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 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 51 16
Rank change year-on-year +20 -35 +51
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 2,898 1,418 6,007
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.35% 4.85% 8.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.64% 5.44% 9.14%
Number of salaries quoted 2,299 810 3,182
10th Percentile £45,000 £41,250 £38,750
25th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £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 £77,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £80,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.45% +20.83% -14.29%

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 62,505 26,055 65,708
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.73% 89.13% 94.80%
Number of salaries quoted 41,409 14,263 47,844
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,159 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,729 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.34% +3.46% -5.66%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £76,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +74 784 £65,000 - 194
North of England -5 731 £65,000 - 140
South West +29 517 £65,000 +8.33% 119
North West -5 422 £67,500 -3.57% 75
East of England +45 312 £70,000 +5.73% 106
Midlands +28 276 £65,000 +8.33% 59
Yorkshire +37 216 £65,000 +8.33% 37
Scotland +7 190 £65,000 +4.00% 28
West Midlands +5 154 £70,000 +16.67% 34
East Midlands +9 122 £55,000 -6.38% 25
North East -8 93 £67,153 +22.10% 30
Wales -1 70 £42,000 -37.78% 10
Northern Ireland -20 19 £90,000 +80.00% 4
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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 2,862 (98.76%) Software Engineering
2 435 (15.01%) C++
3 413 (14.25%) C#
4 350 (12.08%) Agile
5 349 (12.04%) Python
6 326 (11.25%) Full-Stack Development
7 306 (10.56%) AWS
8 297 (10.25%) .NET
9 264 (9.11%) Security Cleared
10 263 (9.08%) Java
11 237 (8.18%) CI/CD
12 229 (7.90%) Degree
13 215 (7.42%) JavaScript
14 210 (7.25%) DevOps
15 209 (7.21%) C
16 208 (7.18%) Azure
17 180 (6.21%) TypeScript
18 169 (5.83%) Linux
19 166 (5.73%) Mentoring
19 166 (5.73%) React
20 163 (5.62%) SC Cleared
21 159 (5.49%) SaaS
22 157 (5.42%) Continuous Improvement
22 157 (5.42%) SQL
23 153 (5.28%) AI
23 153 (5.28%) Microservices
24 146 (5.04%) Problem-Solving
25 136 (4.69%) Test Automation
26 134 (4.62%) Firmware
27 130 (4.49%) SDLC

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 14 (0.48%) Apache
1 14 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
2 8 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
3 7 (0.24%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.17%) CMS
4 5 (0.17%) Confluence
5 4 (0.14%) Apache Solr
5 4 (0.14%) GeoServer
6 3 (0.10%) WinCC
7 2 (0.069%) ArchestrA
7 2 (0.069%) WordPress
8 1 (0.035%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.035%) Kinematics
8 1 (0.035%) Umbraco
Applications
1 4 (0.14%) EngageOne
2 3 (0.10%) CANalyzer
3 2 (0.069%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.069%) EPLAN
3 2 (0.069%) Simulink
4 1 (0.035%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.035%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (0.35%) Magento
2 2 (0.069%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 306 (10.56%) AWS
2 208 (7.18%) Azure
3 159 (5.49%) SaaS
4 64 (2.21%) Serverless
5 52 (1.79%) GCP
6 30 (1.04%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (1.04%) GitHub
7 24 (0.83%) AWS Lambda
8 20 (0.69%) Azure AKS
9 19 (0.66%) Amazon S3
10 15 (0.52%) Amazon EKS
11 12 (0.41%) Anthropic Claude
12 11 (0.38%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (0.35%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (0.24%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 7 (0.24%) Stripe
15 6 (0.21%) Amazon ECS
15 6 (0.21%) Azure Functions
16 5 (0.17%) AWS Step Functions
16 5 (0.17%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 42 (1.45%) Wireless
2 30 (1.04%) Ethernet
3 19 (0.66%) RS-232
4 16 (0.55%) Bluetooth
4 16 (0.55%) Modbus
5 9 (0.31%) Profibus
5 9 (0.31%) ZigBee
6 8 (0.28%) Network Security
6 8 (0.28%) TCP/IP
7 7 (0.24%) Broadband
7 7 (0.24%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.21%) MQTT
9 5 (0.17%) AMQP
9 5 (0.17%) LTE
9 5 (0.17%) RS-485
10 4 (0.14%) Software-Defined Radio
11 3 (0.10%) Software-Defined Networking
12 2 (0.069%) DNS
12 2 (0.069%) HTTP
12 2 (0.069%) RTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (1.86%) SQL Server
2 52 (1.79%) NoSQL
2 52 (1.79%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (1.45%) MongoDB
4 35 (1.21%) MySQL
5 21 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
6 14 (0.48%) Big Data
7 13 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 11 (0.38%) DynamoDB
9 9 (0.31%) Neo4j
10 8 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
11 7 (0.24%) Hadoop
11 7 (0.24%) Redis
12 5 (0.17%) Cloudera CDH
12 5 (0.17%) FileMaker
13 4 (0.14%) DocumentDB
13 4 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
13 4 (0.14%) GIS
13 4 (0.14%) QGIS
14 3 (0.10%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 95 (3.28%) Git
2 32 (1.10%) GitLab
3 20 (0.69%) Visual Studio Code
4 19 (0.66%) Jenkins
5 17 (0.59%) Claude Code
6 13 (0.45%) JIRA
7 9 (0.31%) JUnit
7 9 (0.31%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.24%) Moq
8 7 (0.24%) Subversion
9 6 (0.21%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.21%) Yeoman
10 5 (0.17%) Bitbucket
10 5 (0.17%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.17%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.14%) GDB
11 4 (0.14%) Gradle
11 4 (0.14%) LabVIEW
11 4 (0.14%) Maven
11 4 (0.14%) Postman
General
1 145 (5.00%) Manufacturing
2 127 (4.38%) Social Skills
3 123 (4.24%) Electronics
4 70 (2.42%) Automotive
5 69 (2.38%) Aerospace
6 66 (2.28%) Finance
7 62 (2.14%) Public Sector
8 40 (1.38%) Analytical Skills
9 37 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
10 23 (0.79%) Aviation
11 19 (0.66%) Retail
12 18 (0.62%) Games
13 15 (0.52%) Military
14 14 (0.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 14 (0.48%) Tech for Good
15 9 (0.31%) Telecoms
16 8 (0.28%) Health Technology
17 7 (0.24%) Advertising
17 7 (0.24%) Agriculture
17 7 (0.24%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 297 (10.25%) .NET
2 166 (5.73%) React
3 102 (3.52%) Node.js
4 86 (2.97%) Vue
5 76 (2.62%) AngularJS
6 73 (2.52%) REST
7 60 (2.07%) RESTful
8 47 (1.62%) .NET Core
8 47 (1.62%) Spring
9 46 (1.59%) CSS
9 46 (1.59%) HTML
10 42 (1.45%) Spring Boot
11 41 (1.41%) WPF
12 36 (1.24%) .NET Framework
13 24 (0.83%) Django
14 21 (0.72%) Web Services
15 20 (0.69%) ASP.NET
15 20 (0.69%) Entity Framework
16 17 (0.59%) Yocto
17 16 (0.55%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 119 (4.11%) Cloud Native
2 85 (2.93%) Embedded Systems
3 72 (2.48%) Algorithms
4 56 (1.93%) IoT
4 56 (1.93%) Product Ownership
5 42 (1.45%) Legacy Systems
6 41 (1.41%) Robotics
7 36 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
8 23 (0.79%) Client/Server
8 23 (0.79%) Mobile App
9 21 (0.72%) Device Driver
10 18 (0.62%) Educational Technology
11 17 (0.59%) Hedge funds
12 16 (0.55%) Self-Motivation
13 15 (0.52%) CAN bus
13 15 (0.52%) Smart Energy
14 14 (0.48%) Distributed Computing
14 14 (0.48%) e-Learning
14 14 (0.48%) Greenfield Project
14 14 (0.48%) Industry 4.0
Operating Systems
1 169 (5.83%) Linux
2 40 (1.38%) Embedded Linux
3 32 (1.10%) Android
3 32 (1.10%) Windows
4 20 (0.69%) FreeRTOS
5 5 (0.17%) CentOS
5 5 (0.17%) Debian
5 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.17%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.14%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.14%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.069%) SafeRTOS
7 2 (0.069%) zOS
8 1 (0.035%) Robot Operating System
8 1 (0.035%) ThreadX
8 1 (0.035%) VxWorks
8 1 (0.035%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.035%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,862 (98.76%) Software Engineering
2 350 (12.08%) Agile
3 326 (11.25%) Full-Stack Development
4 237 (8.18%) CI/CD
5 210 (7.25%) DevOps
6 166 (5.73%) Mentoring
7 157 (5.42%) Continuous Improvement
8 153 (5.28%) AI
8 153 (5.28%) Microservices
9 146 (5.04%) Problem-Solving
10 136 (4.69%) Test Automation
11 130 (4.49%) SDLC
12 125 (4.31%) Computer Science
13 103 (3.55%) Scrum
14 101 (3.49%) Containerisation
15 99 (3.42%) TDD
16 77 (2.66%) Embedded Software Development
17 76 (2.62%) Technical Leadership
18 75 (2.59%) Software Testing
19 69 (2.38%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 435 (15.01%) C++
2 413 (14.25%) C#
3 349 (12.04%) Python
4 263 (9.08%) Java
5 215 (7.42%) JavaScript
6 209 (7.21%) C
7 180 (6.21%) TypeScript
8 157 (5.42%) SQL
9 76 (2.62%) Rust
10 50 (1.73%) Embedded C
10 50 (1.73%) PHP
11 31 (1.07%) Go
12 18 (0.62%) Kotlin
13 17 (0.59%) COBOL
13 17 (0.59%) Ruby
14 15 (0.52%) Embedded C++
15 14 (0.48%) Bash
16 12 (0.41%) Scala
17 10 (0.35%) Ada
18 8 (0.28%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 264 (9.11%) Security Cleared
2 229 (7.90%) Degree
3 163 (5.62%) SC Cleared
4 106 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
5 85 (2.93%) DV Cleared
6 42 (1.45%) Master's Degree
7 19 (0.66%) PhD
8 15 (0.52%) DBS Check
9 10 (0.35%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (0.24%) Azure Certification
10 7 (0.24%) Chartered Engineer
10 7 (0.24%) HND
11 6 (0.21%) HNC
12 4 (0.14%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.10%) CEH
13 3 (0.10%) OSCP
14 2 (0.069%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.069%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.069%) NVQ Level 3
14 2 (0.069%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (2.21%) QA
2 17 (0.59%) Accessibility
2 17 (0.59%) IEC 61508
3 16 (0.55%) MISRA
3 16 (0.55%) MISRA C
4 8 (0.28%) IEC 61131
5 6 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 4 (0.14%) GDPR
6 4 (0.14%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.10%) DO-178B
7 3 (0.10%) JTAG
8 1 (0.035%) DO-254
8 1 (0.035%) ECSS
8 1 (0.035%) HAZOP
8 1 (0.035%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.035%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.035%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.035%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 134 (4.62%) Firmware
2 107 (3.69%) Docker
3 43 (1.48%) Embedded Firmware
4 14 (0.48%) Hyper-V
4 14 (0.48%) KVM
4 14 (0.48%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.10%) QEMU
7 2 (0.069%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 89 (3.07%) Kubernetes
2 63 (2.17%) Terraform
3 17 (0.59%) Ansible
4 13 (0.45%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.21%) Kibana
5 6 (0.21%) Puppet
6 5 (0.17%) Grafana
6 5 (0.17%) logstash
7 3 (0.10%) Plesk
7 3 (0.10%) Podman
7 3 (0.10%) SCCM
7 3 (0.10%) SCOM
7 3 (0.10%) SCOrch
8 2 (0.069%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.069%) Packer
8 2 (0.069%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 24 (0.83%) Siemens
2 23 (0.79%) Microsoft
3 18 (0.62%) Rockwell
4 17 (0.59%) Oracle
5 16 (0.55%) VMware
6 15 (0.52%) Google
7 13 (0.45%) Adobe
8 10 (0.35%) Salesforce
9 8 (0.28%) Allen-Bradley
10 7 (0.24%) HubSpot
11 5 (0.17%) Atlassian
11 5 (0.17%) Red Hat
11 5 (0.17%) SaltStack
11 5 (0.17%) Xamarin
12 4 (0.14%) Atmel
12 4 (0.14%) Peregrine
13 3 (0.10%) OpenAI
13 3 (0.10%) Palantir
13 3 (0.10%) Typelevel
13 3 (0.10%) Wonderware