Software Engineer Salaries in the UK in 2026: What Developers Are Actually Earning
What C++, C#, Python, JavaScript, DevOps and other software engineers are earning across the UK in 2026; based on Platform Recruitment's placement data.
Key takeaways
If you're short on time, here's what the 2026 UK software engineering market looks like at a glance.
London remains the highest-paying region for software engineers, but the premium varies significantly by language and seniority. Senior C++ developers in London can earn up to £139,000, the highest ceiling in the data, while senior JavaScript developers top out at around £91,000. Outside London, the South East and South West offer increasingly competitive salaries, particularly for DevOps and Python roles where remote and hybrid working has narrowed the regional gap. At junior level, the difference between London and the rest of the UK is often less than £5,000 making regional roles a genuinely strong option for engineers early in their career.
The data below is drawn from Platform Recruitment's placement activity over the past twelve months, covering permanent roles across London, the South East (including Cambridge and the Oxford–Cambridge corridor), the South West, the Midlands and Wales.
C++ developer salaries
C++ remains one of the highest-paying languages in the UK, reflecting both the technical difficulty of the language and the critical industries that rely on it; from finance and trading systems to automotive, defence and embedded systems.
Graduate C++ developer (0–2 years): London salaries range from £29,000 to £50,000, with an average of £36,000. Outside London, the range tightens; the South East averages £32,000 while the Midlands sits around £30,000. At graduate level, the London premium is modest, and candidates in the South East (particularly around Cambridge, where several systems-level companies operate) can find salaries that match London without the cost of living.
Mid-level C++ developer (3–7 years): This is where C++ starts to pull away from other languages. London averages £75,000, with a ceiling above £100,000 at quantitative trading firms and high-frequency finance houses. The South East averages £57,000 and the South West £54,000. The gap between London and the regions is significantly wider at mid-level than at junior; reflecting the concentration of high-paying finance and trading roles in the City and Canary Wharf.
Senior C++ developer (7+ years): London salaries range from £62,000 to £139,000 which is the widest spread and highest ceiling of any software engineering role in our data. The average sits at £80,000, but the top end is driven almost entirely by the financial services sector. Outside London, senior C++ developers earn between £53,000 and £112,000 in the South East, and £55,000 to £106,000 in the South West. Even the Midlands reaches above £100,000 at the 90th percentile, reflecting national demand for experienced systems-level engineers.
Python developer salaries
Python has become the most versatile language in the UK engineering market, spanning backend development, data engineering, machine learning, automation and DevOps tooling. Salaries reflect this breadth.
Across all experience levels, London Python developers average £76,000, with a range of £52,000 to £98,000. The South East and South West sit close together at £66,000 and £65,800 average respectively, while the Midlands averages £67,000 making Python one of the most regionally consistent languages in terms of pay.
The relatively flat regional profile reflects how Python is used: much of the work is cloud-based, infrastructure-focused or data-oriented, which lends itself naturally to remote and hybrid arrangements. Employers competing for Python developers outside London increasingly match or approach London base salaries because the alternative is losing candidates to remote-first London companies.
JavaScript developer salaries
Senior JavaScript developers in London earn between £70,000 and £91,000, with an average of £79,000. The South East averages £69,000, the South West £71,000, and the Midlands £70,000. JavaScript is notable for having one of the flattest regional salary curves in software engineering; the difference between London and the Midlands at senior level is less than £9,000.
This reflects the nature of JavaScript work. Most JavaScript roles are frontend or full-stack positions at product companies and agencies where remote working is well established. Geography matters less when the work is entirely cloud-based and the tooling is the same everywhere.
C# developer salaries
C# salaries present an interesting pattern. At junior level, London offers a clear premium; £31,000 to £41,000 versus £25,000 to £36,000 in the regions. But at senior level, the picture flattens considerably. Senior C# developers in London average £60,000, which is almost identical to South East (£60,000), South West (£60,000) and Midlands (£61,000) averages.
This regional parity at senior level is unusual and reflects the distribution of C# work in the UK. Unlike C++ (concentrated in London finance) or Python (skewed toward London tech companies), C# is heavily used in enterprise software, healthcare, fintech and public sector systems industries that are distributed across the country rather than concentrated in the capital.
PHP developer salaries
PHP developer salaries range from £30,000 to £70,000 across the UK, with London averaging £51,000 and a ceiling of £75,000. Regional salaries are broadly competitive; the South East averages £45,000, the South West £46,000 and the Midlands £46,000.
PHP roles tend to be concentrated in agencies, e-commerce companies, and legacy platform teams. While PHP doesn't command the premiums of C++ or Python, experienced Laravel and Symfony developers with strong architecture skills can push toward the top end of these ranges, particularly in London.
DevOps engineer salaries
DevOps remains one of the most consistently well-paid disciplines in UK software engineering. London DevOps engineers earn between £62,000 and £101,000, with an average of £77,000. The South East and South West both average around £76,000 and £75,000 respectively, while the Midlands sits at £75,000.
The near-absence of a London premium for DevOps is striking it's the flattest regional salary profile in the entire dataset. This makes sense: DevOps is inherently infrastructure and cloud-focused work, most of it done remotely, and employers have largely accepted that competing for DevOps talent means competing nationally rather than locally. For DevOps engineers considering a move, this means location should be driven by quality of life rather than salary, the money is comparable wherever you are in the UK.
Testing and QA salaries
Testing and QA roles span a wide salary range depending on specialism.
Test engineers earn between £38,000 and £79,000 in London, with an average of £58,000. Regional salaries are close behind the South East and South West both average around £53,000.
Test automation engineers command a premium over manual testing roles, averaging £64,000 in London with a ceiling of £89,000. The South East averages £58,000 and the South West £53,000.
Verification engineers are the highest-paid testing specialism by a significant margin, reflecting their critical role in semiconductor, ASIC and FPGA development. London averages £83,000 with a ceiling of £115,000 and even outside London, salaries regularly exceed £100,000 at the 90th percentile. Verification engineering remains one of the most supply-constrained disciplines in UK engineering.
Data science and machine learning salaries
Data scientists and machine learning engineers in London earn between £57,000 and £97,000, with an average of £65,000. The South East and South West sit at £61,000 and £59,000 average respectively, while the Midlands averages £59,000.
These numbers reflect a maturing market. The explosive salary growth that characterised data science in 2018–2022 has stabilised, and employers are now more precise about what they're paying for. Pure ML engineering roles (building and deploying models in production) tend to command the top end of these ranges, while more analytical or reporting-focused data science roles sit closer to the middle.
Data analysts sit lower, at £43,000 to £57,000 in London and £35,000 to £50,000 in the Midlands. The gap between data analyst and data scientist salaries remains significant, typically £15,000–£20,000 for equivalent experience, reflecting the difference in technical depth required.
What's driving software engineering salaries in 2026
Several trends are shaping the broader picture this year.
C++ is pulling further ahead. The combination of AI infrastructure demand (much of which runs on C++ under the hood), continued growth in quantitative finance, and chronic undersupply of experienced systems programmers is pushing C++ salaries to levels that other languages can't match. The £139,000 ceiling for senior C++ developers in London is not an outlier; it reflects a genuine market for elite systems engineers.
The regional premium for DevOps and cloud roles has almost disappeared. For DevOps, Python, JavaScript and C# engineers, the difference between London and the regions is now small enough that cost of living tips the equation firmly in favour of working outside the capital. This is a structural shift, not a temporary one. Remote-first hiring practices have permanently compressed regional salary differentials for cloud-native roles.
Verification engineering remains the most undersupplied discipline. With salaries exceeding £100,000 outside London and a talent pipeline that isn't growing fast enough to meet demand, verification engineers continue to command significant negotiating power regardless of location. If you're a verification engineer who hasn't reviewed your compensation recently, it's worth doing so, the market may have moved since your last review.
AI skills are becoming a salary multiplier. Across all languages and roles, engineers who can demonstrate practical experience with AI tooling, whether that's integrating AI coding assistants into development workflows, building ML pipelines, or working with AI-powered testing tools, are commanding premiums of 5–15% over comparable engineers without AI experience. This isn't yet reflected as a separate salary band in most compensation frameworks, but it's clearly visible in offer data.
For candidates: benchmarking your salary
Find your role and region in the data above and check where your current salary falls. If you're below the 10th percentile, you're almost certainly underpaid. If you're between the average and the 90th percentile, you're in a healthy position. If you're above the 90th percentile, you're either exceptionally well-compensated or your role has evolved beyond its title; both worth a conversation.
Remember that base salary is only part of the picture. Bonuses, equity (particularly at start-ups and scale-ups), pension contributions, and remote-working flexibility all affect the real value of a compensation package. For a practical guide on how to use salary data in a negotiation, see our salary negotiation guide for engineers.
For hiring managers: setting competitive offers
If you're hiring software engineers in 2026, two things matter more than they used to. First, know your regional competition; for DevOps, Python and JavaScript roles, you're competing nationally, not locally. A candidate in Birmingham is comparing your offer against remote London roles, not against other Midlands employers. Second, move quickly. Strong candidates are typically in multiple processes at once, and speed of decision-making is now as important as salary in closing hires. For more on this, see our guide to running effective engineering interviews in 2026.
Want the full picture?
This blog covers the headlines from our 2026 salary data. For the complete breakdown, including our embedded software and electronics salary guide with detailed percentile data by region, explore our full salary insights series.
If you're hiring this quarter, or considering your next move as a software engineer, we'd love to hear from you. Platform Recruitment places engineers across the UK, US and Germany.
Get in touch and we'll come back to you within 24 hours with a current read on the market.
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