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 £69,305 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 September 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 69 20
Rank change year-on-year +47 -49 +47
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 4,437 1,294 3,831
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.15% 3.78% 7.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.53% 4.22% 7.56%
Number of salaries quoted 3,475 477 2,174
10th Percentile £45,000 £44,500 £39,825
25th Percentile £55,000 £54,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,305 £65,000 £55,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.62% +17.12% -7.50%
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 80,209 30,649 50,643
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.05% 89.46% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 55,505 17,128 28,506
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,750
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 £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.27% - -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 29 September 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 29 September 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 +31 1,079 £70,000 +7.69% 364
South East +90 1,021 £70,000 +2.94% 305
South West +41 912 £68,500 +5.38% 298
North West +18 615 £70,000 -6.67% 226
East of England +114 599 £70,000 +7.69% 272
Midlands +59 455 £65,000 - 206
Yorkshire +82 260 £60,000 - 91
East Midlands +42 259 £55,000 -21.43% 111
Scotland +3 218 £77,500 +22.05% 269
North East +27 204 £70,000 +30.23% 47
West Midlands +45 196 £65,000 +4.00% 95
Wales +19 141 £60,000 +4.35% 35
Northern Ireland - 13 £82,500 - 86
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 September 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 4,405 (99.28%) Software Engineering
2 672 (15.15%) C++
3 611 (13.77%) C#
4 557 (12.55%) Agile
5 536 (12.08%) Python
6 436 (9.83%) AWS
7 429 (9.67%) AI
8 411 (9.26%) Security Cleared
9 383 (8.63%) Java
10 376 (8.47%) CI/CD
11 374 (8.43%) Full-Stack Development
12 310 (6.99%) .NET
13 301 (6.78%) Linux
14 280 (6.31%) Azure
15 277 (6.24%) Degree
16 272 (6.13%) TypeScript
17 264 (5.95%) SC Cleared
18 259 (5.84%) JavaScript
19 250 (5.63%) Mentoring
20 239 (5.39%) C
21 235 (5.30%) React
22 234 (5.27%) DevOps
23 229 (5.16%) Problem-Solving
24 203 (4.58%) SDLC
25 197 (4.44%) Microservices
26 188 (4.24%) Test Automation
27 187 (4.21%) Continuous Improvement
28 185 (4.17%) Docker
29 177 (3.99%) SQL
30 174 (3.92%) 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 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
3 8 (0.18%) Apache Spark
3 8 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
4 7 (0.16%) Confluence
4 7 (0.16%) WinCC
5 5 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.068%) Apache Solr
6 3 (0.068%) CMS
6 3 (0.068%) Headless CMS
6 3 (0.068%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.068%) Tomcat
6 3 (0.068%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.045%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.045%) WordPress
8 1 (0.023%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.023%) OpenStack
Applications
1 19 (0.43%) Lightworks
2 12 (0.27%) Simulink
3 4 (0.090%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.090%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.068%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.045%) EPLAN
6 1 (0.023%) CANalyzer
6 1 (0.023%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.023%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
2 3 (0.068%) Visualfiles
3 1 (0.023%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.023%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 436 (9.83%) AWS
2 280 (6.31%) Azure
3 139 (3.13%) SaaS
4 110 (2.48%) GCP
5 76 (1.71%) Serverless
6 49 (1.10%) GitHub
7 39 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
8 37 (0.83%) Firebase
9 30 (0.68%) Anthropic Claude
9 30 (0.68%) AWS Lambda
10 21 (0.47%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
12 19 (0.43%) Amazon EKS
13 18 (0.41%) Amazon S3
14 16 (0.36%) Cloud Run
15 14 (0.32%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.29%) GitHub Copilot
17 11 (0.25%) Slack
18 10 (0.23%) Azure Functions
18 10 (0.23%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 72 (1.62%) Wireless
2 37 (0.83%) Ethernet
3 31 (0.70%) Bluetooth
4 26 (0.59%) Modbus
4 26 (0.59%) TCP/IP
5 23 (0.52%) MQTT
6 22 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 16 (0.36%) RS-232
7 16 (0.36%) ZigBee
8 13 (0.29%) 5G
8 13 (0.29%) LTE
8 13 (0.29%) Profibus
9 11 (0.25%) RS-485
10 10 (0.23%) ATM
11 8 (0.18%) Internet
12 7 (0.16%) AMQP
12 7 (0.16%) Wireshark
13 4 (0.090%) HTTP
13 4 (0.090%) Software-Defined Radio
14 3 (0.068%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (2.05%) PostgreSQL
2 61 (1.37%) SQL Server
3 50 (1.13%) MongoDB
4 46 (1.04%) NoSQL
5 41 (0.92%) MySQL
6 36 (0.81%) Relational Database
7 20 (0.45%) Redis
8 19 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
9 17 (0.38%) DynamoDB
10 16 (0.36%) Chroma
10 16 (0.36%) Pinecone
11 13 (0.29%) Big Data
12 9 (0.20%) Hadoop
13 7 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (0.16%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.090%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (0.090%) Data Lake
14 4 (0.090%) FileMaker
14 4 (0.090%) MariaDB
15 3 (0.068%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 144 (3.25%) Git
2 56 (1.26%) GitLab
3 35 (0.79%) Jenkins
4 32 (0.72%) JIRA
5 20 (0.45%) Visual Studio Code
6 18 (0.41%) Claude Code
7 17 (0.38%) Cucumber
8 16 (0.36%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 10 (0.23%) JUnit
11 8 (0.18%) Cypress.io
12 7 (0.16%) GDB
12 7 (0.16%) LabVIEW
12 7 (0.16%) Mockito
12 7 (0.16%) Moq
13 6 (0.14%) PetaLinux
13 6 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
14 5 (0.11%) CMake
14 5 (0.11%) Eclipse
14 5 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 223 (5.03%) Manufacturing
2 211 (4.76%) Electronics
3 200 (4.51%) Social Skills
4 185 (4.17%) Finance
5 127 (2.86%) Aerospace
6 104 (2.34%) Public Sector
7 85 (1.92%) Automotive
8 64 (1.44%) Aviation
9 55 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 50 (1.13%) Analytical Skills
11 34 (0.77%) Retail
12 29 (0.65%) Law
13 26 (0.59%) Games
14 25 (0.56%) Military
14 25 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
15 24 (0.54%) Tech for Good
16 18 (0.41%) Financial Institution
16 18 (0.41%) Marketing
17 16 (0.36%) Health Technology
18 15 (0.34%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 310 (6.99%) .NET
2 235 (5.30%) React
3 119 (2.68%) Node.js
4 98 (2.21%) Vue
5 94 (2.12%) Terraform
6 85 (1.92%) Spring
7 84 (1.89%) WPF
8 83 (1.87%) Spring Boot
9 71 (1.60%) AngularJS
10 70 (1.58%) CSS
11 57 (1.28%) RESTful
12 56 (1.26%) REST
13 48 (1.08%) HTML
14 39 (0.88%) Next.js
15 35 (0.79%) React Native
16 34 (0.77%) .NET Core
17 32 (0.72%) Kafka
18 31 (0.70%) Django
19 29 (0.65%) .NET Framework
20 26 (0.59%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 178 (4.01%) Cloud Native
2 131 (2.95%) Embedded Systems
3 129 (2.91%) Robotics
4 106 (2.39%) Algorithms
5 83 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
6 68 (1.53%) Product Ownership
7 66 (1.49%) AI Agents
7 66 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
8 53 (1.19%) IoT
9 48 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
10 42 (0.95%) Public Cloud
11 36 (0.81%) Cyber Threat
12 26 (0.59%) Device Driver
12 26 (0.59%) Distributed Computing
12 26 (0.59%) Mobile App
13 25 (0.56%) Data Structures
14 18 (0.41%) ARM Cortex
14 18 (0.41%) Educational Technology
14 18 (0.41%) NHS
15 16 (0.36%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 301 (6.78%) Linux
2 73 (1.65%) Windows
3 60 (1.35%) Embedded Linux
4 36 (0.81%) Android
5 29 (0.65%) FreeRTOS
6 12 (0.27%) Debian
7 11 (0.25%) Apple iOS
8 9 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (0.20%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.16%) CentOS
9 7 (0.16%) VxWorks
10 5 (0.11%) Unix
10 5 (0.11%) Windows Server
11 3 (0.068%) Gentoo
11 3 (0.068%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.045%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.045%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.045%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.023%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,405 (99.28%) Software Engineering
2 557 (12.55%) Agile
3 429 (9.67%) AI
4 376 (8.47%) CI/CD
5 374 (8.43%) Full-Stack Development
6 250 (5.63%) Mentoring
7 234 (5.27%) DevOps
8 229 (5.16%) Problem-Solving
9 203 (4.58%) SDLC
10 197 (4.44%) Microservices
11 188 (4.24%) Test Automation
12 187 (4.21%) Continuous Improvement
13 168 (3.79%) Computer Science
14 147 (3.31%) Software Architecture
15 138 (3.11%) Code Quality
16 133 (3.00%) Technical Leadership
17 126 (2.84%) Containerisation
18 112 (2.52%) Software Testing
19 109 (2.46%) Machine Learning
20 97 (2.19%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 672 (15.15%) C++
2 611 (13.77%) C#
3 536 (12.08%) Python
4 383 (8.63%) Java
5 272 (6.13%) TypeScript
6 259 (5.84%) JavaScript
7 239 (5.39%) C
8 177 (3.99%) SQL
9 123 (2.77%) Rust
10 69 (1.56%) Go
11 60 (1.35%) PHP
12 39 (0.88%) Embedded C
13 31 (0.70%) Ruby
14 29 (0.65%) Embedded C++
15 27 (0.61%) Ada
16 22 (0.50%) MATLAB
17 21 (0.47%) Bash
18 18 (0.41%) Kotlin
19 12 (0.27%) Scala
20 8 (0.18%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 411 (9.26%) Security Cleared
2 277 (6.24%) Degree
3 264 (5.95%) SC Cleared
4 174 (3.92%) DV Cleared
5 122 (2.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 48 (1.08%) Master's Degree
7 37 (0.83%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (0.54%) PhD
9 11 (0.25%) DBS Check
10 8 (0.18%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.14%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.11%) CEH
12 5 (0.11%) OSCP
13 4 (0.090%) HND
13 4 (0.090%) Microsoft Certification
14 3 (0.068%) Chartered Engineer
14 3 (0.068%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 2 (0.045%) Numerate Degree
16 1 (0.023%) ISTQB
16 1 (0.023%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (1.49%) QA
2 49 (1.10%) Accessibility
3 10 (0.23%) IEC 61131
4 6 (0.14%) JTAG
4 6 (0.14%) MISRA
4 6 (0.14%) MISRA C
5 5 (0.11%) DO-178B
5 5 (0.11%) IEC 61508
5 5 (0.11%) WCAG
6 4 (0.090%) Data Quality
6 4 (0.090%) ECSS
7 3 (0.068%) Automotive SPICE
7 3 (0.068%) GAMP
7 3 (0.068%) ISO 26262
7 3 (0.068%) MIL-STD-1553
8 2 (0.045%) AUTOSAR
8 2 (0.045%) GDPR
8 2 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.023%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.023%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 185 (4.17%) Docker
2 159 (3.58%) Firmware
3 48 (1.08%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.14%) QEMU
5 4 (0.090%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.045%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.045%) KVM
6 2 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.023%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.023%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 154 (3.47%) Kubernetes
2 46 (1.04%) Ansible
3 15 (0.34%) Grafana
4 10 (0.23%) Podman
5 9 (0.20%) Puppet
6 8 (0.18%) Kibana
6 8 (0.18%) logstash
7 6 (0.14%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.090%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.068%) Plesk
9 3 (0.068%) SCCM
9 3 (0.068%) SCOM
9 3 (0.068%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.045%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.045%) Packer
10 2 (0.045%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 38 (0.86%) Microsoft
2 34 (0.77%) Siemens
3 20 (0.45%) Google
4 18 (0.41%) Salesforce
5 14 (0.32%) Databricks
5 14 (0.32%) Okta
5 14 (0.32%) Ping Identity
6 13 (0.29%) Rockwell
7 12 (0.27%) Oracle
7 12 (0.27%) Splunk
8 11 (0.25%) RedGate
9 10 (0.23%) OpenAI
10 9 (0.20%) Red Hat
11 8 (0.18%) Sage
12 7 (0.16%) Allen-Bradley
12 7 (0.16%) SaltStack
13 6 (0.14%) Intel
14 5 (0.11%) Atlassian
14 5 (0.11%) New Relic
14 5 (0.11%) Xamarin