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 24 January 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 35 29
Rank change year-on-year -29 -6 +22
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 1,397 2,000 2,936
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.16% 5.63% 6.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.49% 6.11% 7.28%
Number of salaries quoted 1,079 925 1,794
10th Percentile £42,385 £40,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £52,250 £47,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,150 £83,750
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 40,036 32,759 40,339
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.53% 92.28% 95.32%
Number of salaries quoted 24,623 15,861 31,064
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,620 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,050 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.75% +6.10% -5.66%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.41%

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 24 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 24 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 -24 335 £65,000 +8.33% 489
North of England -12 327 £65,000 +6.56% 331
South West -1 287 £65,000 +18.18% 291
East of England -19 156 £70,000 +4.09% 244
North West -2 151 £67,500 +8.00% 162
Yorkshire -10 130 £60,000 -4.00% 122
Scotland -22 128 £60,000 +5.31% 115
Midlands -20 127 £60,000 +9.09% 195
East Midlands -11 68 £60,000 +20.00% 136
West Midlands +2 62 £60,000 - 57
North East -12 46 £70,000 +15.70% 48
Wales -24 26 £65,000 -3.70% 92
Northern Ireland -32 12 £85,000 -5.56% 32
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 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 1,390 (99.50%) Software Engineering
2 208 (14.89%) C#
3 195 (13.96%) Agile
4 190 (13.60%) C++
5 184 (13.17%) AWS
6 179 (12.81%) .NET
7 175 (12.53%) Java
8 158 (11.31%) CI/CD
9 156 (11.17%) Full-Stack Development
9 156 (11.17%) React
10 155 (11.10%) Security Cleared
11 153 (10.95%) Python
12 152 (10.88%) DevOps
13 144 (10.31%) Azure
14 131 (9.38%) JavaScript
15 122 (8.73%) Degree
16 119 (8.52%) TypeScript
17 118 (8.45%) SQL
18 113 (8.09%) Mentoring
19 106 (7.59%) Problem-Solving
20 102 (7.30%) Microservices
21 99 (7.09%) C
21 99 (7.09%) Linux
22 82 (5.87%) Continuous Improvement
22 82 (5.87%) Kubernetes
23 78 (5.58%) Computer Science
24 77 (5.51%) SC Cleared
25 73 (5.23%) AI
26 69 (4.94%) Docker
27 66 (4.72%) AngularJS

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 13 (0.93%) Apache
2 12 (0.86%) IIS
3 7 (0.50%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.36%) Confluence
5 4 (0.29%) CMS
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Solr
7 2 (0.14%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.14%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.14%) NServiceBus
7 2 (0.14%) WinCC
8 1 (0.072%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.072%) Kinematics
Applications
1 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.14%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.14%) EngageOne
2 2 (0.14%) Sketch
3 1 (0.072%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.072%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.72%) Magento
2 2 (0.14%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.072%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 184 (13.17%) AWS
2 144 (10.31%) Azure
3 62 (4.44%) SaaS
4 45 (3.22%) Serverless
5 35 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
6 34 (2.43%) AWS Lambda
7 33 (2.36%) GCP
8 26 (1.86%) Amazon S3
9 25 (1.79%) Amazon EKS
10 20 (1.43%) GitHub
11 15 (1.07%) Amazon ECS
12 12 (0.86%) Azure AKS
13 10 (0.72%) OpenShift
14 9 (0.64%) Stripe
15 8 (0.57%) AWS CloudFormation
16 7 (0.50%) Amazon EC2
17 6 (0.43%) Amazon SQS
17 6 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
18 5 (0.36%) Amazon EventBridge
18 5 (0.36%) AWS Fargate
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.08%) Wireless
2 16 (1.15%) RS-232
3 14 (1.00%) Bluetooth
4 10 (0.72%) Software-Defined Radio
5 7 (0.50%) Modbus
6 6 (0.43%) HTTP
6 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.36%) AMQP
7 5 (0.36%) DNS
8 4 (0.29%) Ethernet
8 4 (0.29%) SMTP
9 3 (0.21%) ATM
10 2 (0.14%) 3G
10 2 (0.14%) Broadband
10 2 (0.14%) Firewall
10 2 (0.14%) GPRS
10 2 (0.14%) GSM
10 2 (0.14%) LTE
10 2 (0.14%) SSL
10 2 (0.14%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (2.86%) SQL Server
2 35 (2.51%) PostgreSQL
3 28 (2.00%) NoSQL
4 21 (1.50%) Elasticsearch
5 19 (1.36%) Relational Database
6 16 (1.15%) DynamoDB
7 14 (1.00%) MongoDB
7 14 (1.00%) MySQL
8 12 (0.86%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 9 (0.64%) Neo4j
10 8 (0.57%) Redis
11 7 (0.50%) Big Data
11 7 (0.50%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.36%) Cloudera CDH
13 4 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.29%) Apache Cassandra
13 4 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
14 3 (0.21%) GIS
14 3 (0.21%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.21%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 52 (3.72%) Git
2 17 (1.22%) Visual Studio
3 16 (1.15%) GitLab
4 13 (0.93%) JIRA
5 12 (0.86%) Jenkins
6 11 (0.79%) JUnit
7 8 (0.57%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.36%) Selenium
9 4 (0.29%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.29%) Maven
9 4 (0.29%) Oracle APEX
10 3 (0.21%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.21%) Gradle
10 3 (0.21%) Subversion
11 2 (0.14%) Android Studio
11 2 (0.14%) Eclipse
11 2 (0.14%) PROIV
11 2 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.14%) Xcode
12 1 (0.072%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 108 (7.73%) Social Skills
2 86 (6.16%) Finance
3 52 (3.72%) Electronics
4 47 (3.36%) Manufacturing
5 26 (1.86%) Aerospace
6 22 (1.57%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (1.57%) Pharmaceutical
7 20 (1.43%) Games
8 19 (1.36%) Automotive
9 18 (1.29%) Public Sector
10 14 (1.00%) Retail
11 13 (0.93%) Tech for Good
12 9 (0.64%) Financial Institution
12 9 (0.64%) Law
12 9 (0.64%) Military
13 7 (0.50%) Aeronautics
13 7 (0.50%) Marketing
14 6 (0.43%) Health Technology
15 5 (0.36%) Legal
16 4 (0.29%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 179 (12.81%) .NET
2 156 (11.17%) React
3 66 (4.72%) AngularJS
4 61 (4.37%) Node.js
5 48 (3.44%) Spring
6 44 (3.15%) REST
6 44 (3.15%) Spring Boot
7 43 (3.08%) RESTful
8 35 (2.51%) .NET Core
8 35 (2.51%) Vue
9 33 (2.36%) .NET Framework
10 29 (2.08%) ASP.NET
10 29 (2.08%) CSS
10 29 (2.08%) HTML
11 23 (1.65%) Qt
12 21 (1.50%) Entity Framework
13 17 (1.22%) Next.js
14 16 (1.15%) WinForms
15 15 (1.07%) Web Services
16 14 (1.00%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 72 (5.15%) Cloud Native
2 55 (3.94%) Embedded Systems
3 26 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
3 26 (1.86%) IoT
4 22 (1.57%) Robotics
5 18 (1.29%) Algorithms
6 16 (1.15%) Product Ownership
7 15 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (1.00%) e-Learning
8 14 (1.00%) Smart Energy
9 12 (0.86%) Manufacturing Execution System
10 11 (0.79%) Driving Licence
10 11 (0.79%) Hedge funds
10 11 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (0.72%) CAN bus
11 10 (0.72%) Renewable Energy
12 8 (0.57%) Mobile App
13 7 (0.50%) AI Agents
13 7 (0.50%) Enterprise Software
13 7 (0.50%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 99 (7.09%) Linux
2 35 (2.51%) Windows
3 31 (2.22%) Embedded Linux
4 21 (1.50%) Android
5 6 (0.43%) Unix
6 5 (0.36%) CentOS
6 5 (0.36%) Debian
6 5 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.36%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.14%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.14%) VxWorks
8 2 (0.14%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.072%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.072%) Fedora
9 1 (0.072%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,390 (99.50%) Software Engineering
2 195 (13.96%) Agile
3 158 (11.31%) CI/CD
4 156 (11.17%) Full-Stack Development
5 152 (10.88%) DevOps
6 113 (8.09%) Mentoring
7 106 (7.59%) Problem-Solving
8 102 (7.30%) Microservices
9 82 (5.87%) Continuous Improvement
10 78 (5.58%) Computer Science
11 73 (5.23%) AI
12 56 (4.01%) Scrum
13 52 (3.72%) Containerisation
14 50 (3.58%) SDLC
15 44 (3.15%) Coaching
15 44 (3.15%) Test Automation
16 41 (2.93%) Machine Learning
17 40 (2.86%) TDD
18 37 (2.65%) Fintech
19 35 (2.51%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 208 (14.89%) C#
2 190 (13.60%) C++
3 175 (12.53%) Java
4 153 (10.95%) Python
5 131 (9.38%) JavaScript
6 119 (8.52%) TypeScript
7 118 (8.45%) SQL
8 99 (7.09%) C
9 41 (2.93%) PHP
10 25 (1.79%) Kotlin
11 19 (1.36%) T-SQL
12 18 (1.29%) Ada
12 18 (1.29%) Embedded C++
12 18 (1.29%) Ruby
13 17 (1.22%) Rust
14 15 (1.07%) Embedded C
15 13 (0.93%) PL/SQL
16 12 (0.86%) Scala
17 11 (0.79%) Bash
18 8 (0.57%) Go
Qualifications
1 155 (11.10%) Security Cleared
2 122 (8.73%) Degree
3 77 (5.51%) SC Cleared
4 56 (4.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 42 (3.01%) DV Cleared
6 15 (1.07%) Master's Degree
7 9 (0.64%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (0.64%) Chartered Engineer
8 8 (0.57%) DBS Check
8 8 (0.57%) PhD
9 2 (0.14%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.14%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.14%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.072%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (1.93%) QA
2 12 (0.86%) IEC 61508
2 12 (0.86%) MISRA
3 10 (0.72%) MISRA C
4 8 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 4 (0.29%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.29%) ECSS
5 4 (0.29%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.21%) GDPR
6 3 (0.21%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.21%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.14%) ISO 9000
7 2 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.14%) JTAG
7 2 (0.14%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.072%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.072%) Data Quality
System Software
1 69 (4.94%) Docker
2 62 (4.44%) Firmware
3 32 (2.29%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.43%) Hyper-V
4 6 (0.43%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.29%) KVM
6 1 (0.072%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 82 (5.87%) Kubernetes
2 40 (2.86%) Terraform
3 10 (0.72%) Functional Safety
4 7 (0.50%) Grafana
4 7 (0.50%) Kibana
5 6 (0.43%) Ansible
6 5 (0.36%) Puppet
7 2 (0.14%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.072%) Istio
8 1 (0.072%) logstash
Vendors
1 17 (1.22%) Microsoft
2 16 (1.15%) Oracle
3 15 (1.07%) Xamarin
4 12 (0.86%) Adobe
4 12 (0.86%) Google
4 12 (0.86%) Sage
5 8 (0.57%) HubSpot
6 6 (0.43%) Atlassian
6 6 (0.43%) Red Hat
6 6 (0.43%) VMware
7 5 (0.36%) SaltStack
7 5 (0.36%) Zoho
8 4 (0.29%) Siemens
9 3 (0.21%) Databricks
9 3 (0.21%) Guidewire
9 3 (0.21%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.21%) Rockwell
9 3 (0.21%) SAP
10 2 (0.14%) Atmel
10 2 (0.14%) Palantir