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 1 April 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 49 19
Rank change year-on-year 0 -30 +44
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 2,152 1,283 5,381
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.77% 4.96% 8.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.08% 5.55% 8.99%
Number of salaries quoted 1,666 887 2,814
10th Percentile £41,000 £40,300 £39,750
25th Percentile £51,250 £48,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £82,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.45% +20.83% -13.32%

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 52,735 23,135 59,857
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 89.35% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 33,753 14,436 44,570
10th Percentile £28,500 £29,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,500 £68,568 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -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 1 April 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 1 April 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 -4 540 £65,000 - 146
South East +3 520 £65,000 +8.33% 186
South West +21 422 £65,000 +8.33% 136
North West +6 293 £65,000 - 80
East of England -12 219 £70,000 +5.73% 90
Midlands +38 193 £65,000 +13.04% 79
Scotland -4 186 £65,000 +4.00% 59
Yorkshire +6 178 £62,500 -8.09% 45
West Midlands +27 100 £65,000 +10.64% 46
East Midlands +3 94 £60,000 +4.35% 33
North East -8 69 £67,500 +22.73% 21
Wales -13 54 £40,000 -39.62% 22
Northern Ireland -30 18 £90,000 - 5
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 April 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 2,131 (99.02%) Software Engineering
2 293 (13.62%) C++
3 266 (12.36%) C#
4 261 (12.13%) Agile
5 255 (11.85%) Java
6 247 (11.48%) AWS
7 243 (11.29%) Python
8 231 (10.73%) .NET
9 221 (10.27%) Full-Stack Development
10 200 (9.29%) Security Cleared
11 180 (8.36%) CI/CD
12 179 (8.32%) Azure
13 175 (8.13%) JavaScript
14 166 (7.71%) Degree
15 164 (7.62%) DevOps
16 158 (7.34%) React
17 154 (7.16%) C
18 149 (6.92%) SQL
19 146 (6.78%) TypeScript
20 128 (5.95%) Linux
21 120 (5.58%) Microservices
22 118 (5.48%) Continuous Improvement
23 115 (5.34%) Mentoring
23 115 (5.34%) Problem-Solving
24 110 (5.11%) SC Cleared
25 106 (4.93%) SaaS
26 99 (4.60%) Kubernetes
27 98 (4.55%) Computer Science
28 94 (4.37%) AI
29 89 (4.14%) Test Automation

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 (0.56%) Apache
2 8 (0.37%) IIS
3 7 (0.33%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.28%) CMS
4 6 (0.28%) Confluence
5 4 (0.19%) GeoServer
6 3 (0.14%) Apache Solr
7 2 (0.093%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.046%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.046%) Kinematics
8 1 (0.046%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.046%) Umbraco
Applications
1 4 (0.19%) EngageOne
2 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
3 2 (0.093%) Adobe XD
3 2 (0.093%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.093%) EPLAN
3 2 (0.093%) Sketch
4 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.046%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.46%) Magento
2 2 (0.093%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.046%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 247 (11.48%) AWS
2 179 (8.32%) Azure
3 106 (4.93%) SaaS
4 51 (2.37%) GCP
5 47 (2.18%) Serverless
6 28 (1.30%) AWS Lambda
7 25 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
8 24 (1.12%) GitHub
9 22 (1.02%) Amazon EKS
10 21 (0.98%) Amazon S3
10 21 (0.98%) Azure AKS
11 9 (0.42%) OpenShift
12 8 (0.37%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (0.37%) Stripe
13 7 (0.33%) Amazon ECS
13 7 (0.33%) Figma
14 6 (0.28%) Amazon EC2
15 5 (0.23%) AWS Fargate
15 5 (0.23%) GitHub Actions
16 4 (0.19%) Amazon OpenSearch
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.39%) Wireless
2 18 (0.84%) Ethernet
3 17 (0.79%) RS-232
4 9 (0.42%) Bluetooth
5 8 (0.37%) Modbus
5 8 (0.37%) Network Security
6 6 (0.28%) Broadband
6 6 (0.28%) HTTP
7 5 (0.23%) AMQP
7 5 (0.23%) LTE
7 5 (0.23%) Software-Defined Radio
7 5 (0.23%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.19%) DNS
8 4 (0.19%) SMTP
8 4 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (0.14%) ATM
10 2 (0.093%) Profibus
10 2 (0.093%) RTP
10 2 (0.093%) SpaceWire
10 2 (0.093%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (2.46%) SQL Server
2 46 (2.14%) NoSQL
3 42 (1.95%) PostgreSQL
4 31 (1.44%) MongoDB
5 24 (1.12%) Elasticsearch
5 24 (1.12%) MySQL
6 16 (0.74%) Relational Database
7 13 (0.60%) DynamoDB
8 12 (0.56%) Neo4j
9 11 (0.51%) Big Data
10 8 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 7 (0.33%) Hadoop
11 7 (0.33%) Redis
12 6 (0.28%) Geospatial Data
13 5 (0.23%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.19%) DocumentDB
14 4 (0.19%) GIS
14 4 (0.19%) QGIS
15 3 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
15 3 (0.14%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 62 (2.88%) Git
2 15 (0.70%) GitLab
3 14 (0.65%) JIRA
4 13 (0.60%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.51%) JUnit
5 11 (0.51%) Visual Studio
6 9 (0.42%) Claude Code
7 7 (0.33%) Subversion
8 6 (0.28%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.23%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.23%) Selenium
10 4 (0.19%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.19%) Postman
11 3 (0.14%) CANoe
11 3 (0.14%) Cucumber
11 3 (0.14%) Gradle
11 3 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
12 2 (0.093%) Android Studio
12 2 (0.093%) SpecFlow
12 2 (0.093%) Vagrant
General
1 111 (5.16%) Social Skills
2 87 (4.04%) Finance
3 80 (3.72%) Manufacturing
4 73 (3.39%) Electronics
5 46 (2.14%) Aerospace
6 43 (2.00%) Public Sector
7 42 (1.95%) Automotive
8 38 (1.77%) Pharmaceutical
9 30 (1.39%) Analytical Skills
10 27 (1.25%) Games
11 18 (0.84%) Retail
12 15 (0.70%) Tech for Good
13 11 (0.51%) Health Technology
13 11 (0.51%) Military
14 8 (0.37%) Marketing
14 8 (0.37%) Telecoms
15 7 (0.33%) Aeronautics
15 7 (0.33%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.23%) Aviation
17 4 (0.19%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 231 (10.73%) .NET
2 158 (7.34%) React
3 84 (3.90%) Node.js
4 66 (3.07%) AngularJS
5 61 (2.83%) REST
6 53 (2.46%) RESTful
7 50 (2.32%) Vue
8 46 (2.14%) .NET Core
9 45 (2.09%) Spring
10 42 (1.95%) .NET Framework
10 42 (1.95%) HTML
11 39 (1.81%) Spring Boot
12 33 (1.53%) CSS
13 27 (1.25%) ASP.NET
14 25 (1.16%) Django
15 24 (1.12%) Qt
16 23 (1.07%) Entity Framework
17 20 (0.93%) Web Services
18 18 (0.84%) Next.js
19 15 (0.70%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 95 (4.41%) Cloud Native
2 60 (2.79%) Embedded Systems
3 41 (1.91%) IoT
4 35 (1.63%) Distributed Systems
4 35 (1.63%) Robotics
5 23 (1.07%) Algorithms
6 20 (0.93%) Product Ownership
6 20 (0.93%) Smart Energy
7 19 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
8 18 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (0.79%) Client/Server
9 17 (0.79%) Hedge funds
10 14 (0.65%) Industry 4.0
11 13 (0.60%) Device Driver
11 13 (0.60%) Mobile App
12 12 (0.56%) Driving Licence
13 11 (0.51%) CAN bus
14 10 (0.46%) Distributed Computing
15 8 (0.37%) AI Agents
15 8 (0.37%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 128 (5.95%) Linux
2 33 (1.53%) Embedded Linux
3 26 (1.21%) Android
3 26 (1.21%) Windows
4 9 (0.42%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.23%) Apple iOS
5 5 (0.23%) CentOS
5 5 (0.23%) Debian
5 5 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.23%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.093%) SafeRTOS
6 2 (0.093%) VxWorks
6 2 (0.093%) zOS
7 1 (0.046%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.046%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.046%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,131 (99.02%) Software Engineering
2 261 (12.13%) Agile
3 221 (10.27%) Full-Stack Development
4 180 (8.36%) CI/CD
5 164 (7.62%) DevOps
6 120 (5.58%) Microservices
7 118 (5.48%) Continuous Improvement
8 115 (5.34%) Mentoring
8 115 (5.34%) Problem-Solving
9 98 (4.55%) Computer Science
10 94 (4.37%) AI
11 89 (4.14%) Test Automation
12 86 (4.00%) SDLC
13 83 (3.86%) Scrum
14 82 (3.81%) Containerisation
15 76 (3.53%) TDD
16 55 (2.56%) Embedded Software Development
17 54 (2.51%) Software Testing
17 54 (2.51%) Technical Leadership
18 48 (2.23%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 293 (13.62%) C++
2 266 (12.36%) C#
3 255 (11.85%) Java
4 243 (11.29%) Python
5 175 (8.13%) JavaScript
6 154 (7.16%) C
7 149 (6.92%) SQL
8 146 (6.78%) TypeScript
9 51 (2.37%) PHP
10 46 (2.14%) Rust
11 42 (1.95%) Embedded C
12 26 (1.21%) Kotlin
13 20 (0.93%) Ruby
14 18 (0.84%) Embedded C++
15 17 (0.79%) Scala
16 16 (0.74%) Ada
16 16 (0.74%) Go
16 16 (0.74%) PL/SQL
17 13 (0.60%) COBOL
17 13 (0.60%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 200 (9.29%) Security Cleared
2 166 (7.71%) Degree
3 110 (5.11%) SC Cleared
4 81 (3.76%) Computer Science Degree
5 57 (2.65%) DV Cleared
6 22 (1.02%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.46%) PhD
8 7 (0.33%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.33%) Chartered Engineer
8 7 (0.33%) DBS Check
8 7 (0.33%) HND
9 6 (0.28%) HNC
10 2 (0.093%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.093%) NVQ Level 3
10 2 (0.093%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (2.18%) QA
2 15 (0.70%) IEC 61508
3 14 (0.65%) MISRA
3 14 (0.65%) MISRA C
4 12 (0.56%) Accessibility
5 6 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 4 (0.19%) ECSS
6 4 (0.19%) GDPR
6 4 (0.19%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.046%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.046%) DO-254
7 1 (0.046%) HAZOP
7 1 (0.046%) IEC 62304
7 1 (0.046%) ISO 26262
7 1 (0.046%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 88 (4.09%) Docker
2 84 (3.90%) Firmware
3 22 (1.02%) Embedded Firmware
4 13 (0.60%) Hyper-V
4 13 (0.60%) KVM
4 13 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.093%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.046%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 99 (4.60%) Kubernetes
2 53 (2.46%) Terraform
3 12 (0.56%) Functional Safety
4 6 (0.28%) Ansible
5 5 (0.23%) Kibana
5 5 (0.23%) Puppet
6 4 (0.19%) Grafana
7 2 (0.093%) Packer
7 2 (0.093%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.046%) logstash
8 1 (0.046%) Podman
8 1 (0.046%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 23 (1.07%) Oracle
2 16 (0.74%) Microsoft
3 14 (0.65%) Google
4 13 (0.60%) Adobe
4 13 (0.60%) VMware
5 11 (0.51%) Xamarin
6 10 (0.46%) Siemens
7 8 (0.37%) HubSpot
7 8 (0.37%) Sage
8 6 (0.28%) Atlassian
8 6 (0.28%) Rockwell
8 6 (0.28%) Salesforce
9 5 (0.23%) Red Hat
9 5 (0.23%) SaltStack
10 4 (0.19%) Atmel
11 3 (0.14%) Allen-Bradley
11 3 (0.14%) SAP
11 3 (0.14%) Typelevel
11 3 (0.14%) Wonderware
11 3 (0.14%) Zoho