59 (1.32%) RESTful
12 55 (1.23%) REST
13 45 (1.00%) HTML
14 40 (0.89%) Next.js
15 35 (0.78%) React Native
16 34 (0.76%) .NET Core
16 34 (0.76%) Kafka
17 31 (0.69%) Django
18 29 (0.65%) .NET Framework
19 25 (0.56%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 182 (4.06%) Cloud Native
2 130 (2.90%) Robotics
3 129 (2.88%) Embedded Systems
4 105 (2.34%) Algorithms
5 84 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
6 67 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
7 66 (1.47%) AI Agents
8 65 (1.45%) Product Ownership
9 52 (1.16%) IoT
10 48 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
11 46 (1.03%) Public Cloud
12 38 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
13 26 (0.58%) Mobile App
14 25 (0.56%) Data Structures
14 25 (0.56%) Distributed Computing
15 24 (0.54%) Device Driver
16 19 (0.42%) NHS
17 18 (0.40%) Educational Technology
18 17 (0.38%) ARM Cortex
18 17 (0.38%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 303 (6.76%) Linux
2 73 (1.63%) Windows
3 60 (1.34%) Embedded Linux
4 38 (0.85%) Android
5 28 (0.62%) FreeRTOS
6 13 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.27%) Debian
8 10 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 9 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.16%) CentOS
10 7 (0.16%) VxWorks
11 5 (0.11%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.11%) Unix
11 5 (0.11%) Windows Server
12 3 (0.067%) Gentoo
13 2 (0.045%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.045%) Windows 10
13 2 (0.045%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.022%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,454 (99.35%) Software Engineering
2 569 (12.69%) Agile
3 438 (9.77%) AI
4 381 (8.50%) CI/CD
5 371 (8.28%) Full-Stack Development
6 255 (5.69%) Mentoring
7 235 (5.24%) DevOps
8 225 (5.02%) Problem-Solving
9 200 (4.46%) Microservices
10 198 (4.42%) SDLC
11 194 (4.33%) Test Automation
12 179 (3.99%) Continuous Improvement
13 166 (3.70%) Computer Science
14 146 (3.26%) Software Architecture
15 138 (3.08%) Technical Leadership
16 134 (2.99%) Code Quality
17 128 (2.86%) Containerisation
18 117 (2.61%) Machine Learning
19 107 (2.39%) Software Testing
20 99 (2.21%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 665 (14.83%) C++
2 608 (13.56%) C#
3 541 (12.07%) Python
4 392 (8.74%) Java
5 269 (6.00%) TypeScript
6 254 (5.67%) JavaScript
7 234 (5.22%) C
8 178 (3.97%) SQL
9 126 (2.81%) Rust
10 73 (1.63%) Go
11 59 (1.32%) PHP
12 36 (0.80%) Embedded C
13 31 (0.69%) Ruby
14 28 (0.62%) Embedded C++
15 27 (0.60%) Ada
16 23 (0.51%) Kotlin
17 21 (0.47%) Bash
17 21 (0.47%) MATLAB
18 13 (0.29%) Scala
19 8 (0.18%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 405 (9.03%) Security Cleared
2 276 (6.16%) Degree
3 262 (5.84%) SC Cleared
4 173 (3.86%) DV Cleared
5 121 (2.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 47 (1.05%) Master's Degree
7 41 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (0.54%) PhD
9 12 (0.27%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.20%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.13%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.11%) CEH
12 5 (0.11%) OSCP
13 4 (0.089%) Chartered Engineer
13 4 (0.089%) Microsoft Certification
14 3 (0.067%) HND
14 3 (0.067%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 2 (0.045%) Numerate Degree
16 1 (0.022%) ISTQB
16 1 (0.022%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (1.41%) QA
2 49 (1.09%) Accessibility
3 9 (0.20%) IEC 61131
4 8 (0.18%) DO-178B
5 6 (0.13%) JTAG
6 5 (0.11%) MISRA
6 5 (0.11%) MISRA C
6 5 (0.11%) WCAG
7 4 (0.089%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.089%) ECSS
7 4 (0.089%) IEC 61508
8 3 (0.067%) Automotive SPICE
8 3 (0.067%) GAMP
8 3 (0.067%) ISO 26262
8 3 (0.067%) MIL-STD-1553
9 2 (0.045%) AUTOSAR
9 2 (0.045%) GDPR
9 2 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.022%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.022%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 187 (4.17%) Docker
2 154 (3.44%) Firmware
3 46 (1.03%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.13%) QEMU
5 4 (0.089%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.045%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.045%) KVM
6 2 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.022%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.022%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 159 (3.55%) Kubernetes
2 46 (1.03%) Ansible
3 14 (0.31%) Grafana
4 11 (0.25%) Podman
5 9 (0.20%) Puppet
6 7 (0.16%) Kibana
6 7 (0.16%) logstash
7 5 (0.11%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.089%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.067%) Plesk
9 3 (0.067%) SCCM
9 3 (0.067%) SCOM
9 3 (0.067%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.045%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.045%) Packer
10 2 (0.045%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 38 (0.85%) Microsoft
2 32 (0.71%) Siemens
3 24 (0.54%) Google
4 18 (0.40%) Salesforce
5 15 (0.33%) Databricks
6 14 (0.31%) Okta
6 14 (0.31%) Ping Identity
7 13 (0.29%) RedGate
8 12 (0.27%) Oracle
8 12 (0.27%) Rockwell
8 12 (0.27%) Splunk
9 11 (0.25%) OpenAI
10 10 (0.22%) Red Hat
11 8 (0.18%) Sage
12 7 (0.16%) SaltStack
13 6 (0.13%) Allen-Bradley
13 6 (0.13%) Intel
14 5 (0.11%) Atlassian
14 5 (0.11%) New Relic
14 5 (0.11%) Xamarin