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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 52 15
Rank change year-on-year +29 -37 +62
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 3,636 1,555 5,276
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.88% 4.54% 8.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.15% 5.07% 8.90%
Number of salaries quoted 2,894 694 2,994
10th Percentile £45,000 £44,125 £38,750
25th Percentile £53,938 £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 £66,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £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 70,658 30,652 59,310
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.75% 89.58% 94.83%
Number of salaries quoted 48,894 17,631 40,396
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,875 £28,000
25th Percentile £38,000 £32,759 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -6.54%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - - -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 31 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 31 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 +78 973 £65,000 - 137
North of England +22 953 £65,000 -7.14% 112
South West +30 652 £65,000 - 98
North West +6 534 £70,000 -6.67% 78
East of England +73 440 £70,000 +12.00% 86
Midlands +42 357 £60,000 -7.69% 64
Yorkshire +80 257 £60,000 -12.41% 21
West Midlands +39 179 £67,500 +8.00% 30
East Midlands +27 178 £54,000 -22.86% 34
North East +17 162 £70,000 +27.27% 13
Scotland -14 146 £65,000 - 33
Wales 0 102 £51,619 -24.09% 22
Northern Ireland -52 14 £90,000 +80.00% 16
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 31 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 3,594 (98.84%) Software Engineering
2 619 (17.02%) C++
3 564 (15.51%) C#
4 482 (13.26%) Python
5 446 (12.27%) Agile
6 390 (10.73%) AWS
7 363 (9.98%) Full-Stack Development
8 347 (9.54%) Security Cleared
9 334 (9.19%) CI/CD
10 318 (8.75%) .NET
11 308 (8.47%) AI
11 308 (8.47%) Java
12 294 (8.09%) Degree
13 280 (7.70%) Azure
14 264 (7.26%) C
15 260 (7.15%) JavaScript
16 250 (6.88%) Linux
17 244 (6.71%) Mentoring
18 237 (6.52%) DevOps
19 226 (6.22%) TypeScript
20 220 (6.05%) SC Cleared
21 202 (5.56%) Problem-Solving
22 201 (5.53%) React
23 197 (5.42%) Microservices
24 195 (5.36%) SQL
25 192 (5.28%) Test Automation
26 189 (5.20%) SDLC
27 177 (4.87%) Computer Science
27 177 (4.87%) Docker
28 171 (4.70%) 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 20 (0.55%) Apache
2 15 (0.41%) SharePoint Server
3 8 (0.22%) Confluence
3 8 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
4 6 (0.17%) WinCC
5 4 (0.11%) Apache Solr
5 4 (0.11%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.11%) GeoServer
6 3 (0.083%) CMS
7 2 (0.055%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.055%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.055%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.055%) WordPress
8 1 (0.028%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.028%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.028%) Umbraco
Applications
1 12 (0.33%) Lightworks
2 5 (0.14%) Simulink
3 4 (0.11%) EPLAN
3 4 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.11%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.083%) CANalyzer
5 2 (0.055%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.055%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.028%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.028%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.028%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.055%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.028%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 390 (10.73%) AWS
2 280 (7.70%) Azure
3 153 (4.21%) SaaS
4 103 (2.83%) GCP
5 67 (1.84%) Serverless
6 47 (1.29%) GitHub
7 39 (1.07%) Azure DevOps
8 34 (0.94%) Firebase
9 32 (0.88%) Anthropic Claude
10 22 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (0.44%) Amazon S3
11 16 (0.44%) Cloud Run
11 16 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
12 13 (0.36%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (0.36%) AWS CloudFormation
13 12 (0.33%) Azure AKS
14 9 (0.25%) OpenShift
15 8 (0.22%) AWS Step Functions
15 8 (0.22%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 8 (0.22%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 58 (1.60%) Wireless
2 36 (0.99%) Ethernet
3 26 (0.72%) Bluetooth
4 23 (0.63%) RS-232
5 22 (0.61%) Modbus
6 18 (0.50%) MQTT
6 18 (0.50%) TCP/IP
7 17 (0.47%) ZigBee
8 15 (0.41%) Profibus
8 15 (0.41%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (0.33%) RS-485
10 9 (0.25%) ATM
11 8 (0.22%) LTE
11 8 (0.22%) Network Security
12 6 (0.17%) Wireshark
13 5 (0.14%) Broadband
14 4 (0.11%) AMQP
14 4 (0.11%) Software-Defined Radio
15 3 (0.083%) Software-Defined Networking
16 2 (0.055%) LoRaWAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (2.15%) PostgreSQL
2 65 (1.79%) SQL Server
3 64 (1.76%) MongoDB
4 56 (1.54%) NoSQL
5 48 (1.32%) MySQL
6 22 (0.61%) Relational Database
7 16 (0.44%) Pinecone
8 15 (0.41%) Redis
9 14 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
10 13 (0.36%) Big Data
11 12 (0.33%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.17%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.14%) FileMaker
14 5 (0.14%) Neo4j
15 4 (0.11%) Cloudera CDH
15 4 (0.11%) Geospatial Data
15 4 (0.11%) GIS
15 4 (0.11%) MariaDB
15 4 (0.11%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 131 (3.60%) Git
2 49 (1.35%) GitLab
3 33 (0.91%) JIRA
4 32 (0.88%) Jenkins
5 21 (0.58%) Visual Studio Code
6 20 (0.55%) Claude Code
7 14 (0.39%) Visual Studio
8 11 (0.30%) Cucumber
9 9 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 8 (0.22%) GDB
11 7 (0.19%) JUnit
11 7 (0.19%) LabVIEW
11 7 (0.19%) Moq
12 6 (0.17%) Bitbucket
12 6 (0.17%) Yeoman
13 5 (0.14%) CMake
13 5 (0.14%) Postman
14 4 (0.11%) Eclipse
14 4 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
14 4 (0.11%) Robot Framework
General
1 224 (6.16%) Manufacturing
2 191 (5.25%) Electronics
3 170 (4.68%) Social Skills
4 108 (2.97%) Finance
5 96 (2.64%) Aerospace
6 84 (2.31%) Public Sector
7 83 (2.28%) Automotive
8 46 (1.27%) Analytical Skills
9 38 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
10 37 (1.02%) Aviation
11 32 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 31 (0.85%) Retail
13 21 (0.58%) Military
14 19 (0.52%) Telecoms
15 17 (0.47%) Games
16 15 (0.41%) Law
16 15 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
17 12 (0.33%) Tech for Good
18 10 (0.28%) Marketing
19 9 (0.25%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 318 (8.75%) .NET
2 201 (5.53%) React
3 115 (3.16%) Node.js
4 103 (2.83%) Vue
5 74 (2.04%) AngularJS
5 74 (2.04%) WPF
6 67 (1.84%) CSS
7 62 (1.71%) RESTful
8 60 (1.65%) REST
8 60 (1.65%) Spring
9 59 (1.62%) HTML
10 54 (1.49%) Spring Boot
11 39 (1.07%) .NET Core
11 39 (1.07%) Django
12 37 (1.02%) Next.js
13 34 (0.94%) .NET Framework
14 26 (0.72%) Yocto
15 23 (0.63%) ASP.NET
16 22 (0.61%) WebSockets
17 21 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 163 (4.48%) Cloud Native
2 123 (3.38%) Embedded Systems
3 92 (2.53%) Algorithms
4 91 (2.50%) Robotics
5 78 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
6 67 (1.84%) Product Ownership
7 63 (1.73%) Distributed Systems
8 60 (1.65%) AI Agents
9 57 (1.57%) IoT
10 47 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
11 31 (0.85%) Mobile App
12 29 (0.80%) Device Driver
13 22 (0.61%) Public Cloud
14 21 (0.58%) Client/Server
15 20 (0.55%) ARM Cortex
15 20 (0.55%) Cyber Threat
15 20 (0.55%) Data Structures
16 19 (0.52%) Hedge funds
17 18 (0.50%) Distributed Computing
17 18 (0.50%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 250 (6.88%) Linux
2 54 (1.49%) Windows
3 50 (1.38%) Embedded Linux
4 31 (0.85%) FreeRTOS
5 28 (0.77%) Android
6 9 (0.25%) Debian
7 6 (0.17%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.14%) Windows Server
9 4 (0.11%) CentOS
9 4 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.083%) Gentoo
10 3 (0.083%) Unix
11 2 (0.055%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.055%) SafeRTOS
11 2 (0.055%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.055%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.055%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.055%) zOS
12 1 (0.028%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 3,594 (98.84%) Software Engineering
2 446 (12.27%) Agile
3 363 (9.98%) Full-Stack Development
4 334 (9.19%) CI/CD
5 308 (8.47%) AI
6 244 (6.71%) Mentoring
7 237 (6.52%) DevOps
8 202 (5.56%) Problem-Solving
9 197 (5.42%) Microservices
10 192 (5.28%) Test Automation
11 189 (5.20%) SDLC
12 177 (4.87%) Computer Science
13 171 (4.70%) Continuous Improvement
14 130 (3.58%) Containerisation
15 126 (3.47%) Software Architecture
16 113 (3.11%) Software Testing
17 112 (3.08%) TDD
18 107 (2.94%) Code Quality
19 100 (2.75%) Scrum
20 93 (2.56%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 619 (17.02%) C++
2 564 (15.51%) C#
3 482 (13.26%) Python
4 308 (8.47%) Java
5 264 (7.26%) C
6 260 (7.15%) JavaScript
7 226 (6.22%) TypeScript
8 195 (5.36%) SQL
9 126 (3.47%) Rust
10 60 (1.65%) Go
11 59 (1.62%) PHP
12 51 (1.40%) Embedded C
13 28 (0.77%) Ruby
14 26 (0.72%) Embedded C++
15 19 (0.52%) Bash
16 17 (0.47%) COBOL
16 17 (0.47%) Kotlin
17 14 (0.39%) Ada
17 14 (0.39%) Scala
18 13 (0.36%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 347 (9.54%) Security Cleared
2 294 (8.09%) Degree
3 220 (6.05%) SC Cleared
4 147 (4.04%) DV Cleared
5 132 (3.63%) Computer Science Degree
6 54 (1.49%) Master's Degree
7 25 (0.69%) PhD
8 18 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (0.28%) HND
10 9 (0.25%) DBS Check
11 8 (0.22%) Azure Certification
12 6 (0.17%) HNC
13 5 (0.14%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.14%) CEH
13 5 (0.14%) OSCP
14 4 (0.11%) Microsoft Certification
15 3 (0.083%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 2 (0.055%) NVQ Level 3
17 1 (0.028%) Chartered Engineer
17 1 (0.028%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.06%) QA
2 31 (0.85%) Accessibility
3 9 (0.25%) IEC 61131
4 7 (0.19%) IEC 61508
4 7 (0.19%) MISRA
4 7 (0.19%) MISRA C
5 6 (0.17%) JTAG
6 5 (0.14%) DO-178B
7 3 (0.083%) ECSS
7 3 (0.083%) GAMP
7 3 (0.083%) GDPR
8 2 (0.055%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.055%) ISO 26262
8 2 (0.055%) ISO 9001
8 2 (0.055%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.028%) DO-254
9 1 (0.028%) HAZOP
9 1 (0.028%) IEC 62304
9 1 (0.028%) MIL-STD-1553
9 1 (0.028%) WCAG
System Software
1 177 (4.87%) Docker
2 156 (4.29%) Firmware
3 52 (1.43%) Embedded Firmware
4 11 (0.30%) KVM
4 11 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (0.28%) Hyper-V
6 8 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.17%) QEMU
8 2 (0.055%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.028%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 136 (3.74%) Kubernetes
2 83 (2.28%) Terraform
3 32 (0.88%) Ansible
4 9 (0.25%) Grafana
5 7 (0.19%) Kibana
5 7 (0.19%) logstash
5 7 (0.19%) Podman
6 5 (0.14%) Puppet
7 4 (0.11%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.083%) Plesk
8 3 (0.083%) SCCM
8 3 (0.083%) SCOM
8 3 (0.083%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.055%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.055%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.028%) Packer
10 1 (0.028%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 31 (0.85%) Microsoft
1 31 (0.85%) Siemens
2 19 (0.52%) Google
2 19 (0.52%) Rockwell
3 13 (0.36%) Okta
3 13 (0.36%) Oracle
3 13 (0.36%) Ping Identity
3 13 (0.36%) VMware
4 12 (0.33%) Salesforce
5 10 (0.28%) Allen-Bradley
6 9 (0.25%) OpenAI
7 7 (0.19%) Atlassian
7 7 (0.19%) Splunk
8 6 (0.17%) Intel
9 5 (0.14%) Xamarin
10 4 (0.11%) ForgeRock
10 4 (0.11%) Peregrine
10 4 (0.11%) Red Hat
10 4 (0.11%) SaltStack
11 3 (0.083%) IBM