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 10 April 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 55 16
Rank change year-on-year +9 -39 +52
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 2,353 1,183 5,650
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.91% 4.58% 8.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.23% 5.16% 9.15%
Number of salaries quoted 1,833 891 2,953
10th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £39,601
25th Percentile £52,250 £48,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £56,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +10.62% -5.83%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £81,250
UK median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.45% +20.83% -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 55,674 22,938 61,770
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.63% 88.85% 94.68%
Number of salaries quoted 35,743 14,511 45,834
10th Percentile £29,000 £29,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -10.00%

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 10 April 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 10 April 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 +1 589 £65,000 - 146
South East +18 566 £65,000 +8.33% 186
South West +19 460 £65,000 +8.33% 136
North West +11 327 £65,000 - 80
East of England -9 246 £70,000 +5.73% 90
Midlands +41 218 £65,000 +13.04% 79
Scotland -2 198 £65,000 +4.00% 59
Yorkshire +12 187 £60,000 -11.11% 45
West Midlands +38 118 £65,000 +13.04% 46
East Midlands +7 101 £60,000 +6.67% 33
North East -3 75 £65,000 +18.18% 21
Wales -12 57 £40,000 -39.62% 22
Northern Ireland -29 19 £90,000 - 5
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 April 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 2,330 (99.02%) Software Engineering
2 322 (13.68%) C++
3 287 (12.20%) C#
4 274 (11.64%) Agile
5 273 (11.60%) Python
6 257 (10.92%) AWS
7 255 (10.84%) Java
8 245 (10.41%) Full-Stack Development
9 238 (10.11%) .NET
10 215 (9.14%) Security Cleared
11 185 (7.86%) CI/CD
11 185 (7.86%) JavaScript
12 181 (7.69%) Azure
13 176 (7.48%) DevOps
14 173 (7.35%) Degree
15 168 (7.14%) C
15 168 (7.14%) React
16 160 (6.80%) TypeScript
17 154 (6.54%) SQL
18 136 (5.78%) Linux
19 126 (5.35%) Problem-Solving
20 125 (5.31%) Continuous Improvement
21 122 (5.18%) Microservices
22 118 (5.01%) SC Cleared
23 115 (4.89%) SaaS
24 111 (4.72%) AI
24 111 (4.72%) Mentoring
25 104 (4.42%) Computer Science
26 101 (4.29%) Kubernetes
27 95 (4.04%) Test Automation

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 (0.55%) Apache
2 8 (0.34%) Apache Spark
3 6 (0.25%) CMS
3 6 (0.25%) IIS
4 5 (0.21%) Confluence
5 4 (0.17%) Apache Solr
5 4 (0.17%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.085%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.042%) FactoryTalk
7 1 (0.042%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.042%) Kinematics
7 1 (0.042%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.042%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.042%) WordPress
Applications
1 4 (0.17%) EngageOne
2 3 (0.13%) CANalyzer
3 2 (0.085%) Adobe XD
3 2 (0.085%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.085%) EPLAN
3 2 (0.085%) Sketch
4 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.042%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 10 (0.42%) Magento
2 2 (0.085%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.042%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 257 (10.92%) AWS
2 181 (7.69%) Azure
3 115 (4.89%) SaaS
4 53 (2.25%) GCP
5 51 (2.17%) Serverless
6 28 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
7 25 (1.06%) GitHub
8 23 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (0.89%) Amazon EKS
9 21 (0.89%) Azure AKS
10 20 (0.85%) Amazon S3
11 11 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
12 10 (0.42%) OpenShift
13 8 (0.34%) Stripe
14 7 (0.30%) Amazon ECS
14 7 (0.30%) Figma
15 6 (0.25%) Amazon EC2
16 5 (0.21%) Anthropic Claude
16 5 (0.21%) GitHub Actions
17 4 (0.17%) Amazon OpenSearch
Communications & Networking
1 35 (1.49%) Wireless
2 22 (0.93%) Ethernet
3 18 (0.76%) RS-232
4 11 (0.47%) Bluetooth
5 10 (0.42%) Modbus
6 8 (0.34%) Network Security
7 6 (0.25%) AMQP
7 6 (0.25%) Broadband
7 6 (0.25%) HTTP
8 5 (0.21%) LTE
8 5 (0.21%) TCP/IP
9 4 (0.17%) DNS
9 4 (0.17%) SMTP
9 4 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.13%) ATM
10 3 (0.13%) Profibus
10 3 (0.13%) Software-Defined Radio
10 3 (0.13%) ZigBee
11 2 (0.085%) RS-485
11 2 (0.085%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (2.21%) SQL Server
2 50 (2.12%) NoSQL
3 43 (1.83%) PostgreSQL
4 32 (1.36%) MongoDB
5 26 (1.10%) MySQL
6 25 (1.06%) Elasticsearch
7 17 (0.72%) Relational Database
8 14 (0.59%) DynamoDB
9 13 (0.55%) Neo4j
10 12 (0.51%) Big Data
11 8 (0.34%) Hadoop
12 7 (0.30%) Redis
13 6 (0.25%) Cloudera CDH
13 6 (0.25%) Geospatial Data
13 6 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.21%) DocumentDB
15 4 (0.17%) GIS
15 4 (0.17%) QGIS
16 3 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
16 3 (0.13%) FileMaker
Development Applications
1 72 (3.06%) Git
2 19 (0.81%) GitLab
3 15 (0.64%) JIRA
4 13 (0.55%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.42%) Claude Code
5 10 (0.42%) JUnit
5 10 (0.42%) Visual Studio
6 7 (0.30%) Subversion
6 7 (0.30%) Visual Studio Code
7 5 (0.21%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.17%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.17%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
9 3 (0.13%) CANoe
9 3 (0.13%) Gradle
10 2 (0.085%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.085%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.085%) Vagrant
General
1 117 (4.97%) Social Skills
2 91 (3.87%) Manufacturing
3 85 (3.61%) Electronics
4 74 (3.14%) Finance
5 51 (2.17%) Aerospace
6 50 (2.12%) Automotive
7 43 (1.83%) Public Sector
8 40 (1.70%) Pharmaceutical
9 32 (1.36%) Analytical Skills
10 21 (0.89%) Games
11 18 (0.76%) Retail
12 15 (0.64%) Tech for Good
13 11 (0.47%) Health Technology
13 11 (0.47%) Military
14 8 (0.34%) Aviation
14 8 (0.34%) Marketing
14 8 (0.34%) Telecoms
15 7 (0.30%) Aeronautics
15 7 (0.30%) Financial Institution
16 4 (0.17%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 238 (10.11%) .NET
2 168 (7.14%) React
3 90 (3.82%) Node.js
4 69 (2.93%) AngularJS
5 64 (2.72%) REST
6 58 (2.46%) Vue
7 49 (2.08%) RESTful
8 47 (2.00%) .NET Core
9 46 (1.95%) Spring
10 45 (1.91%) HTML
11 40 (1.70%) .NET Framework
12 39 (1.66%) Spring Boot
13 35 (1.49%) CSS
14 26 (1.10%) Django
15 25 (1.06%) ASP.NET
15 25 (1.06%) Web Services
16 23 (0.98%) Qt
17 21 (0.89%) Entity Framework
18 18 (0.76%) Next.js
19 16 (0.68%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 103 (4.38%) Cloud Native
2 65 (2.76%) Embedded Systems
3 43 (1.83%) IoT
4 39 (1.66%) Robotics
5 36 (1.53%) Distributed Systems
6 31 (1.32%) Algorithms
7 28 (1.19%) Product Ownership
8 20 (0.85%) Smart Energy
9 19 (0.81%) Hedge funds
9 19 (0.81%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (0.72%) Client/Server
12 15 (0.64%) Device Driver
13 14 (0.59%) Industry 4.0
13 14 (0.59%) Mobile App
14 13 (0.55%) CAN bus
14 13 (0.55%) e-Learning
15 12 (0.51%) Driving Licence
16 10 (0.42%) Distributed Computing
17 9 (0.38%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 136 (5.78%) Linux
2 34 (1.44%) Embedded Linux
3 28 (1.19%) Android
4 27 (1.15%) Windows
5 14 (0.59%) FreeRTOS
6 6 (0.25%) CentOS
6 6 (0.25%) Debian
6 6 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.25%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.21%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.085%) SafeRTOS
8 2 (0.085%) VxWorks
8 2 (0.085%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.085%) zOS
9 1 (0.042%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.042%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.042%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,330 (99.02%) Software Engineering
2 274 (11.64%) Agile
3 245 (10.41%) Full-Stack Development
4 185 (7.86%) CI/CD
5 176 (7.48%) DevOps
6 126 (5.35%) Problem-Solving
7 125 (5.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 122 (5.18%) Microservices
9 111 (4.72%) AI
9 111 (4.72%) Mentoring
10 104 (4.42%) Computer Science
11 95 (4.04%) Test Automation
12 94 (3.99%) Scrum
13 91 (3.87%) SDLC
14 84 (3.57%) Containerisation
15 79 (3.36%) TDD
16 63 (2.68%) Software Testing
17 61 (2.59%) Embedded Software Development
18 55 (2.34%) Technical Leadership
19 51 (2.17%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 322 (13.68%) C++
2 287 (12.20%) C#
3 273 (11.60%) Python
4 255 (10.84%) Java
5 185 (7.86%) JavaScript
6 168 (7.14%) C
7 160 (6.80%) TypeScript
8 154 (6.54%) SQL
9 54 (2.29%) PHP
10 49 (2.08%) Rust
11 45 (1.91%) Embedded C
12 19 (0.81%) Go
12 19 (0.81%) Kotlin
13 18 (0.76%) Embedded C++
14 17 (0.72%) COBOL
15 16 (0.68%) Ada
16 15 (0.64%) PL/SQL
17 12 (0.51%) Ruby
18 10 (0.42%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.38%) Scala
Qualifications
1 215 (9.14%) Security Cleared
2 173 (7.35%) Degree
3 118 (5.01%) SC Cleared
4 85 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 67 (2.85%) DV Cleared
6 25 (1.06%) Master's Degree
7 12 (0.51%) DBS Check
8 11 (0.47%) PhD
9 7 (0.30%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (0.30%) Chartered Engineer
9 7 (0.30%) HND
10 6 (0.25%) HNC
11 2 (0.085%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.085%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (0.085%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.042%) CEH
12 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 1 (0.042%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (2.17%) QA
2 17 (0.72%) IEC 61508
3 16 (0.68%) MISRA
3 16 (0.68%) MISRA C
4 13 (0.55%) Accessibility
5 6 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 4 (0.17%) ECSS
6 4 (0.17%) GDPR
6 4 (0.17%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.042%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.042%) DO-254
7 1 (0.042%) HAZOP
7 1 (0.042%) IEC 61131
7 1 (0.042%) IEC 62304
7 1 (0.042%) ISO 26262
7 1 (0.042%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 94 (3.99%) Firmware
2 93 (3.95%) Docker
3 27 (1.15%) Embedded Firmware
4 13 (0.55%) Hyper-V
4 13 (0.55%) KVM
4 13 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.085%) QEMU
6 2 (0.085%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 101 (4.29%) Kubernetes
2 58 (2.46%) Terraform
3 13 (0.55%) Functional Safety
4 10 (0.42%) Ansible
5 6 (0.25%) Puppet
6 5 (0.21%) Grafana
7 4 (0.17%) Kibana
8 2 (0.085%) logstash
8 2 (0.085%) Packer
8 2 (0.085%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.085%) SCCM
8 2 (0.085%) SCOM
8 2 (0.085%) SCOrch
9 1 (0.042%) Plesk
9 1 (0.042%) Podman
9 1 (0.042%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 21 (0.89%) Oracle
2 16 (0.68%) Microsoft
3 15 (0.64%) Google
4 13 (0.55%) Adobe
4 13 (0.55%) VMware
5 12 (0.51%) Siemens
6 10 (0.42%) Xamarin
7 8 (0.34%) HubSpot
7 8 (0.34%) Rockwell
8 6 (0.25%) Red Hat
8 6 (0.25%) Sage
8 6 (0.25%) Salesforce
8 6 (0.25%) SaltStack
9 5 (0.21%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.17%) Allen-Bradley
10 4 (0.17%) Atmel
11 3 (0.13%) SAP
11 3 (0.13%) Typelevel
11 3 (0.13%) Wonderware
12 2 (0.085%) OpenAI