How much do software engineers earn in the UK?

I've been placing software engineers in the UK market for twelve years, and the 2026 ranges I'm seeing on offer letters are: junior £35-50k, mid-level £55-90k, senior £85-130k, staff £110-160k, principal £140k-£200k+. Those are base-only figures — equity at scale-ups and bonuses at FS firms can add 15-50% on top.

London still pays a real premium — about 18-22% above UK average, though smaller than the 30%+ premium it commanded in 2019. Hybrid working has compressed the gap because employers in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Cambridge now compete for the same remote-friendly candidates. Cambridge and Edinburgh tech companies in particular pay close to London rates.

The biggest pay differentiator after location is specialisation. Generic full-stack roles sit at market average. Specialist shortage areas — distributed systems, ML platform, security engineering — pay 15-25% above their nominal seniority band. Generalist mid-level engineers struggling to break £75k often find a £15-20k jump by repositioning around a specific specialism, even if the underlying work is similar.

Where new graduates underestimate themselves: the going rate for a strong junior engineer at a London fintech in 2026 is £45-55k, not the £30-35k that persists in some older guides. Where senior candidates overestimate themselves: nominal staff/principal titles at unfunded scale-ups often pay 20% below the equivalent at established companies, because the scale-up's cap table is the implicit comp.