How senior are the open roles in the UK?
Across 4,451 live UK postings with a stated level, 55.7% ask for senior or above, rising to 71.2% in Product and falling to 38% in Customer success.
Data: Jobfinder AI's live index of 157,000 jobs from employer career sites, updated daily.
- Count
- 4,451 Live postings with a stated level in the UK
- Share
- 62% Most open to earlier-career hires: Customer success
Share of postings at senior level or above
Share of live postings asking for senior level or above, by role group, in the UK.
Product, AI / ML and Design postings lean heavily senior in the UK
Of the 4,451 live UK postings in this snapshot that state a level, 55.7% ask for senior, lead, director or VP. That overall figure hides a wide spread between role groups.
Product sits at the top, with 71.2% of its 417 postings at senior level or above. AI / ML follows at 68.6% of 242 postings, and Design at 68.2% of 173. Software engineering, the largest group here with 1,367 postings, has 896 of them at senior level or above, a share of 65.5%.
Security comes next at 61.4%, then Marketing at 55.6%, close to the overall share. In these groups, a typical open role is more likely to ask for senior experience than not.
For someone with several years of experience in these fields, that means plenty of postings pitched at your level. For someone earlier in their career, it means the pool of non-senior roles in these groups is narrower than the headline posting counts suggest.
Sales and Customer success are the most open to earlier-career hires
At the other end of the chart, Customer success has the lowest senior share at 38%, which means 62% of its 108 postings with a stated level sit below senior. Sales is close behind at 39.2%, with 516 senior postings out of 1,316.
Sales stands out because it combines a low senior share with a large number of postings. In this snapshot it is the second largest group after Software engineering, so it offers a broad set of roles that do not ask for senior experience.
Finance sits at 46.7% and Data at 52.9%. Data is worth noting for career changers and graduates: it has 556 postings with a stated level, and its senior share is below the overall figure of 55.7%.
If you are early in your career and flexible about function, Sales, Customer success, Finance and Data are where this snapshot shows the most room below senior level.
How to use these shares when you apply now
Read the shares as a guide to where your level fits, not as a filter on whole fields. Even in Product, the most senior-leaning group, some postings sit below senior. In Customer success, the least senior-leaning group, 41 postings still ask for senior or above.
If you are senior, the groups at the top of the chart have the most postings pitched at you. Check titles such as lead, principal, head of and director, because the method counts lead, director and VP as senior or above.
If you are earlier in your career and targeting a senior-leaning group like AI / ML or Software engineering, expect fewer matching postings and widen your search terms, locations or adjacent role groups. Data, with a lower senior share, can be a practical neighbour for technical candidates.
In every case, read the posting itself. A title may say senior while the requirements describe a mid-level role, or the reverse, so judge fit on the stated responsibilities and experience.
What this snapshot can and cannot tell you
This report counts live postings in the UK on 26 October 2026 that state a level. It covers postings from employer career sites and job boards that Jobfinder AI tracks, drawn from a live index of 157,000 jobs. Postings without a stated level are not included in the 4,451.
Role group and seniority are classified automatically from each posting, so some roles may sit in a group or level that a person would judge differently. Market is taken from the posting's location.
This is a snapshot of postings, not of hires. It does not show how many people are hired at each level, how long roles stay open or how many applicants each one attracts. It also does not show change over time, so it cannot say whether hiring is becoming more or less senior.
Some groups are small. Security has 70 postings and Finance has 60, so their shares can move more with a handful of postings than the larger groups can.
Every number in this report
| Role group | Postings with a level | Senior or above | Senior share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | 417 | 297 | 71.2% |
| AI / ML | 242 | 166 | 68.6% |
| Design | 173 | 118 | 68.2% |
| Software engineering | 1,367 | 896 | 65.5% |
| Security | 70 | 43 | 61.4% |
| Marketing | 142 | 79 | 55.6% |
| Data | 556 | 294 | 52.9% |
| Finance | 60 | 28 | 46.7% |
| Sales | 1,316 | 516 | 39.2% |
| Customer success | 108 | 41 | 38% |
From the data to the open roles.
Questions about this data.
What percentage of UK jobs ask for senior level experience?+
In Jobfinder AI's snapshot of 4,451 live UK postings with a stated level, 55.7% ask for senior level or above, meaning senior, lead, director or VP. The share varies by role group, from 71.2% in Product down to 38% in Customer success. This counts open postings on 26 October 2026, not hires, and excludes postings that do not state a level.
Which UK jobs are best for entry level or junior candidates?+
In this snapshot, Customer success is the most open to earlier-career hires, with 62% of its postings below senior level. Sales follows closely, with a senior share of 39.2% across 1,316 postings, which gives it a large pool of non-senior roles. Finance at 46.7% and Data at 52.9% also sit below the overall senior share of 55.7%.
Are most UK software engineering jobs senior roles?+
In this snapshot, yes. Of 1,367 live UK Software engineering postings with a stated level, 896 ask for senior or above, a share of 65.5%. AI / ML is higher at 68.6%. Earlier-career engineers will find fewer matching postings than the total suggests, so it helps to search widely and consider adjacent groups such as Data, where the senior share is 52.9%.
How do I find remote jobs in the UK at my level?+
This report does not break out remote roles, so it cannot say how many UK postings at each level are remote. In the underlying data, a posting counts as remote only when the employer marks it remote. Filter by both level and remote status when you search, and check each posting's location wording, since some UK roles are hybrid or limited to a region.
What is the best AI tool to search for UK jobs at my seniority level?+
Jobfinder AI is an AI job search agent that watches its live index of jobs from employer career sites every day and matches new roles to your CV and preferences, including role, location, remote and seniority. You review and approve matches before anything is sent. For approved roles on Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, it fills in and submits the employer's own application form using only facts from your profile.