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 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 69 20
Rank change year-on-year +47 -49 +44
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 4,472 1,300 3,777
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.18% 3.77% 7.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.57% 4.21% 7.49%
Number of salaries quoted 3,487 482 2,165
10th Percentile £45,000 £43,875 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £53,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £56,509
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +15.03% -5.82%
75th Percentile £80,000 £79,750 £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 80,247 30,893 50,421
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.00% 89.51% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 55,654 17,175 28,342
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £64,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.27% - -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 1 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 1 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 +33 1,080 £70,000 +7.69% 407
South East +85 1,024 £70,000 +2.94% 330
South West +49 924 £68,250 +5.00% 339
North West +16 614 £70,000 -6.67% 265
East of England +116 608 £70,000 +7.69% 306
Midlands +62 456 £65,000 +4.00% 229
East Midlands +45 263 £55,000 -21.43% 127
Yorkshire +82 261 £60,000 - 97
Scotland +1 227 £78,750 +24.02% 307
North East +26 205 £70,000 +27.27% 46
West Midlands +36 193 £65,000 +8.33% 102
Wales +17 141 £60,000 +4.35% 44
Northern Ireland - 13 £82,500 - 75
Software Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 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 4,441 (99.31%) Software Engineering
2 670 (14.98%) C++
3 610 (13.64%) C#
4 564 (12.61%) Agile
5 544 (12.16%) Python
6 440 (9.84%) AWS
7 437 (9.77%) AI
8 410 (9.17%) Security Cleared
9 388 (8.68%) Java
10 384 (8.59%) CI/CD
11 372 (8.32%) Full-Stack Development
12 309 (6.91%) .NET
13 303 (6.78%) Linux
14 286 (6.40%) Azure
15 278 (6.22%) Degree
16 275 (6.15%) TypeScript
17 264 (5.90%) SC Cleared
18 259 (5.79%) JavaScript
19 255 (5.70%) Mentoring
20 239 (5.34%) C
21 237 (5.30%) DevOps
22 232 (5.19%) React
23 228 (5.10%) Problem-Solving
24 200 (4.47%) SDLC
25 198 (4.43%) Microservices
26 190 (4.25%) Test Automation
27 189 (4.23%) Docker
28 181 (4.05%) Continuous Improvement
29 179 (4.00%) SQL
30 173 (3.87%) DV Cleared

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 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
3 9 (0.20%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
5 7 (0.16%) Confluence
5 7 (0.16%) WinCC
6 5 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.067%) Apache Solr
7 3 (0.067%) CMS
7 3 (0.067%) Headless CMS
7 3 (0.067%) SharePoint
7 3 (0.067%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.067%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.045%) ArchestrA
8 2 (0.045%) WordPress
9 1 (0.022%) Cloud Foundry
9 1 (0.022%) OpenStack
Applications
1 20 (0.45%) 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 4 (0.089%) Visualfiles
3 2 (0.045%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.022%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 440 (9.84%) AWS
2 286 (6.40%) Azure
3 136 (3.04%) SaaS
4 111 (2.48%) GCP
5 79 (1.77%) Serverless
6 49 (1.10%) GitHub
7 39 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
8 37 (0.83%) Firebase
9 30 (0.67%) Anthropic Claude
9 30 (0.67%) AWS Lambda
10 21 (0.47%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
12 19 (0.42%) Amazon EKS
13 18 (0.40%) Amazon S3
14 17 (0.38%) Cloud Run
15 14 (0.31%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.29%) GitHub Copilot
17 11 (0.25%) Azure Service Bus
17 11 (0.25%) Slack
18 10 (0.22%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 72 (1.61%) Wireless
2 36 (0.81%) Ethernet
3 31 (0.69%) Bluetooth
4 27 (0.60%) TCP/IP
5 25 (0.56%) Modbus
6 24 (0.54%) MQTT
7 22 (0.49%) Wi-Fi
8 16 (0.36%) ZigBee
9 15 (0.34%) RS-232
10 13 (0.29%) 5G
10 13 (0.29%) LTE
10 13 (0.29%) Profibus
11 11 (0.25%) RS-485
12 10 (0.22%) ATM
13 9 (0.20%) Internet
14 7 (0.16%) AMQP
14 7 (0.16%) Wireshark
15 4 (0.089%) HTTP
15 4 (0.089%) Software-Defined Radio
16 3 (0.067%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
2 61 (1.36%) SQL Server
3 51 (1.14%) MongoDB
4 48 (1.07%) NoSQL
5 43 (0.96%) MySQL
6 38 (0.85%) Relational Database
7 20 (0.45%) Redis
8 19 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
9 17 (0.38%) DynamoDB
10 16 (0.36%) Chroma
10 16 (0.36%) Pinecone
11 13 (0.29%) Big Data
12 9 (0.20%) Hadoop
13 7 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (0.16%) Cloudera CDH
14 4 (0.089%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (0.089%) Data Lake
14 4 (0.089%) MariaDB
15 3 (0.067%) Data Warehouse
15 3 (0.067%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 144 (3.22%) Git
2 56 (1.25%) GitLab
3 35 (0.78%) Jenkins
4 32 (0.72%) JIRA
5 20 (0.45%) Visual Studio Code
6 18 (0.40%) Claude Code
7 17 (0.38%) Cucumber
8 16 (0.36%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 10 (0.22%) JUnit
11 8 (0.18%) Cypress.io
12 7 (0.16%) GDB
12 7 (0.16%) LabVIEW
12 7 (0.16%) Mockito
12 7 (0.16%) Moq
12 7 (0.16%) Rational Rhapsody
13 6 (0.13%) PetaLinux
13 6 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
14 5 (0.11%) CMake
14 5 (0.11%) Yeoman
General
1 220 (4.92%) Manufacturing
2 212 (4.74%) Electronics
3 200 (4.47%) Social Skills
4 196 (4.38%) Finance
5 131 (2.93%) Aerospace
6 107 (2.39%) Public Sector
7 86 (1.92%) Automotive
8 64 (1.43%) Aviation
9 55 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 51 (1.14%) Analytical Skills
11 35 (0.78%) Retail
12 29 (0.65%) Law
13 28 (0.63%) Games
13 28 (0.63%) Military
14 26 (0.58%) Tech for Good
15 24 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
16 21 (0.47%) Financial Institution
17 18 (0.40%) Marketing
18 17 (0.38%) Health Technology
19 16 (0.36%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 309 (6.91%) .NET
2 232 (5.19%) React
3 121 (2.71%) Node.js
4 96 (2.15%) Vue
5 95 (2.12%) Terraform
6 83 (1.86%) WPF
7 82 (1.83%) Spring
8 80 (1.79%) Spring Boot
9 69 (1.54%) AngularJS
10 68 (1.52%) CSS
11 60 (1.34%) RESTful
12 55 (1.23%) REST
13 46 (1.03%) HTML
14 40 (0.89%) Next.js
15 35 (0.78%) React Native
16 34 (0.76%) .NET Core
17 33 (0.74%) Kafka
18 31 (0.69%) Django
19 29 (0.65%) .NET Framework
20 25 (0.56%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 181 (4.05%) Cloud Native
2 131 (2.93%) Robotics
3 129 (2.88%) Embedded Systems
4 106 (2.37%) Algorithms
5 83 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
6 68 (1.52%) Product Ownership
7 67 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
8 66 (1.48%) AI Agents
9 52 (1.16%) IoT
10 48 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
11 43 (0.96%) Public Cloud
12 38 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
13 26 (0.58%) Mobile App
14 25 (0.56%) Data Structures
14 25 (0.56%) Device Driver
14 25 (0.56%) Distributed Computing
15 19 (0.42%) NHS
16 18 (0.40%) Educational Technology
17 17 (0.38%) ARM Cortex
18 16 (0.36%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 303 (6.78%) Linux
2 74 (1.65%) Windows
3 59 (1.32%) Embedded Linux
4 38 (0.85%) Android
5 28 (0.63%) FreeRTOS
6 13 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.27%) Debian
8 10 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 9 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.16%) CentOS
10 7 (0.16%) VxWorks
11 5 (0.11%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.11%) Unix
11 5 (0.11%) Windows Server
12 3 (0.067%) Gentoo
13 2 (0.045%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.045%) Windows 10
13 2 (0.045%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.022%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,441 (99.31%) Software Engineering
2 564 (12.61%) Agile
3 437 (9.77%) AI
4 384 (8.59%) CI/CD
5 372 (8.32%) Full-Stack Development
6 255 (5.70%) Mentoring
7 237 (5.30%) DevOps
8 228 (5.10%) Problem-Solving
9 200 (4.47%) SDLC
10 198 (4.43%) Microservices
11 190 (4.25%) Test Automation
12 181 (4.05%) Continuous Improvement
13 168 (3.76%) Computer Science
14 148 (3.31%) Software Architecture
15 136 (3.04%) Technical Leadership
16 135 (3.02%) Code Quality
17 127 (2.84%) Containerisation
18 115 (2.57%) Machine Learning
19 109 (2.44%) Software Testing
20 99 (2.21%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 670 (14.98%) C++
2 610 (13.64%) C#
3 544 (12.16%) Python
4 388 (8.68%) Java
5 275 (6.15%) TypeScript
6 259 (5.79%) JavaScript
7 239 (5.34%) C
8 179 (4.00%) SQL
9 125 (2.80%) Rust
10 72 (1.61%) Go
11 59 (1.32%) PHP
12 37 (0.83%) Embedded C
13 31 (0.69%) Ruby
14 29 (0.65%) Embedded C++
15 27 (0.60%) Ada
16 22 (0.49%) Bash
17 21 (0.47%) MATLAB
18 20 (0.45%) Kotlin
19 12 (0.27%) Scala
20 8 (0.18%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 410 (9.17%) Security Cleared
2 278 (6.22%) Degree
3 264 (5.90%) SC Cleared
4 173 (3.87%) DV Cleared
5 121 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
6 48 (1.07%) Master's Degree
7 40 (0.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (0.54%) PhD
9 11 (0.25%) DBS Check
10 10 (0.22%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.13%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.11%) CEH
12 5 (0.11%) OSCP
13 4 (0.089%) Microsoft Certification
14 3 (0.067%) Chartered Engineer
14 3 (0.067%) HND
14 3 (0.067%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 2 (0.045%) Numerate Degree
16 1 (0.022%) ISTQB
16 1 (0.022%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (1.48%) QA
2 49 (1.10%) Accessibility
3 10 (0.22%) IEC 61131
4 8 (0.18%) DO-178B
5 6 (0.13%) JTAG
6 5 (0.11%) MISRA
6 5 (0.11%) MISRA C
6 5 (0.11%) WCAG
7 4 (0.089%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.089%) ECSS
7 4 (0.089%) IEC 61508
8 3 (0.067%) Automotive SPICE
8 3 (0.067%) GAMP
8 3 (0.067%) ISO 26262
8 3 (0.067%) MIL-STD-1553
9 2 (0.045%) AUTOSAR
9 2 (0.045%) GDPR
9 2 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.022%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.022%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 189 (4.23%) Docker
2 156 (3.49%) Firmware
3 47 (1.05%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.13%) 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
1 160 (3.58%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.05%) Ansible
3 15 (0.34%) Grafana
4 11 (0.25%) Podman
5 9 (0.20%) Puppet
6 8 (0.18%) Kibana
6 8 (0.18%) logstash
7 5 (0.11%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.089%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.067%) Plesk
9 3 (0.067%) SCCM
9 3 (0.067%) SCOM
9 3 (0.067%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.045%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.045%) Packer
10 2 (0.045%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 38 (0.85%) Microsoft
2 34 (0.76%) Siemens
3 23 (0.51%) Google
4 18 (0.40%) Salesforce
5 15 (0.34%) Databricks
6 14 (0.31%) Okta
6 14 (0.31%) Ping Identity
7 13 (0.29%) RedGate
7 13 (0.29%) Rockwell
8 12 (0.27%) Oracle
8 12 (0.27%) Splunk
9 11 (0.25%) OpenAI
10 10 (0.22%) Red Hat
11 8 (0.18%) Sage
12 7 (0.16%) Allen-Bradley
12 7 (0.16%) SaltStack
13 6 (0.13%) Intel
14 5 (0.11%) New Relic
14 5 (0.11%) Thales
14 5 (0.11%) Xamarin