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 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 35 31
Rank change year-on-year -34 -4 +19
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,262 2,028 2,210
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.98% 5.65% 6.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.29% 6.08% 6.72%
Number of salaries quoted 974 960 1,333
10th Percentile £41,453 £40,000 £41,069
25th Percentile £51,474 £47,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £88,375 £87,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -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 38,388 33,377 32,893
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.52% 92.91% 95.32%
Number of salaries quoted 23,454 16,215 24,936
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,609 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.96% +5.22% -5.25%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 January 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 January 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 -32 308 £65,000 +8.33% 425
North of England -18 286 £65,000 +6.56% 263
South West -4 264 £65,000 +18.18% 236
East of England -28 139 £70,000 +3.70% 211
North West -8 128 £66,250 +6.00% 132
Midlands -17 121 £60,000 +9.09% 141
Yorkshire -12 120 £60,000 - 90
Scotland -28 114 £60,000 +4.45% 86
West Midlands -15 64 £60,000 - 46
East Midlands -21 60 £62,500 +25.00% 95
North East -12 38 £70,000 +14.75% 41
Wales -30 20 £75,000 +5.26% 74
Northern Ireland -30 11 £85,000 -5.56% 29
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 January 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 1,259 (99.76%) Software Engineering
2 194 (15.37%) Agile
2 194 (15.37%) C#
3 182 (14.42%) C++
4 169 (13.39%) AWS
5 167 (13.23%) .NET
6 163 (12.92%) Java
7 149 (11.81%) CI/CD
8 144 (11.41%) Security Cleared
9 143 (11.33%) React
10 141 (11.17%) Full-Stack Development
10 141 (11.17%) Python
11 139 (11.01%) DevOps
12 132 (10.46%) Azure
13 120 (9.51%) Degree
13 120 (9.51%) JavaScript
14 115 (9.11%) Mentoring
15 111 (8.80%) TypeScript
16 108 (8.56%) SQL
17 98 (7.77%) C
18 97 (7.69%) Linux
19 95 (7.53%) Microservices
19 95 (7.53%) Problem-Solving
20 76 (6.02%) Kubernetes
20 76 (6.02%) SC Cleared
21 75 (5.94%) AI
22 74 (5.86%) Computer Science
23 64 (5.07%) Docker
24 63 (4.99%) Firmware
25 62 (4.91%) Continuous Improvement

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 (0.95%) IIS
2 11 (0.87%) Apache
3 6 (0.48%) Confluence
4 5 (0.40%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.32%) CMS
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Solr
7 2 (0.16%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.16%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.16%) NServiceBus
7 2 (0.16%) WinCC
8 1 (0.079%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.079%) Kinematics
Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.16%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.16%) Sketch
3 1 (0.079%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.079%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.79%) Magento
2 2 (0.16%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.079%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 169 (13.39%) AWS
2 132 (10.46%) Azure
3 55 (4.36%) SaaS
4 39 (3.09%) Serverless
5 33 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (2.38%) AWS Lambda
7 28 (2.22%) GCP
8 24 (1.90%) Amazon S3
9 21 (1.66%) Amazon EKS
9 21 (1.66%) GitHub
10 15 (1.19%) Amazon ECS
11 10 (0.79%) Azure AKS
12 8 (0.63%) OpenShift
12 8 (0.63%) Stripe
13 7 (0.55%) Amazon EC2
13 7 (0.55%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (0.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (0.48%) Amazon SQS
14 6 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
15 5 (0.40%) Amazon EventBridge
Communications & Networking
1 36 (2.85%) Wireless
2 17 (1.35%) RS-232
3 15 (1.19%) Bluetooth
3 15 (1.19%) Software-Defined Radio
4 6 (0.48%) HTTP
4 6 (0.48%) Modbus
4 6 (0.48%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.40%) DNS
6 4 (0.32%) AMQP
6 4 (0.32%) Ethernet
6 4 (0.32%) SMTP
7 3 (0.24%) ATM
8 2 (0.16%) 3G
8 2 (0.16%) Firewall
8 2 (0.16%) GPRS
8 2 (0.16%) GSM
8 2 (0.16%) Profibus
8 2 (0.16%) RS-485
8 2 (0.16%) SSL
8 2 (0.16%) UWB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.85%) SQL Server
2 32 (2.54%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (2.06%) NoSQL
4 20 (1.58%) Elasticsearch
5 19 (1.51%) Relational Database
6 16 (1.27%) MongoDB
7 15 (1.19%) MySQL
8 14 (1.11%) DynamoDB
9 12 (0.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 8 (0.63%) Redis
11 7 (0.55%) Neo4j
12 5 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.40%) Big Data
12 5 (0.40%) Hadoop
13 4 (0.32%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
13 4 (0.32%) GIS
14 3 (0.24%) Cloudera CDH
14 3 (0.24%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.24%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 51 (4.04%) Git
2 17 (1.35%) Visual Studio
3 16 (1.27%) GitLab
4 15 (1.19%) JIRA
5 12 (0.95%) Jenkins
5 12 (0.95%) JUnit
6 8 (0.63%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.40%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.40%) Selenium
8 4 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.16%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.16%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.16%) Maven
9 2 (0.16%) PROIV
9 2 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.16%) TestRail
9 2 (0.16%) Xcode
10 1 (0.079%) Gatling
10 1 (0.079%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (0.079%) Rational Statemate
General
1 103 (8.16%) Social Skills
2 80 (6.34%) Finance
3 46 (3.65%) Electronics
4 44 (3.49%) Manufacturing
5 23 (1.82%) Aerospace
6 21 (1.66%) Pharmaceutical
7 20 (1.58%) Games
8 19 (1.51%) Analytical Skills
9 18 (1.43%) Public Sector
10 15 (1.19%) Automotive
11 14 (1.11%) Retail
12 12 (0.95%) Tech for Good
13 9 (0.71%) Financial Institution
14 8 (0.63%) Law
14 8 (0.63%) Military
15 7 (0.55%) Aeronautics
15 7 (0.55%) Marketing
16 6 (0.48%) Legal
17 5 (0.40%) Health Technology
18 4 (0.32%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (13.23%) .NET
2 143 (11.33%) React
3 56 (4.44%) AngularJS
4 52 (4.12%) Node.js
5 41 (3.25%) Spring
6 38 (3.01%) Spring Boot
7 37 (2.93%) RESTful
8 36 (2.85%) REST
9 31 (2.46%) .NET Core
10 29 (2.30%) .NET Framework
10 29 (2.30%) HTML
10 29 (2.30%) Vue
11 28 (2.22%) CSS
12 27 (2.14%) ASP.NET
13 21 (1.66%) Qt
14 19 (1.51%) Entity Framework
15 17 (1.35%) Next.js
16 16 (1.27%) WinForms
17 13 (1.03%) Laravel
17 13 (1.03%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 72 (5.71%) Cloud Native
2 59 (4.68%) Embedded Systems
3 25 (1.98%) Distributed Systems
3 25 (1.98%) IoT
4 19 (1.51%) e-Learning
4 19 (1.51%) Robotics
5 17 (1.35%) Algorithms
6 16 (1.27%) Product Ownership
7 13 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.03%) RISC-V
7 13 (1.03%) Smart Energy
8 12 (0.95%) Manufacturing Execution System
9 11 (0.87%) Driving Licence
9 11 (0.87%) MicroBlaze
10 10 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (0.71%) AI Agents
11 9 (0.71%) CAN bus
11 9 (0.71%) Renewable Energy
12 7 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
12 7 (0.55%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 97 (7.69%) Linux
2 35 (2.77%) Embedded Linux
3 34 (2.69%) Windows
4 17 (1.35%) Android
5 6 (0.48%) Unix
6 3 (0.24%) CentOS
6 3 (0.24%) Debian
6 3 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.24%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.16%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.16%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.079%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.079%) Fedora
8 1 (0.079%) Robot Operating System
8 1 (0.079%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,259 (99.76%) Software Engineering
2 194 (15.37%) Agile
3 149 (11.81%) CI/CD
4 141 (11.17%) Full-Stack Development
5 139 (11.01%) DevOps
6 115 (9.11%) Mentoring
7 95 (7.53%) Microservices
7 95 (7.53%) Problem-Solving
8 75 (5.94%) AI
9 74 (5.86%) Computer Science
10 62 (4.91%) Continuous Improvement
11 50 (3.96%) Scrum
12 49 (3.88%) Containerisation
13 44 (3.49%) Coaching
13 44 (3.49%) SDLC
14 42 (3.33%) Machine Learning
15 39 (3.09%) Test Automation
16 38 (3.01%) TDD
17 35 (2.77%) Fintech
18 33 (2.61%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 194 (15.37%) C#
2 182 (14.42%) C++
3 163 (12.92%) Java
4 141 (11.17%) Python
5 120 (9.51%) JavaScript
6 111 (8.80%) TypeScript
7 108 (8.56%) SQL
8 98 (7.77%) C
9 38 (3.01%) PHP
10 24 (1.90%) Kotlin
11 22 (1.74%) Ada
12 19 (1.51%) T-SQL
13 18 (1.43%) Embedded C++
13 18 (1.43%) Ruby
14 14 (1.11%) Embedded C
14 14 (1.11%) Rust
15 13 (1.03%) PL/SQL
16 12 (0.95%) Ada 95
16 12 (0.95%) Scala
17 9 (0.71%) Bash
Qualifications
1 144 (11.41%) Security Cleared
2 120 (9.51%) Degree
3 76 (6.02%) SC Cleared
4 52 (4.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (3.17%) DV Cleared
6 16 (1.27%) Master's Degree
7 13 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (1.03%) Chartered Engineer
8 11 (0.87%) PhD
9 6 (0.48%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.16%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.16%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.16%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.16%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (1.82%) QA
2 12 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 11 (0.87%) IEC 61508
3 11 (0.87%) MISRA
4 9 (0.71%) MISRA C
5 4 (0.32%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.24%) ECSS
6 3 (0.24%) GDPR
6 3 (0.24%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.24%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.24%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.16%) ISO 9000
7 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.16%) JTAG
7 2 (0.16%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.079%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.079%) Data Quality
System Software
1 64 (5.07%) Docker
2 63 (4.99%) Firmware
3 37 (2.93%) Embedded Firmware
4 4 (0.32%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.16%) KVM
6 1 (0.079%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 76 (6.02%) Kubernetes
2 35 (2.77%) Terraform
3 9 (0.71%) Functional Safety
4 8 (0.63%) Kibana
5 7 (0.55%) Grafana
6 3 (0.24%) Ansible
6 3 (0.24%) Puppet
7 2 (0.16%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.079%) Istio
Vendors
1 17 (1.35%) Microsoft
2 16 (1.27%) Oracle
3 14 (1.11%) Xamarin
4 12 (0.95%) Adobe
4 12 (0.95%) Sage
5 10 (0.79%) Google
6 8 (0.63%) Atlassian
7 7 (0.55%) HubSpot
8 5 (0.40%) Zoho
9 4 (0.32%) Databricks
9 4 (0.32%) Guidewire
9 4 (0.32%) Red Hat
9 4 (0.32%) VMware
10 3 (0.24%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.24%) Rockwell
10 3 (0.24%) SaltStack
10 3 (0.24%) SAP
10 3 (0.24%) Siemens
11 2 (0.16%) Palantir
11 2 (0.16%) Salesforce