The UK is a top destination for software engineering jobs into 2024
Proximity to European markets, access to the global talent visa, generous government incubators, and competitive tax rates have all added up to make the UK tech sector an extremely attractive location for top tech talent.
There’s no question the UK has firmly cemented itself as a global leader in tech, with London ranking third in the world for investment only after the US and China.
Last year investors pumped an impressive £19.8 billion in venture capital funding into high-growth start-up companies in London, and the market is on track to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.14 percent by 2028. Given that the software market grew by 6.2 per cent and generated revenues of £41.3bn in 2022 alone, there has never been a better time to assess your next move in the sector.
Deploying resources to opportunity
British tech companies are expanding rapidly to meet the needs of customers and the growth is driven across many sectors such as healthcare, fintech, and education.
As employee demand surges, it’s estimated there will be 705,000 tech services job opportunities in the UK by 2025.
It appears the race to close the talent gap is on, and could prove extremely lucrative for tech workers keen to remain competitive with their skill set as we enter 2024.
Incentivising innovation
Earlier this year the government pledged £3.5bn towards tech and science to support its mission to make the UK a scientific and technological superpower. Around £1bn of the funding will be allocated specifically to supercomputing and AI research, a clear sign of its importance to the sector.
Heavy backing from government-funded initiatives such as the £200m digital skills fund, which was announced in November, continues to drive industry growth and opportunities for workers.
The funding aims to enable more people to access higher technical qualifications to create in-demand skills including digital, healthcare, and engineering as an alternative to a traditional three-year degree.
Such strategic investments in the UK’s future tech workforce continue to propel the industry through fostering job creation and inspiring an ecosystem of innovation.
High growth areas
Reassuringly, the UK continues to hold its place as a top location for software engineers with increases in salaries, up eight per cent year-over-year according to a recent report on UK software engineering trends.
The data showed backend, full stack, and frontend engineers are still the top three most in-demand roles in the UK as they receive the majority of all interview requests compared to other software engineering jobs.
The top earning roles saw UK gaming engineers reign supreme, as the average salary offered was £92,000, up a notable 18 per cent from 2021.
Search engineers ranked as the second highest paid, up from third place last year, with an increase in pay to £89,000. Security and machine learning engineers tied for third place with an average salary of £87,000, up 14 per cent and 12 per cent from 2021, respectively.
While London remains a tech hub for employment, areas such as Manchester and Birmingham are actively recruiting talent in the sector and offering remote working opportunities too.
As the UK tech jobs market continues to rapidly grow so does the pressure to retain its global status as a tech powerhouse and workers with covetable skill sets stand to reap the rewards.
We’ve handpicked three in-demand UK-based software engineering roles in high-growth areas for advancement; find many more to suit on the Alternative Credit Investor job board.
- Senior software engineer (gaming), Light and Wonder, Manchester UK.
Headquartered in the heart of Manchester’s Spinningfields district, this senior software engineer position is perfect for a seasoned professional with a strong background in the gaming industry. Your role will involve creating high-quality and efficient code, contributing significantly to the development of industry-leading gaming titles. A minimum of two years’ of commercial experience in game development is required to be considered for this position. You can apply today.
- Systems engineer lead, Leidos, Remote UK
As a systems engineer lead in Leidos, you will be immersed in one of our key programmes: transformation of platforms to cloud. On behalf of its central government customer, you will have a direct impact on the current and future iterations of one of its most important pieces of critical national infrastructure and as such, will lead a high-performing team to deliver IT services. See the full job description here.
- Supply marketplace software engineer (back-end), American Express Global Business Travel, London, UK.
An exciting role for a talented back-end software engineer is on offer in the R&D department of AMEX. Based in London, you will work with an international team to develop the latest technology for the company’s SMP travel platform. There you will participate in the evolution and development of the REST API and contribute to the extension and design of the platform. You can learn more here.
Article written by Sarah Kiely Lavelle at Amply
