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 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 54 13
Rank change year-on-year +32 -41 +60
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 3,879 1,502 5,135
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.97% 4.31% 8.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.27% 4.81% 9.11%
Number of salaries quoted 3,040 639 2,856
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,750 £40,000
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 £67,500
90th Percentile £91,375 £95,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £78,810 £60,000
% change year-on-year -11.18% +31.35% -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 73,603 31,221 56,397
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.39% 89.49% 95.02%
Number of salaries quoted 50,844 17,919 37,069
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £39,750 £32,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £48,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -6.54%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £56,350 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +2.45% - -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 17 August 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 17 August 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 +76 1,000 £65,000 -1.89% 187
North of England +21 992 £65,000 -6.14% 178
South West +29 732 £65,000 - 168
North West +11 552 £70,000 -6.67% 106
East of England +92 485 £70,000 +27.27% 167
Midlands +48 392 £62,500 -3.85% 75
Yorkshire +80 264 £60,000 -7.69% 41
East Midlands +34 203 £55,000 -21.43% 42
West Midlands +51 189 £65,000 +4.00% 33
North East +13 176 £70,000 +24.44% 31
Scotland -11 149 £67,500 +3.85% 100
Wales +3 116 £55,000 -17.29% 20
Northern Ireland -61 14 £90,000 +80.00% 13
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 August 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 3,838 (98.94%) Software Engineering
2 639 (16.47%) C++
3 597 (15.39%) C#
4 512 (13.20%) Python
5 472 (12.17%) Agile
6 399 (10.29%) AWS
7 391 (10.08%) Security Cleared
8 360 (9.28%) Full-Stack Development
9 353 (9.10%) CI/CD
10 343 (8.84%) AI
11 322 (8.30%) Java
12 321 (8.28%) .NET
13 297 (7.66%) Degree
14 287 (7.40%) Azure
15 276 (7.12%) Linux
16 268 (6.91%) JavaScript
17 263 (6.78%) C
18 256 (6.60%) Mentoring
19 250 (6.44%) SC Cleared
20 240 (6.19%) TypeScript
21 238 (6.14%) DevOps
22 213 (5.49%) Problem-Solving
23 210 (5.41%) React
24 198 (5.10%) SDLC
24 198 (5.10%) Test Automation
25 194 (5.00%) Microservices
26 186 (4.80%) SQL
27 182 (4.69%) Computer Science
28 180 (4.64%) Docker
29 177 (4.56%) 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 24 (0.62%) Apache
2 15 (0.39%) SharePoint Server
3 9 (0.23%) Confluence
4 8 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
5 7 (0.18%) WinCC
6 6 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 5 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (0.10%) Apache Solr
9 3 (0.077%) CMS
9 3 (0.077%) GeoServer
10 2 (0.052%) ArchestrA
10 2 (0.052%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.052%) SharePoint
10 2 (0.052%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.052%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.052%) WordPress
11 1 (0.026%) Cloud Foundry
11 1 (0.026%) OpenStack
11 1 (0.026%) Umbraco
Applications
1 13 (0.34%) Lightworks
2 8 (0.21%) Simulink
3 4 (0.10%) EPLAN
3 4 (0.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.10%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.077%) CANalyzer
5 2 (0.052%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.026%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.026%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.026%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.026%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.026%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 399 (10.29%) AWS
2 287 (7.40%) Azure
3 149 (3.84%) SaaS
4 112 (2.89%) GCP
5 72 (1.86%) Serverless
6 51 (1.31%) GitHub
7 38 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
8 34 (0.88%) Firebase
9 32 (0.82%) Anthropic Claude
10 27 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
11 19 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (0.44%) AWS CloudFormation
13 16 (0.41%) Amazon EKS
13 16 (0.41%) Amazon S3
13 16 (0.41%) Cloud Run
14 12 (0.31%) OpenShift
15 11 (0.28%) Slack
16 9 (0.23%) AWS Step Functions
16 9 (0.23%) Azure AKS
16 9 (0.23%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 58 (1.50%) Wireless
2 36 (0.93%) Ethernet
3 28 (0.72%) Bluetooth
4 24 (0.62%) Modbus
5 21 (0.54%) RS-232
6 20 (0.52%) MQTT
6 20 (0.52%) TCP/IP
7 17 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
7 17 (0.44%) ZigBee
8 15 (0.39%) Profibus
9 12 (0.31%) RS-485
10 10 (0.26%) ATM
10 10 (0.26%) LTE
11 6 (0.15%) Network Security
11 6 (0.15%) Wireshark
12 5 (0.13%) AMQP
13 4 (0.10%) Broadband
13 4 (0.10%) Software-Defined Radio
14 3 (0.077%) 5G
14 3 (0.077%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (2.06%) PostgreSQL
2 63 (1.62%) SQL Server
3 56 (1.44%) MongoDB
4 47 (1.21%) NoSQL
5 40 (1.03%) MySQL
6 29 (0.75%) Relational Database
7 18 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
7 18 (0.46%) Redis
8 16 (0.41%) Pinecone
9 15 (0.39%) DynamoDB
10 13 (0.34%) Big Data
11 7 (0.18%) Azure SQL Database
11 7 (0.18%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.13%) Cloudera CDH
12 5 (0.13%) FileMaker
12 5 (0.13%) Neo4j
13 4 (0.10%) Data Lake
13 4 (0.10%) MariaDB
14 3 (0.077%) Amazon RDS
14 3 (0.077%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 142 (3.66%) Git
2 50 (1.29%) GitLab
3 35 (0.90%) JIRA
4 34 (0.88%) Jenkins
5 20 (0.52%) Claude Code
5 20 (0.52%) Visual Studio Code
6 14 (0.36%) Visual Studio
7 11 (0.28%) Cucumber
8 9 (0.23%) JUnit
8 9 (0.23%) SonarQube
9 8 (0.21%) GDB
10 7 (0.18%) Cypress.io
10 7 (0.18%) LabVIEW
10 7 (0.18%) Moq
11 6 (0.15%) Bitbucket
11 6 (0.15%) CMake
11 6 (0.15%) Yeoman
12 5 (0.13%) Mockito
12 5 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
13 4 (0.10%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 230 (5.93%) Manufacturing
2 201 (5.18%) Electronics
3 187 (4.82%) Social Skills
4 138 (3.56%) Finance
5 119 (3.07%) Aerospace
6 94 (2.42%) Public Sector
7 87 (2.24%) Automotive
8 57 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 50 (1.29%) Aviation
10 48 (1.24%) Analytical Skills
11 38 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
12 36 (0.93%) Retail
13 26 (0.67%) Law
14 24 (0.62%) Games
14 24 (0.62%) Military
15 18 (0.46%) Telecoms
16 16 (0.41%) Marketing
17 15 (0.39%) Organisational Skills
18 11 (0.28%) Tech for Good
19 9 (0.23%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 321 (8.28%) .NET
2 210 (5.41%) React
3 118 (3.04%) Node.js
4 100 (2.58%) Vue
5 77 (1.99%) WPF
6 74 (1.91%) AngularJS
7 70 (1.80%) CSS
8 66 (1.70%) Spring
9 64 (1.65%) REST
10 60 (1.55%) Spring Boot
11 57 (1.47%) HTML
12 54 (1.39%) RESTful
13 38 (0.98%) Next.js
14 37 (0.95%) .NET Core
15 36 (0.93%) Django
16 31 (0.80%) .NET Framework
17 25 (0.64%) React Native
17 25 (0.64%) Yocto
18 23 (0.59%) ASP.NET
19 22 (0.57%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 170 (4.38%) Cloud Native
2 129 (3.33%) Embedded Systems
3 105 (2.71%) Robotics
4 102 (2.63%) Algorithms
5 84 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
6 71 (1.83%) Product Ownership
7 65 (1.68%) AI Agents
8 64 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
9 58 (1.50%) IoT
10 46 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
11 30 (0.77%) Mobile App
11 30 (0.77%) Public Cloud
12 27 (0.70%) Device Driver
13 26 (0.67%) Data Structures
14 21 (0.54%) ARM Cortex
14 21 (0.54%) Cyber Threat
15 20 (0.52%) Distributed Computing
16 18 (0.46%) Educational Technology
16 18 (0.46%) Hedge funds
17 17 (0.44%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 276 (7.12%) Linux
2 62 (1.60%) Windows
3 54 (1.39%) Embedded Linux
4 30 (0.77%) FreeRTOS
5 29 (0.75%) Android
6 10 (0.26%) Debian
7 6 (0.15%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.15%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.13%) CentOS
8 5 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.13%) Unix
8 5 (0.13%) VxWorks
8 5 (0.13%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.077%) Gentoo
10 2 (0.052%) Robot Operating System
10 2 (0.052%) SafeRTOS
10 2 (0.052%) Windows 10
10 2 (0.052%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.052%) zOS
11 1 (0.026%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 3,838 (98.94%) Software Engineering
2 472 (12.17%) Agile
3 360 (9.28%) Full-Stack Development
4 353 (9.10%) CI/CD
5 343 (8.84%) AI
6 256 (6.60%) Mentoring
7 238 (6.14%) DevOps
8 213 (5.49%) Problem-Solving
9 198 (5.10%) SDLC
9 198 (5.10%) Test Automation
10 194 (5.00%) Microservices
11 182 (4.69%) Computer Science
12 177 (4.56%) Continuous Improvement
13 132 (3.40%) Containerisation
14 130 (3.35%) Software Architecture
15 120 (3.09%) Code Quality
16 115 (2.96%) Technical Leadership
17 113 (2.91%) Software Testing
18 103 (2.66%) TDD
19 99 (2.55%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 639 (16.47%) C++
2 597 (15.39%) C#
3 512 (13.20%) Python
4 322 (8.30%) Java
5 268 (6.91%) JavaScript
6 263 (6.78%) C
7 240 (6.19%) TypeScript
8 186 (4.80%) SQL
9 132 (3.40%) Rust
10 65 (1.68%) Go
11 59 (1.52%) PHP
12 48 (1.24%) Embedded C
13 30 (0.77%) Ruby
14 27 (0.70%) Embedded C++
15 21 (0.54%) Ada
16 17 (0.44%) Bash
16 17 (0.44%) COBOL
16 17 (0.44%) Kotlin
17 16 (0.41%) MATLAB
18 15 (0.39%) Scala
Qualifications
1 391 (10.08%) Security Cleared
2 297 (7.66%) Degree
3 250 (6.44%) SC Cleared
4 173 (4.46%) DV Cleared
5 131 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
6 56 (1.44%) Master's Degree
7 32 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (0.67%) PhD
9 9 (0.23%) DBS Check
9 9 (0.23%) HND
10 8 (0.21%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.15%) HNC
12 5 (0.13%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.13%) CEH
12 5 (0.13%) OSCP
13 4 (0.10%) Microsoft Certification
14 3 (0.077%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 2 (0.052%) Numerate Degree
15 2 (0.052%) NVQ Level 3
16 1 (0.026%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (1.86%) QA
2 49 (1.26%) Accessibility
3 10 (0.26%) IEC 61131
4 8 (0.21%) IEC 61508
4 8 (0.21%) MISRA
4 8 (0.21%) MISRA C
5 6 (0.15%) JTAG
6 5 (0.13%) DO-178B
7 4 (0.10%) Data Quality
8 3 (0.077%) ECSS
8 3 (0.077%) GAMP
8 3 (0.077%) GDPR
8 3 (0.077%) ISO 26262
8 3 (0.077%) MIL-STD-1553
8 3 (0.077%) WCAG
9 2 (0.052%) Automotive SPICE
9 2 (0.052%) AUTOSAR
9 2 (0.052%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.026%) DO-254
10 1 (0.026%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 180 (4.64%) Docker
2 165 (4.25%) Firmware
3 51 (1.31%) Embedded Firmware
4 9 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.21%) KVM
5 8 (0.21%) VMware Infrastructure
6 7 (0.18%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.18%) QEMU
7 2 (0.052%) Active Directory
7 2 (0.052%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 137 (3.53%) Kubernetes
2 93 (2.40%) Terraform
3 38 (0.98%) Ansible
4 12 (0.31%) Grafana
5 7 (0.18%) Kibana
5 7 (0.18%) logstash
5 7 (0.18%) Podman
5 7 (0.18%) Puppet
6 5 (0.13%) Functional Safety
7 3 (0.077%) Plesk
7 3 (0.077%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.077%) SCCM
7 3 (0.077%) SCOM
7 3 (0.077%) SCOrch
8 2 (0.052%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 35 (0.90%) Siemens
2 32 (0.82%) Microsoft
3 21 (0.54%) Google
4 19 (0.49%) Rockwell
5 18 (0.46%) Oracle
6 14 (0.36%) Okta
6 14 (0.36%) Ping Identity
6 14 (0.36%) Salesforce
7 11 (0.28%) Splunk
8 10 (0.26%) Allen-Bradley
8 10 (0.26%) OpenAI
8 10 (0.26%) VMware
9 7 (0.18%) Atlassian
9 7 (0.18%) Databricks
10 6 (0.15%) Intel
11 5 (0.13%) IBM
11 5 (0.13%) Red Hat
11 5 (0.13%) SaltStack
11 5 (0.13%) Xamarin
12 4 (0.10%) NVIDIA