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 21 June 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 47 13
Rank change year-on-year +22 -34 +65
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 3,215 1,555 6,794
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.74% 5.16% 8.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.01% 5.80% 8.99%
Number of salaries quoted 2,580 722 3,880
10th Percentile £45,000 £42,500 £38,475
25th Percentile £54,875 £52,000 £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 £77,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -9.68% +29.17% -14.29%

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 64,143 26,818 75,559
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.49% 88.95% 94.86%
Number of salaries quoted 44,495 14,592 54,171
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £26,750
25th Percentile £37,500 £33,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -6.54%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £76,950
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 21 June 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 21 June 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 +81 894 £65,000 - 167
North of England +13 865 £67,500 -3.57% 117
South West +25 543 £65,000 - 105
North West +8 506 £70,000 -6.67% 72
East of England +56 346 £70,000 +5.73% 110
Midlands +48 307 £65,000 - 39
Yorkshire +52 230 £62,500 -17.76% 17
West Midlands +29 168 £69,305 +15.51% 16
Scotland -15 168 £65,000 +0.39% 7
East Midlands +10 139 £55,000 -15.38% 23
North East +5 129 £70,000 +27.27% 28
Wales -4 77 £42,500 -34.62% 9
Northern Ireland -14 16 £90,000 +80.00% 36
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 June 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 3,174 (98.72%) Software Engineering
2 513 (15.96%) C++
3 495 (15.40%) C#
4 407 (12.66%) Python
5 385 (11.98%) Agile
6 359 (11.17%) Full-Stack Development
7 355 (11.04%) AWS
8 310 (9.64%) .NET
9 286 (8.90%) Java
10 281 (8.74%) Security Cleared
11 275 (8.55%) CI/CD
12 264 (8.21%) Degree
13 242 (7.53%) JavaScript
14 239 (7.43%) Azure
15 234 (7.28%) C
15 234 (7.28%) DevOps
16 228 (7.09%) AI
17 221 (6.87%) TypeScript
18 201 (6.25%) Linux
19 196 (6.10%) Mentoring
20 193 (6.00%) React
21 186 (5.79%) SQL
22 181 (5.63%) Microservices
23 177 (5.51%) SC Cleared
24 170 (5.29%) Continuous Improvement
24 170 (5.29%) Problem-Solving
24 170 (5.29%) SaaS
25 161 (5.01%) Test Automation
26 159 (4.95%) Computer Science
27 152 (4.73%) Firmware

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 16 (0.50%) Apache
2 15 (0.47%) SharePoint Server
3 8 (0.25%) FactoryTalk
4 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.16%) CMS
6 4 (0.12%) Apache Solr
6 4 (0.12%) Confluence
6 4 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 3 (0.093%) WinCC
8 2 (0.062%) ArchestrA
8 2 (0.062%) Headless CMS
8 2 (0.062%) WordPress
9 1 (0.031%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (0.19%) Lightworks
2 4 (0.12%) EngageOne
3 3 (0.093%) CANalyzer
3 3 (0.093%) EPLAN
3 3 (0.093%) Simulink
4 2 (0.062%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.031%) Microsoft Office
5 1 (0.031%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.031%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (0.25%) Magento
2 2 (0.062%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.031%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 355 (11.04%) AWS
2 239 (7.43%) Azure
3 170 (5.29%) SaaS
4 70 (2.18%) GCP
5 69 (2.15%) Serverless
6 39 (1.21%) GitHub
7 36 (1.12%) Azure DevOps
8 25 (0.78%) AWS Lambda
9 24 (0.75%) Anthropic Claude
10 19 (0.59%) Azure AKS
10 19 (0.59%) Firebase
11 18 (0.56%) Amazon S3
12 14 (0.44%) Amazon EKS
13 13 (0.40%) AWS CloudFormation
13 13 (0.40%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (0.25%) Amazon ECS
14 8 (0.25%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 8 (0.25%) Cloud Run
15 7 (0.22%) AWS Step Functions
16 6 (0.19%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.56%) Wireless
2 36 (1.12%) Ethernet
3 24 (0.75%) RS-232
4 22 (0.68%) Bluetooth
5 20 (0.62%) Modbus
6 13 (0.40%) MQTT
7 12 (0.37%) Profibus
7 12 (0.37%) ZigBee
8 11 (0.34%) TCP/IP
9 10 (0.31%) Wi-Fi
10 9 (0.28%) RS-485
11 8 (0.25%) Network Security
12 7 (0.22%) Broadband
12 7 (0.22%) LTE
13 5 (0.16%) AMQP
14 4 (0.12%) Software-Defined Radio
14 4 (0.12%) Wireshark
15 3 (0.093%) Software-Defined Networking
16 2 (0.062%) RTP
17 1 (0.031%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
2 59 (1.84%) NoSQL
3 58 (1.80%) SQL Server
4 52 (1.62%) MongoDB
5 39 (1.21%) MySQL
6 18 (0.56%) Elasticsearch
7 16 (0.50%) Relational Database
8 13 (0.40%) Big Data
8 13 (0.40%) Redis
9 11 (0.34%) DynamoDB
10 9 (0.28%) Pinecone
11 8 (0.25%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.22%) Neo4j
13 6 (0.19%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.16%) Cloudera CDH
14 5 (0.16%) FileMaker
15 4 (0.12%) Geospatial Data
15 4 (0.12%) GIS
15 4 (0.12%) QGIS
16 3 (0.093%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 115 (3.58%) Git
2 36 (1.12%) GitLab
3 25 (0.78%) Jenkins
4 22 (0.68%) Visual Studio Code
5 19 (0.59%) Claude Code
5 19 (0.59%) JIRA
6 11 (0.34%) Visual Studio
7 8 (0.25%) Cucumber
7 8 (0.25%) JUnit
7 8 (0.25%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.22%) Eclipse
8 7 (0.22%) Moq
8 7 (0.22%) Subversion
9 6 (0.19%) Bitbucket
9 6 (0.19%) Yeoman
10 5 (0.16%) GDB
10 5 (0.16%) Maven
10 5 (0.16%) Postman
11 4 (0.12%) Gradle
11 4 (0.12%) LabVIEW
General
1 181 (5.63%) Manufacturing
2 149 (4.63%) Electronics
3 146 (4.54%) Social Skills
4 89 (2.77%) Finance
5 80 (2.49%) Aerospace
6 77 (2.40%) Automotive
7 63 (1.96%) Public Sector
8 39 (1.21%) Analytical Skills
9 35 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
10 27 (0.84%) Aviation
11 20 (0.62%) Games
11 20 (0.62%) Retail
12 15 (0.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (0.47%) Telecoms
13 14 (0.44%) Military
14 11 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.31%) Tech for Good
16 8 (0.25%) Wearables
17 7 (0.22%) Advertising
17 7 (0.22%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 310 (9.64%) .NET
2 193 (6.00%) React
3 115 (3.58%) Node.js
4 98 (3.05%) Vue
5 76 (2.36%) REST
6 73 (2.27%) AngularJS
7 64 (1.99%) RESTful
8 59 (1.84%) CSS
8 59 (1.84%) WPF
9 56 (1.74%) Spring
10 54 (1.68%) HTML
11 48 (1.49%) .NET Core
12 47 (1.46%) Spring Boot
13 39 (1.21%) .NET Framework
14 34 (1.06%) Next.js
15 29 (0.90%) Django
16 24 (0.75%) Entity Framework
17 22 (0.68%) Yocto
18 21 (0.65%) ASP.NET
19 20 (0.62%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 132 (4.11%) Cloud Native
2 106 (3.30%) Embedded Systems
3 82 (2.55%) Algorithms
4 68 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
5 62 (1.93%) Product Ownership
6 60 (1.87%) IoT
7 54 (1.68%) Robotics
8 45 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
9 42 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
10 37 (1.15%) AI Agents
11 26 (0.81%) Device Driver
11 26 (0.81%) Mobile App
12 23 (0.72%) Client/Server
13 20 (0.62%) Hedge funds
14 18 (0.56%) Educational Technology
15 17 (0.53%) Data Structures
15 17 (0.53%) Distributed Computing
15 17 (0.53%) e-Learning
15 17 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
16 15 (0.47%) ARM Cortex
Operating Systems
1 201 (6.25%) Linux
2 43 (1.34%) Embedded Linux
3 42 (1.31%) Windows
4 33 (1.03%) Android
5 25 (0.78%) FreeRTOS
6 8 (0.25%) Debian
7 6 (0.19%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) CentOS
8 5 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.16%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.062%) Gentoo
9 2 (0.062%) SafeRTOS
9 2 (0.062%) Unix
9 2 (0.062%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.062%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.062%) zOS
10 1 (0.031%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.031%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 3,174 (98.72%) Software Engineering
2 385 (11.98%) Agile
3 359 (11.17%) Full-Stack Development
4 275 (8.55%) CI/CD
5 234 (7.28%) DevOps
6 228 (7.09%) AI
7 196 (6.10%) Mentoring
8 181 (5.63%) Microservices
9 170 (5.29%) Continuous Improvement
9 170 (5.29%) Problem-Solving
10 161 (5.01%) Test Automation
11 159 (4.95%) Computer Science
12 151 (4.70%) SDLC
13 115 (3.58%) Containerisation
14 108 (3.36%) Scrum
15 107 (3.33%) TDD
16 91 (2.83%) Software Architecture
17 86 (2.67%) Software Testing
18 83 (2.58%) Code Quality
19 81 (2.52%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 513 (15.96%) C++
2 495 (15.40%) C#
3 407 (12.66%) Python
4 286 (8.90%) Java
5 242 (7.53%) JavaScript
6 234 (7.28%) C
7 221 (6.87%) TypeScript
8 186 (5.79%) SQL
9 98 (3.05%) Rust
10 57 (1.77%) PHP
11 53 (1.65%) Embedded C
12 46 (1.43%) Go
13 23 (0.72%) Ruby
14 21 (0.65%) Embedded C++
15 18 (0.56%) Kotlin
16 17 (0.53%) Bash
16 17 (0.53%) COBOL
17 13 (0.40%) Scala
18 12 (0.37%) MATLAB
19 7 (0.22%) XAML
Qualifications
1 281 (8.74%) Security Cleared
2 264 (8.21%) Degree
3 177 (5.51%) SC Cleared
4 127 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
5 100 (3.11%) DV Cleared
6 50 (1.56%) Master's Degree
7 23 (0.72%) PhD
8 14 (0.44%) DBS Check
9 10 (0.31%) HND
10 8 (0.25%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.19%) HNC
12 5 (0.16%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.16%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.093%) CEH
13 3 (0.093%) OSCP
14 2 (0.062%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.062%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.062%) NVQ Level 3
14 2 (0.062%) PMI Certification
15 1 (0.031%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (2.24%) QA
2 19 (0.59%) Accessibility
3 13 (0.40%) IEC 61508
3 13 (0.40%) MISRA
3 13 (0.40%) MISRA C
4 8 (0.25%) IEC 61131
5 4 (0.12%) DO-178B
5 4 (0.12%) ISO 9001
5 4 (0.12%) JTAG
6 3 (0.093%) ECSS
6 3 (0.093%) GAMP
6 3 (0.093%) GDPR
7 2 (0.062%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.031%) Automotive SPICE
8 1 (0.031%) DO-254
8 1 (0.031%) HAZOP
8 1 (0.031%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.031%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.031%) WCAG
System Software
1 152 (4.73%) Firmware
2 139 (4.32%) Docker
3 51 (1.59%) Embedded Firmware
4 14 (0.44%) Hyper-V
4 14 (0.44%) KVM
4 14 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.093%) QEMU
7 2 (0.062%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 107 (3.33%) Kubernetes
2 75 (2.33%) Terraform
3 29 (0.90%) Ansible
4 10 (0.31%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.19%) Grafana
5 6 (0.19%) Kibana
5 6 (0.19%) logstash
5 6 (0.19%) Puppet
6 5 (0.16%) Podman
7 3 (0.093%) Plesk
7 3 (0.093%) SCCM
7 3 (0.093%) SCOM
7 3 (0.093%) SCOrch
8 2 (0.062%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.062%) Packer
8 2 (0.062%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 28 (0.87%) Siemens
2 24 (0.75%) Microsoft
3 18 (0.56%) Rockwell
4 16 (0.50%) Google
4 16 (0.50%) Oracle
4 16 (0.50%) VMware
5 12 (0.37%) Salesforce
6 9 (0.28%) Adobe
6 9 (0.28%) Allen-Bradley
7 8 (0.25%) OpenAI
8 6 (0.19%) Splunk
8 6 (0.19%) Xamarin
9 5 (0.16%) Red Hat
9 5 (0.16%) SaltStack
10 4 (0.12%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.12%) Atmel
10 4 (0.12%) HubSpot
10 4 (0.12%) Peregrine
11 3 (0.093%) Palantir
11 3 (0.093%) Wonderware