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 £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 10 October 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 71 22
Rank change year-on-year +49 -49 +40
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 4,489 1,286 3,594
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.19% 3.72% 7.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.60% 4.15% 7.34%
Number of salaries quoted 3,416 473 2,003
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £53,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +13.04% -2.54%
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 80,159 30,989 48,952
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.65% 89.62% 95.40%
Number of salaries quoted 55,290 17,375 26,993
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £46,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +19.57% -8.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £58,396 £53,688 £55,000
% change year-on-year +8.77% -2.39% -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 10 October 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 October 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 +35 1,069 £70,000 +2.19% 375
South East +89 1,017 £70,000 +1.45% 376
South West +44 939 £68,000 +4.62% 267
East of England +115 620 £70,000 +7.69% 311
North West +18 607 £70,000 -6.67% 237
Midlands +60 450 £65,000 - 199
East Midlands +44 270 £55,000 -21.43% 93
Yorkshire +74 254 £60,000 - 88
Scotland 0 244 £80,000 +24.03% 328
North East +27 208 £70,000 +27.27% 50
West Midlands +31 180 £65,000 +4.00% 106
Wales +15 142 £60,000 +4.35% 33
Northern Ireland -70 9 £75,000 - 75
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 October 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 4,460 (99.35%) Software Engineering
2 659 (14.68%) C++
3 594 (13.23%) C#
4 577 (12.85%) Agile
5 534 (11.90%) Python
6 447 (9.96%) AI
7 441 (9.82%) AWS
8 404 (9.00%) Java
9 399 (8.89%) Security Cleared
10 381 (8.49%) CI/CD
11 369 (8.22%) Full-Stack Development
12 309 (6.88%) .NET
13 307 (6.84%) Linux
14 294 (6.55%) Azure
15 271 (6.04%) Degree
16 270 (6.01%) TypeScript
17 257 (5.73%) SC Cleared
18 252 (5.61%) Mentoring
19 249 (5.55%) JavaScript
20 230 (5.12%) C
21 229 (5.10%) DevOps
22 222 (4.95%) Problem-Solving
22 222 (4.95%) React
23 203 (4.52%) Test Automation
24 202 (4.50%) Microservices
24 202 (4.50%) SDLC
25 192 (4.28%) Docker
26 178 (3.97%) Continuous Improvement
27 175 (3.90%) SQL
28 168 (3.74%) Kubernetes

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 30 (0.67%) Apache
2 15 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
3 9 (0.20%) Apache Spark
4 7 (0.16%) FactoryTalk
4 7 (0.16%) WinCC
5 6 (0.13%) Confluence
6 5 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.089%) CMS
7 4 (0.089%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.067%) SharePoint
8 3 (0.067%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.067%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.045%) ArchestrA
10 1 (0.022%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.022%) Cloud Foundry
10 1 (0.022%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.022%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (0.47%) Lightworks
2 12 (0.27%) Simulink
3 4 (0.089%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.089%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.067%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.045%) EPLAN
6 1 (0.022%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.022%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
2 5 (0.11%) Visualfiles
3 2 (0.045%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.022%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 441 (9.82%) AWS
2 294 (6.55%) Azure
3 128 (2.85%) SaaS
4 110 (2.45%) GCP
5 74 (1.65%) Serverless
6 53 (1.18%) GitHub
7 39 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
8 37 (0.82%) Firebase
9 30 (0.67%) Anthropic Claude
10 29 (0.65%) AWS Lambda
11 22 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
12 20 (0.45%) Amazon EKS
13 19 (0.42%) Amazon S3
13 19 (0.42%) AWS CloudFormation
14 17 (0.38%) Cloud Run
15 14 (0.31%) GitHub Copilot
15 14 (0.31%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.29%) Azure Service Bus
17 11 (0.25%) Azure Functions
18 10 (0.22%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 71 (1.58%) Wireless
2 32 (0.71%) Ethernet
3 29 (0.65%) Bluetooth
4 28 (0.62%) TCP/IP
5 26 (0.58%) MQTT
6 24 (0.53%) Modbus
7 23 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (0.33%) ZigBee
9 14 (0.31%) LTE
10 13 (0.29%) 5G
10 13 (0.29%) RS-232
11 12 (0.27%) Profibus
12 10 (0.22%) ATM
12 10 (0.22%) RS-485
13 9 (0.20%) Internet
14 7 (0.16%) AMQP
14 7 (0.16%) Wireshark
15 5 (0.11%) HTTP
16 4 (0.089%) Software-Defined Radio
17 3 (0.067%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (2.14%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (1.40%) SQL Server
3 49 (1.09%) MongoDB
4 43 (0.96%) NoSQL
5 41 (0.91%) MySQL
6 38 (0.85%) Relational Database
7 25 (0.56%) Redis
8 17 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
9 16 (0.36%) Big Data
9 16 (0.36%) Chroma
9 16 (0.36%) DynamoDB
9 16 (0.36%) Pinecone
10 9 (0.20%) Hadoop
11 7 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
11 7 (0.16%) Cloudera CDH
12 4 (0.089%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.089%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.067%) Data Warehouse
13 3 (0.067%) MariaDB
13 3 (0.067%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 134 (2.99%) Git
2 55 (1.23%) GitLab
3 36 (0.80%) Jenkins
4 30 (0.67%) JIRA
5 19 (0.42%) Claude Code
6 17 (0.38%) Cucumber
6 17 (0.38%) Visual Studio
7 16 (0.36%) Visual Studio Code
8 11 (0.25%) SonarQube
9 10 (0.22%) JUnit
10 8 (0.18%) Cypress.io
11 7 (0.16%) GDB
11 7 (0.16%) LabVIEW
11 7 (0.16%) Mockito
11 7 (0.16%) Moq
11 7 (0.16%) PetaLinux
11 7 (0.16%) Rational Rhapsody
12 6 (0.13%) Eclipse
12 6 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
13 5 (0.11%) CMake
General
1 219 (4.88%) Finance
2 211 (4.70%) Manufacturing
3 207 (4.61%) Electronics
4 199 (4.43%) Social Skills
5 131 (2.92%) Aerospace
6 109 (2.43%) Public Sector
7 79 (1.76%) Automotive
8 67 (1.49%) Aviation
9 55 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 50 (1.11%) Analytical Skills
11 32 (0.71%) Tech for Good
12 31 (0.69%) Retail
13 30 (0.67%) Law
14 29 (0.65%) Games
14 29 (0.65%) Military
15 24 (0.53%) Banking
15 24 (0.53%) Financial Institution
16 20 (0.45%) Health Technology
16 20 (0.45%) Pharmaceutical
17 17 (0.38%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 309 (6.88%) .NET
2 222 (4.95%) React
3 122 (2.72%) Node.js
4 93 (2.07%) Terraform
5 90 (2.00%) Vue
6 81 (1.80%) Spring
7 80 (1.78%) Spring Boot
7 80 (1.78%) WPF
8 65 (1.45%) AngularJS
9 64 (1.43%) CSS
10 60 (1.34%) RESTful
11 57 (1.27%) REST
12 41 (0.91%) HTML
12 41 (0.91%) Next.js
13 37 (0.82%) Kafka
14 35 (0.78%) .NET Core
14 35 (0.78%) React Native
15 30 (0.67%) Django
16 29 (0.65%) .NET Framework
17 27 (0.60%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 187 (4.17%) Cloud Native
2 135 (3.01%) Robotics
3 128 (2.85%) Embedded Systems
4 101 (2.25%) Algorithms
5 85 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
6 71 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
7 68 (1.51%) AI Agents
8 58 (1.29%) Product Ownership
9 51 (1.14%) IoT
10 48 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
11 47 (1.05%) Public Cloud
12 41 (0.91%) Cyber Threat
13 25 (0.56%) Data Structures
13 25 (0.56%) Distributed Computing
13 25 (0.56%) Mobile App
14 24 (0.53%) Device Driver
15 19 (0.42%) NHS
16 17 (0.38%) ARM Cortex
17 16 (0.36%) Hedge funds
17 16 (0.36%) Raspberry Pi
Operating Systems
1 307 (6.84%) Linux
2 72 (1.60%) Windows
3 63 (1.40%) Embedded Linux
4 37 (0.82%) Android
5 26 (0.58%) FreeRTOS
6 14 (0.31%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.27%) Debian
8 10 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 9 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 8 (0.18%) VxWorks
11 7 (0.16%) CentOS
11 7 (0.16%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.11%) Unix
13 3 (0.067%) Gentoo
13 3 (0.067%) Windows Server
14 2 (0.045%) Robot Operating System
14 2 (0.045%) Windows 10
14 2 (0.045%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.022%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,460 (99.35%) Software Engineering
2 577 (12.85%) Agile
3 447 (9.96%) AI
4 381 (8.49%) CI/CD
5 369 (8.22%) Full-Stack Development
6 252 (5.61%) Mentoring
7 229 (5.10%) DevOps
8 222 (4.95%) Problem-Solving
9 203 (4.52%) Test Automation
10 202 (4.50%) Microservices
10 202 (4.50%) SDLC
11 178 (3.97%) Continuous Improvement
12 163 (3.63%) Computer Science
13 144 (3.21%) Software Architecture
14 142 (3.16%) Technical Leadership
15 137 (3.05%) Code Quality
16 136 (3.03%) Containerisation
17 119 (2.65%) Machine Learning
18 105 (2.34%) Software Testing
19 101 (2.25%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 659 (14.68%) C++
2 594 (13.23%) C#
3 534 (11.90%) Python
4 404 (9.00%) Java
5 270 (6.01%) TypeScript
6 249 (5.55%) JavaScript
7 230 (5.12%) C
8 175 (3.90%) SQL
9 132 (2.94%) Rust
10 78 (1.74%) Go
11 59 (1.31%) PHP
12 38 (0.85%) Embedded C
13 31 (0.69%) Ruby
14 30 (0.67%) Embedded C++
15 28 (0.62%) Ada
15 28 (0.62%) Kotlin
16 22 (0.49%) Bash
16 22 (0.49%) MATLAB
17 14 (0.31%) Scala
18 7 (0.16%) XAML
Qualifications
1 399 (8.89%) Security Cleared
2 271 (6.04%) Degree
3 257 (5.73%) SC Cleared
4 167 (3.72%) DV Cleared
5 116 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
6 45 (1.00%) Master's Degree
7 42 (0.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (0.56%) PhD
9 17 (0.38%) Azure Certification
10 6 (0.13%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.13%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.089%) CEH
11 4 (0.089%) Chartered Engineer
11 4 (0.089%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (0.089%) OSCP
12 3 (0.067%) HND
13 2 (0.045%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.045%) Numerate Degree
14 1 (0.022%) ISTQB
14 1 (0.022%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (1.38%) QA
2 49 (1.09%) Accessibility
3 9 (0.20%) IEC 61131
4 8 (0.18%) DO-178B
5 7 (0.16%) JTAG
6 5 (0.11%) WCAG
7 4 (0.089%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.089%) ECSS
8 3 (0.067%) Automotive SPICE
8 3 (0.067%) GAMP
8 3 (0.067%) ISO 26262
8 3 (0.067%) MIL-STD-1553
8 3 (0.067%) MISRA
8 3 (0.067%) MISRA C
9 2 (0.045%) AUTOSAR
9 2 (0.045%) GDPR
9 2 (0.045%) IEC 61508
9 2 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.022%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.022%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 192 (4.28%) Docker
2 150 (3.34%) Firmware
3 42 (0.94%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (0.11%) QEMU
5 4 (0.089%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.045%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.045%) KVM
6 2 (0.045%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.022%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.022%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 168 (3.74%) Kubernetes
2 46 (1.02%) Ansible
3 15 (0.33%) Grafana
4 11 (0.25%) Podman
5 9 (0.20%) Puppet
6 8 (0.18%) Kibana
6 8 (0.18%) logstash
7 4 (0.089%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.089%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.045%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.045%) Packer
8 2 (0.045%) Plesk
8 2 (0.045%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.022%) SCCM
9 1 (0.022%) SCOM
9 1 (0.022%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 39 (0.87%) Microsoft
2 32 (0.71%) Siemens
3 29 (0.65%) Google
4 18 (0.40%) Salesforce
5 15 (0.33%) Databricks
6 14 (0.31%) Okta
6 14 (0.31%) Ping Identity
6 14 (0.31%) RedGate
7 12 (0.27%) Oracle
7 12 (0.27%) Splunk
8 11 (0.25%) OpenAI
8 11 (0.25%) Rockwell
9 10 (0.22%) Red Hat
10 8 (0.18%) Sage
11 7 (0.16%) SaltStack
12 6 (0.13%) Allen-Bradley
12 6 (0.13%) Atlassian
12 6 (0.13%) Intel
12 6 (0.13%) New Relic
13 5 (0.11%) Foundry