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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 49 14
Rank change year-on-year +24 -35 +67
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 3,470 1,611 6,295
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.86% 4.77% 8.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.13% 5.33% 9.06%
Number of salaries quoted 2,783 752 3,595
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £38,250
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £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% -13.60%

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 67,627 30,197 69,498
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.70% 89.36% 94.83%
Number of salaries quoted 46,831 17,274 49,258
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £33,750 £35,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,100 £64,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -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 13 July 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 13 July 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 +77 949 £65,000 - 169
North of England +22 934 £65,000 -7.14% 140
South West +21 602 £65,000 - 222
North West +5 539 £70,000 -6.67% 86
East of England +56 398 £70,000 +5.73% 127
Midlands +45 336 £62,500 -3.85% 65
Yorkshire +61 240 £62,500 -8.76% 36
West Midlands +35 176 £67,500 +8.00% 24
East Midlands +19 160 £55,000 -21.43% 41
North East +7 155 £70,000 +27.27% 18
Scotland -17 150 £65,000 - 30
Wales -3 87 £44,000 -32.31% 20
Northern Ireland -44 15 £90,000 +80.00% 27
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 July 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 3,424 (98.67%) Software Engineering
2 583 (16.80%) C++
3 533 (15.36%) C#
4 449 (12.94%) Python
5 417 (12.02%) Agile
6 376 (10.84%) AWS
7 361 (10.40%) Full-Stack Development
8 331 (9.54%) Security Cleared
9 311 (8.96%) .NET
10 303 (8.73%) CI/CD
10 303 (8.73%) Java
11 289 (8.33%) Degree
12 271 (7.81%) AI
13 264 (7.61%) Azure
14 261 (7.52%) C
15 260 (7.49%) JavaScript
16 244 (7.03%) DevOps
17 230 (6.63%) Linux
18 227 (6.54%) TypeScript
19 219 (6.31%) Mentoring
20 207 (5.97%) SC Cleared
21 197 (5.68%) React
22 194 (5.59%) Problem-Solving
23 191 (5.50%) Microservices
24 190 (5.48%) SQL
25 179 (5.16%) Continuous Improvement
26 178 (5.13%) Test Automation
27 174 (5.01%) Computer Science
28 172 (4.96%) SDLC
29 160 (4.61%) SaaS

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 20 (0.58%) Apache
2 15 (0.43%) SharePoint Server
3 8 (0.23%) FactoryTalk
4 6 (0.17%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.17%) Confluence
5 5 (0.14%) WinCC
6 4 (0.12%) Apache Solr
6 4 (0.12%) CMS
6 4 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.058%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.058%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.058%) WordPress
8 1 (0.029%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.029%) Umbraco
Applications
1 9 (0.26%) Lightworks
2 5 (0.14%) Simulink
3 4 (0.12%) EngageOne
3 4 (0.12%) EPLAN
4 3 (0.086%) CANalyzer
4 3 (0.086%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.086%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.086%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.058%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.029%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.029%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.029%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.029%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 376 (10.84%) AWS
2 264 (7.61%) Azure
3 160 (4.61%) SaaS
4 89 (2.56%) GCP
5 72 (2.07%) Serverless
6 42 (1.21%) GitHub
7 39 (1.12%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (0.89%) Firebase
9 28 (0.81%) Anthropic Claude
10 24 (0.69%) AWS Lambda
11 18 (0.52%) Amazon S3
12 15 (0.43%) Amazon EKS
12 15 (0.43%) Azure AKS
13 14 (0.40%) AWS CloudFormation
13 14 (0.40%) GitHub Actions
14 12 (0.35%) Cloud Run
15 8 (0.23%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 8 (0.23%) OpenShift
16 7 (0.20%) Amazon ECS
16 7 (0.20%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 56 (1.61%) Wireless
2 36 (1.04%) Ethernet
3 27 (0.78%) Bluetooth
4 24 (0.69%) RS-232
5 23 (0.66%) Modbus
6 17 (0.49%) MQTT
6 17 (0.49%) ZigBee
7 16 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (0.43%) Profibus
8 15 (0.43%) TCP/IP
9 11 (0.32%) RS-485
10 9 (0.26%) LTE
11 8 (0.23%) Network Security
12 6 (0.17%) AMQP
12 6 (0.17%) ATM
12 6 (0.17%) Broadband
13 5 (0.14%) Software-Defined Radio
13 5 (0.14%) Wireshark
14 3 (0.086%) Software-Defined Networking
15 2 (0.058%) LoRaWAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.07%) PostgreSQL
2 62 (1.79%) MongoDB
3 60 (1.73%) NoSQL
3 60 (1.73%) SQL Server
4 46 (1.33%) MySQL
5 20 (0.58%) Elasticsearch
6 19 (0.55%) Relational Database
7 15 (0.43%) Big Data
7 15 (0.43%) Redis
8 13 (0.37%) Pinecone
9 11 (0.32%) DynamoDB
10 7 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
10 7 (0.20%) Hadoop
10 7 (0.20%) Neo4j
11 6 (0.17%) Cloudera CDH
12 5 (0.14%) FileMaker
13 4 (0.12%) Geospatial Data
13 4 (0.12%) GIS
13 4 (0.12%) QGIS
14 3 (0.086%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 128 (3.69%) Git
2 47 (1.35%) GitLab
3 28 (0.81%) Jenkins
3 28 (0.81%) JIRA
4 22 (0.63%) Visual Studio Code
5 18 (0.52%) Claude Code
6 12 (0.35%) Visual Studio
7 11 (0.32%) Cucumber
8 10 (0.29%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.20%) GDB
9 7 (0.20%) JUnit
9 7 (0.20%) Moq
10 6 (0.17%) Bitbucket
10 6 (0.17%) Eclipse
10 6 (0.17%) Subversion
10 6 (0.17%) Yeoman
11 5 (0.14%) LabVIEW
11 5 (0.14%) Maven
11 5 (0.14%) Postman
12 4 (0.12%) Robot Framework
General
1 199 (5.73%) Manufacturing
2 176 (5.07%) Electronics
3 154 (4.44%) Social Skills
4 98 (2.82%) Finance
5 83 (2.39%) Aerospace
6 80 (2.31%) Automotive
7 74 (2.13%) Public Sector
8 43 (1.24%) Analytical Skills
9 30 (0.86%) Aviation
9 30 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
10 21 (0.61%) Retail
11 18 (0.52%) Games
11 18 (0.52%) Telecoms
12 17 (0.49%) Military
13 15 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 14 (0.40%) Organisational Skills
15 11 (0.32%) Tech for Good
16 10 (0.29%) Health Technology
17 9 (0.26%) Agriculture
17 9 (0.26%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 311 (8.96%) .NET
2 197 (5.68%) React
3 123 (3.54%) Node.js
4 103 (2.97%) Vue
5 75 (2.16%) AngularJS
6 67 (1.93%) RESTful
7 66 (1.90%) REST
7 66 (1.90%) WPF
8 64 (1.84%) CSS
9 63 (1.82%) Spring
10 58 (1.67%) HTML
11 54 (1.56%) Spring Boot
12 44 (1.27%) .NET Core
13 37 (1.07%) .NET Framework
13 37 (1.07%) Next.js
14 34 (0.98%) Django
15 24 (0.69%) Yocto
16 23 (0.66%) Entity Framework
17 21 (0.61%) ASP.NET
17 21 (0.61%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 141 (4.06%) Cloud Native
2 121 (3.49%) Embedded Systems
3 84 (2.42%) Algorithms
4 77 (2.22%) Robotics
5 72 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
6 65 (1.87%) Product Ownership
7 61 (1.76%) IoT
8 53 (1.53%) AI Agents
8 53 (1.53%) Distributed Systems
9 43 (1.24%) Greenfield Project
10 31 (0.89%) Mobile App
11 29 (0.84%) Device Driver
12 25 (0.72%) Client/Server
13 23 (0.66%) Hedge funds
14 18 (0.52%) ARM Cortex
14 18 (0.52%) Data Structures
14 18 (0.52%) Educational Technology
15 17 (0.49%) Distributed Computing
15 17 (0.49%) Self-Motivation
16 16 (0.46%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 230 (6.63%) Linux
2 49 (1.41%) Embedded Linux
3 48 (1.38%) Windows
4 34 (0.98%) Android
5 31 (0.89%) FreeRTOS
6 10 (0.29%) Debian
7 7 (0.20%) Apple iOS
7 7 (0.20%) Ubuntu
8 6 (0.17%) CentOS
8 6 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.14%) Windows Server
10 3 (0.086%) Gentoo
11 2 (0.058%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.058%) SafeRTOS
11 2 (0.058%) Unix
11 2 (0.058%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.058%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.058%) zOS
12 1 (0.029%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.029%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 3,424 (98.67%) Software Engineering
2 417 (12.02%) Agile
3 361 (10.40%) Full-Stack Development
4 303 (8.73%) CI/CD
5 271 (7.81%) AI
6 244 (7.03%) DevOps
7 219 (6.31%) Mentoring
8 194 (5.59%) Problem-Solving
9 191 (5.50%) Microservices
10 179 (5.16%) Continuous Improvement
11 178 (5.13%) Test Automation
12 174 (5.01%) Computer Science
13 172 (4.96%) SDLC
14 125 (3.60%) Containerisation
15 114 (3.29%) TDD
16 111 (3.20%) Software Architecture
17 109 (3.14%) Scrum
18 100 (2.88%) Software Testing
19 94 (2.71%) Code Quality
20 90 (2.59%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 583 (16.80%) C++
2 533 (15.36%) C#
3 449 (12.94%) Python
4 303 (8.73%) Java
5 261 (7.52%) C
6 260 (7.49%) JavaScript
7 227 (6.54%) TypeScript
8 190 (5.48%) SQL
9 122 (3.52%) Rust
10 55 (1.59%) PHP
11 54 (1.56%) Embedded C
12 52 (1.50%) Go
13 25 (0.72%) Ruby
14 23 (0.66%) Embedded C++
15 20 (0.58%) Bash
16 19 (0.55%) Kotlin
17 17 (0.49%) COBOL
18 14 (0.40%) MATLAB
19 13 (0.37%) Scala
20 8 (0.23%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 331 (9.54%) Security Cleared
2 289 (8.33%) Degree
3 207 (5.97%) SC Cleared
4 130 (3.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 129 (3.72%) DV Cleared
6 53 (1.53%) Master's Degree
7 23 (0.66%) PhD
8 12 (0.35%) DBS Check
9 10 (0.29%) HND
10 8 (0.23%) Azure Certification
10 8 (0.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 6 (0.17%) HNC
12 5 (0.14%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.14%) CEH
12 5 (0.14%) OSCP
13 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.058%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.058%) NVQ Level 3
15 1 (0.029%) ISTQB
15 1 (0.029%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (2.19%) QA
2 21 (0.61%) Accessibility
3 8 (0.23%) IEC 61131
3 8 (0.23%) IEC 61508
3 8 (0.23%) MISRA
3 8 (0.23%) MISRA C
4 6 (0.17%) JTAG
5 4 (0.12%) DO-178B
5 4 (0.12%) ECSS
6 3 (0.086%) GAMP
6 3 (0.086%) GDPR
6 3 (0.086%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.058%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.029%) Automotive SPICE
8 1 (0.029%) DO-254
8 1 (0.029%) HAZOP
8 1 (0.029%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.029%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.029%) WCAG
System Software
1 157 (4.52%) Docker
2 152 (4.38%) Firmware
3 52 (1.50%) Embedded Firmware
4 13 (0.37%) Hyper-V
4 13 (0.37%) KVM
4 13 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.086%) QEMU
7 2 (0.058%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 123 (3.54%) Kubernetes
2 81 (2.33%) Terraform
3 35 (1.01%) Ansible
4 8 (0.23%) Grafana
4 8 (0.23%) Kibana
4 8 (0.23%) logstash
5 7 (0.20%) Puppet
6 6 (0.17%) Functional Safety
6 6 (0.17%) Podman
7 3 (0.086%) Plesk
7 3 (0.086%) SCCM
7 3 (0.086%) SCOM
7 3 (0.086%) SCOrch
8 2 (0.058%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.058%) Packer
8 2 (0.058%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 31 (0.89%) Siemens
2 29 (0.84%) Microsoft
3 19 (0.55%) Google
3 19 (0.55%) Rockwell
4 16 (0.46%) Oracle
5 15 (0.43%) VMware
6 11 (0.32%) Salesforce
7 10 (0.29%) Allen-Bradley
8 9 (0.26%) OpenAI
9 7 (0.20%) Atlassian
9 7 (0.20%) Okta
9 7 (0.20%) Ping Identity
10 6 (0.17%) Red Hat
10 6 (0.17%) SaltStack
10 6 (0.17%) Splunk
10 6 (0.17%) Xamarin
11 4 (0.12%) Intel
11 4 (0.12%) Peregrine
12 3 (0.086%) IBM
12 3 (0.086%) Yahoo!