Software Engineer Salary UK 2026: Pay vs Visa Rules

The median UK software engineer job advert pays £70,000 a year, according to IT Jobs Watch data for the 6 months to 28 October 2026. That comfortably clears the Skilled Worker visa rules for most mid-level roles. The catch is at the bottom of the market: graduate software engineer adverts have a median of just £29,000, well under what a sponsored new entrant usually needs.

This guide breaks down software engineer pay by level and city, then lines it up against the official salary thresholds, so you can tell quickly whether an offer is likely to work for a visa.

Software engineer salary UK: the 2026 numbers

IT Jobs Watch tracks salaries quoted in UK permanent job adverts. For the “Software Engineer” job title it counted 6,363 permanent adverts in the 6 months to 28 October 2026, of which 4,441 quoted a salary. Here is how those salaries spread:

Percentile	Software engineer (UK)	Same period 2025
10th	£48,750	£46,250
25th	£59,813	£57,750
Median	£70,000	£77,500
75th	£90,000	£111,250
90th	£100,000	£136,250

Two things stand out. First, the median is 9.68% lower than the same period in 2025, and the top end has come down even more sharply. Second, the number of adverts is about three times higher than a year earlier (6,363 against 2,125). Our reading is that more roles are being advertised but fewer of them are the very highly paid ones that pulled the 2025 figures up. Treat that as an interpretation, not a fact from the data.

Keep in mind that these are advertised salaries, not what people actually end up being paid. They also leave out adverts that don’t state a salary.

Software developer vs software engineer salary

The job titles overlap, but the pay data differs. “Software Developer” adverts had a UK median of £65,000 over the same period, with a 25th percentile of £52,500 and a 75th percentile of £70,000. In London the developer median was £80,000. Many employers use the titles interchangeably, so compare the actual duties and level in the advert rather than the label.

Software engineer salary by city and region

Location still makes a big difference. These are IT Jobs Watch medians for software engineer adverts in the 6 months to 28 October 2026:

Region	Median advertised salary
London	£100,000
Scotland	£75,000
South East	£70,000
North West	£70,000
East of England	£70,000
North of England	£69,305
UK excluding London	£67,500
South West	£67,500
West Midlands	£65,000
Yorkshire	£60,000
Wales	£60,000
East Midlands	£55,000

Remote roles (“Work from Home” in the data) had a median of £72,500. Within London, Central London adverts also had a median of £100,000.

Entry-level and graduate software engineer salaries

This is where the gap with visa rules opens up. For “Graduate Software Engineer” adverts, IT Jobs Watch reported:

• 25th percentile: £24,000
• Median: £29,000
• 75th percentile: £35,000
• 90th percentile: £53,000

That is based on just 98 adverts quoting a salary, so it’s a small sample. Even so, it shows that a typical graduate offer is well below the £38,300 that a new entrant in code 2134 would usually need (more on that below).

How the Skilled Worker salary rules apply to software engineers

GOV.UK says you will usually need to be paid the higher of £41,700 a year or the “going rate” for your job. Each occupation code has its own going rate, published in Table 1 of Appendix Skilled Occupations.

Most software engineers and developers fall under SOC 2020 code 2134, “Programmers and software development professionals”. Example job titles listed for it include software developers, computer programmers and computer games designers. Its rates are:

Option	Rate for code 2134
Going rate (standard)	£54,700 (£28.05 per hour)
90% of going rate	£49,200
80% of going rate	£43,700
70% of going rate (new entrants)	£38,300

Because £54,700 is higher than £41,700, the going rate is the number that usually matters. The rates assume a 37.5-hour week and must be pro-rated for other working patterns.

When you can be paid less

GOV.UK says you can be paid between 70% and 90% of the going rate, as long as your salary is at least £33,400 a year, if one of these applies:

• you’re under 26, studying, a recent graduate, or in professional training;
• you have a STEM PhD that’s relevant to your job (a relevant PhD in another subject means a minimum of £37,500); or
• you have a postdoctoral position in science or higher education.

For code 2134, the 70% figure is £38,300, which is above the £33,400 floor. Lower thresholds can also apply to some people extending or updating an existing Skilled Worker visa; GOV.UK covers those cases separately.

If your title is closer to DevOps, cloud or SRE, your code may be different. Our DevOps and cloud salaries vs Skilled Worker thresholds post compares those codes.

Do typical salaries clear the visa threshold?

Putting the two sets of numbers side by side (our own comparison):

• Mid-level and senior roles: the 25th percentile of software engineer adverts (£59,813) is already above the £54,700 going rate, so most advertised salaries clear it. The 10th percentile (£48,750) doesn’t, which suggests somewhere between 10% and 25% of salaried adverts fall short.
• Lower-paying regions: the East Midlands median (£55,000) only just clears the going rate, so offers there deserve a closer look.
• Graduate roles: the graduate median (£29,000) is below both the £38,300 new-entrant rate and the £33,400 floor. Only the upper end of graduate adverts reaches the level a sponsored new entrant usually needs.

Monthly pay at a glance

Dividing by 12 (our calculation, gross pay before tax, National Insurance and pension):

Annual salary	Gross per month
£100,000 (London median)	about £8,333
£70,000 (UK median)	about £5,833
£54,700 (code 2134 going rate)	about £4,558
£38,300 (new-entrant rate)	about £3,192

What this means for you

This is general information, not immigration advice. A few practical takeaways:

• Check the occupation code first. The code your sponsor puts on the certificate of sponsorship decides your threshold, not the job title in the advert.
• Graduate offers are the risky zone. A typical graduate salary is below the usual new-entrant minimum for code 2134. If you’re moving from a Graduate visa, our Graduate visa to Skilled Worker guide explains how the new-entrant rules work.
• Hours matter. A salary quoted for more than 37.5 hours a week is pro-rated, so a headline figure can fall short once hours are taken into account.
• Confirm the employer can sponsor. Use the register of licensed sponsors, and see our visa sponsorship jobs guide for search tactics.
• Budget for the visa itself. Our Skilled Worker visa fees 2026 breakdown covers the application fee and health surcharge.

Salary data changes every month and going rates can change when the Immigration Rules are updated, so check the sources below on the day you look at an offer.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average software engineer salary in the UK?

According to IT Jobs Watch, the median salary in UK permanent job adverts for software engineers was £70,000 a year in the 6 months to 28 October 2026. The middle half of quoted salaries ran from about £59,800 to £90,000.

How much does a software engineer earn per month in the UK?

Dividing the £70,000 advertised median by 12 gives about £5,833 a month before tax, National Insurance and pension deductions. That is our own simple calculation, not take-home pay.

What do software engineers earn in London?

IT Jobs Watch put the median London software engineer advert at £100,000 a year in the 6 months to 28 October 2026, compared with £67,500 for the UK excluding London.

What is the entry-level software engineer salary in the UK?

The median graduate software engineer advert was £29,000 a year in the 6 months to 28 October 2026, according to IT Jobs Watch, with the middle half of quoted salaries between £24,000 and £35,000.

What salary does a software developer need for a Skilled Worker visa?

Software developers usually fall under occupation code 2134, whose going rate in Appendix Skilled Occupations is £54,700 a year for a 37.5-hour week. People who qualify for the lower new-entrant rate need at least 70% of that, which is £38,300.