Principal Engineer
UK

The median Principal Engineer salary in the UK is £80,000 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 283 482 413
Rank change year-on-year +199 -69 +118
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 993 619 1,358
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 1.01% 0.59% 0.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 0.65% 0.92%
Number of salaries quoted 382 448 436
10th Percentile £57,750 £55,500 £60,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £66,250 £65,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £83,500 £85,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.19% -1.76% +21.43%
75th Percentile £95,938 £115,000 £100,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £150,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £73,750
% change year-on-year -3.45% -1.69% +9.26%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 92,756 95,826 148,057
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.61% 91.56% 96.06%
Number of salaries quoted 66,592 60,202 85,221
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,550 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.42% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,250 £81,250 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +5.26%

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Principal Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Engineer.

Salary trend for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +190 832 £80,000 -5.33% 292
UK excluding London +196 762 £70,000 -3.45% 256
Work from Home 0 195 £85,000 -5.56% 103
London +58 174 £97,500 -9.30% 59
North of England +105 159 £65,000 -13.33% 45
South West +109 150 £70,000 -12.50% 58
South East +38 136 £75,000 +7.14% 65
Midlands +89 115 £75,000 -9.09% 18
Scotland +21 106 £67,500 -20.59% 11
North West +55 83 £65,000 -5.45% 39
East of England +75 79 £77,500 +6.90% 57
West Midlands +76 63 £70,000 -36.36% 12
Yorkshire +100 56 £65,000 -18.75% 6
East Midlands +20 52 £85,000 +3.03% 6
North East +7 20 - -
Wales +15 15 £60,000 +34.33% 5
Northern Ireland +30 2 £80,000 +14.29% 7

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 April 2024, Principal Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 255 (25.68%) Problem-Solving
2 251 (25.28%) Agile
3 247 (24.87%) Google
4 226 (22.76%) Software Engineering
5 223 (22.46%) Data Science
6 218 (21.95%) Mentoring
7 215 (21.65%) GCP
8 192 (19.34%) Data Engineering
8 192 (19.34%) DevOps
9 189 (19.03%) Analytical Skills
10 177 (17.82%) Roadmaps
10 177 (17.82%) Self-Motivation
11 176 (17.72%) Data Pipeline
12 175 (17.62%) Platform Engineering
13 172 (17.32%) BigQuery
13 172 (17.32%) Change Management
14 168 (16.92%) Looker
15 164 (16.52%) Technical Leadership
16 161 (16.21%) DataOps
16 161 (16.21%) GDPR
17 156 (15.71%) Technology Roadmap
18 149 (15.01%) AWS
19 140 (14.10%) Degree
20 104 (10.47%) Systems Engineering
21 102 (10.27%) Social Skills
22 92 (9.26%) Java
22 92 (9.26%) Python
23 79 (7.96%) Security Cleared
24 62 (6.24%) Analytics
24 62 (6.24%) Cybersecurity

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 30 (3.02%) Apache Spark
2 14 (1.41%) Confluence
3 6 (0.60%) IIS
3 6 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.60%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.30%) Apache
5 2 (0.20%) JBoss
6 1 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.10%) CMS
Applications
1 11 (1.11%) Simulink
1 11 (1.11%) Stateflow
2 6 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.30%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 215 (21.65%) GCP
2 149 (15.01%) AWS
3 57 (5.74%) Azure
4 46 (4.63%) SaaS
5 42 (4.23%) Dropbox
5 42 (4.23%) Google Drive
5 42 (4.23%) OneDrive
6 28 (2.82%) Amazon S3
7 26 (2.62%) Amazon SQS
8 23 (2.32%) Google Docs
8 23 (2.32%) Lucidchart
8 23 (2.32%) Miro
8 23 (2.32%) Slack
9 19 (1.91%) Serverless
10 18 (1.81%) AWS Lambda
11 7 (0.70%) Amazon EKS
12 6 (0.60%) Amazon SageMaker
12 6 (0.60%) Azure Machine Learning
12 6 (0.60%) Datadog
13 4 (0.40%) CloudFront
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.61%) Internet
1 16 (1.61%) LAN
1 16 (1.61%) WAN
2 13 (1.31%) Wireless
3 9 (0.91%) Network Security
4 7 (0.70%) Firewall
5 6 (0.60%) TETRA
6 5 (0.50%) Bluetooth
6 5 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (0.40%) 4G
7 4 (0.40%) MPLS
8 3 (0.30%) BGP
8 3 (0.30%) IPv6
8 3 (0.30%) Multicast
8 3 (0.30%) OSPF
8 3 (0.30%) RIP
8 3 (0.30%) SNMP
8 3 (0.30%) VLAN
8 3 (0.30%) VoIP
8 3 (0.30%) VRRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 172 (17.32%) BigQuery
2 168 (16.92%) Looker
3 30 (3.02%) Big Data
4 29 (2.92%) Hadoop
5 26 (2.62%) Elasticsearch
5 26 (2.62%) Redis
6 23 (2.32%) Scylla
7 11 (1.11%) Data Warehouse
8 9 (0.91%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.50%) MongoDB
10 4 (0.40%) Apache Hive
11 3 (0.30%) Apache Cassandra
11 3 (0.30%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.30%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
12 2 (0.20%) HBase
12 2 (0.20%) MySQL
12 2 (0.20%) Oracle Database
13 1 (0.10%) Amazon Redshift
13 1 (0.10%) Apache Accumulo
Development Applications
1 15 (1.51%) Rational DOORS
2 14 (1.41%) JIRA
3 5 (0.50%) Cypress.io
3 5 (0.50%) Selenium
4 3 (0.30%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.30%) Git
4 3 (0.30%) Postman
4 3 (0.30%) Rational Rhapsody
4 3 (0.30%) Visual Studio
5 2 (0.20%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.20%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.10%) Gatling
6 1 (0.10%) JUnit
6 1 (0.10%) MLflow
6 1 (0.10%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.10%) TeamCity
General
1 189 (19.03%) Analytical Skills
2 102 (10.27%) Social Skills
3 60 (6.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 56 (5.64%) Finance
5 41 (4.13%) Aerospace
6 38 (3.83%) Manufacturing
7 33 (3.32%) Marketing
8 29 (2.92%) Banking
9 28 (2.82%) Electronics
9 28 (2.82%) Law
10 26 (2.62%) Games
10 26 (2.62%) Telecoms
11 22 (2.22%) Financial Institution
12 20 (2.01%) Investment Banking
13 19 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
14 15 (1.51%) Legal
15 12 (1.21%) Automotive
15 12 (1.21%) Public Sector
16 8 (0.81%) Health Technology
16 8 (0.81%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.33%) Kafka
2 36 (3.63%) GraphQL
3 25 (2.52%) Spring Boot
4 24 (2.42%) Spring
5 23 (2.32%) .NET
6 22 (2.22%) React
7 20 (2.01%) Node.js
8 10 (1.01%) PyTorch
9 8 (0.81%) scikit-learn
9 8 (0.81%) TensorFlow
10 6 (0.60%) .NET Core
10 6 (0.60%) MXNet
11 5 (0.50%) CSS
12 3 (0.30%) Next.js
12 3 (0.30%) Playwright
12 3 (0.30%) RESTful
12 3 (0.30%) WinForms
13 2 (0.20%) Apache NiFi
13 2 (0.20%) Flutter
13 2 (0.20%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 177 (17.82%) Self-Motivation
2 52 (5.24%) Algorithms
3 45 (4.53%) Cloud Native
4 42 (4.23%) iPad
5 32 (3.22%) Data Structures
6 18 (1.81%) Data Centre
7 15 (1.51%) Renewable Energy
8 13 (1.31%) Management Information System
9 12 (1.21%) FPGA
10 11 (1.11%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.01%) IoT
12 9 (0.91%) Product Ownership
13 7 (0.70%) Embedded Systems
14 6 (0.60%) Mobile App
15 5 (0.50%) Hackathon
16 4 (0.40%) Enterprise Storage
17 3 (0.30%) Distributed Systems
17 3 (0.30%) Greenfield Project
17 3 (0.30%) Smart City
17 3 (0.30%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 31 (3.12%) Linux
2 20 (2.01%) Windows
3 9 (0.91%) Mac OS
4 7 (0.70%) Android
5 5 (0.50%) Embedded Linux
6 4 (0.40%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.40%) Mac OS X
6 4 (0.40%) Unix
7 1 (0.10%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 255 (25.68%) Problem-Solving
2 251 (25.28%) Agile
3 226 (22.76%) Software Engineering
4 223 (22.46%) Data Science
5 218 (21.95%) Mentoring
6 192 (19.34%) Data Engineering
6 192 (19.34%) DevOps
7 177 (17.82%) Roadmaps
8 176 (17.72%) Data Pipeline
9 175 (17.62%) Platform Engineering
10 172 (17.32%) Change Management
11 164 (16.52%) Technical Leadership
12 161 (16.21%) DataOps
13 156 (15.71%) Technology Roadmap
14 104 (10.47%) Systems Engineering
15 62 (6.24%) Analytics
15 62 (6.24%) Cybersecurity
16 61 (6.14%) Customer Service
17 51 (5.14%) Computer Science
18 50 (5.04%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 92 (9.26%) Java
1 92 (9.26%) Python
2 35 (3.52%) Scala
3 31 (3.12%) Go
4 29 (2.92%) SQL
5 27 (2.72%) C#
5 27 (2.72%) Kotlin
6 25 (2.52%) Bash
7 24 (2.42%) C
7 24 (2.42%) TypeScript
8 16 (1.61%) C++
9 12 (1.21%) MATLAB
10 10 (1.01%) JavaScript
11 6 (0.60%) Embedded C
12 4 (0.40%) Assembly Language
12 4 (0.40%) Swift
13 3 (0.30%) R
13 3 (0.30%) Ruby
14 2 (0.20%) Perl
15 1 (0.10%) PHP
Qualifications
1 140 (14.10%) Degree
2 79 (7.96%) Security Cleared
3 54 (5.44%) Master's Degree
4 39 (3.93%) Chartered Engineer
5 28 (2.82%) SC Cleared
6 18 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 17 (1.71%) DV Cleared
8 16 (1.61%) HNC
9 8 (0.81%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.30%) MCT
10 3 (0.30%) Sun Certification
11 2 (0.20%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.20%) HND
12 1 (0.10%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 161 (16.21%) GDPR
2 11 (1.11%) QA
3 9 (0.91%) Data Quality
4 7 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 4 (0.40%) IEC 62304
5 4 (0.40%) ISO 13485
6 2 (0.20%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.20%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.20%) SLA
7 1 (0.10%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.10%) TickIT
System Software
1 22 (2.22%) Firmware
2 12 (1.21%) Docker
3 8 (0.81%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.81%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (0.60%) Forefront TMG
4 6 (0.60%) Hyper-V
4 6 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.60%) VMware Workstation
5 4 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 55 (5.54%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.71%) Terraform
3 6 (0.60%) Ansible
3 6 (0.60%) SCOM
3 6 (0.60%) WSUS
4 4 (0.40%) vRealize
4 4 (0.40%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 1 (0.10%) Rancher
Vendors
1 247 (24.87%) Google
2 41 (4.13%) EMC
3 37 (3.73%) Dell
4 22 (2.22%) Microsoft
5 16 (1.61%) Fortinet
5 16 (1.61%) Juniper
5 16 (1.61%) Sandvine
6 12 (1.21%) Oracle
7 9 (0.91%) Databricks
8 6 (0.60%) Dataiku
8 6 (0.60%) QinetiQ
8 6 (0.60%) VMware
9 4 (0.40%) Atlassian
10 3 (0.30%) Progress
11 2 (0.20%) CheckPoint
11 2 (0.20%) Forcepoint
11 2 (0.20%) ForgeRock
11 2 (0.20%) SAP
11 2 (0.20%) Sitecore
11 2 (0.20%) Temenos