Principal Engineer Contract Job Trends in Leeds
Principal Engineer
West Yorkshire > Leeds
The median Principal Engineer daily rate in Leeds is £638, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 October 2026.
The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 20 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 87 | - | 65 |
| Rank change year-on-year | - | - | +14 |
| Contract jobs requiring a Principal Engineer | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| As % of all contract jobs in Leeds | 0.29% | - | 0.15% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.30% | - | 0.16% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 10th Percentile | - | - | - |
| 25th Percentile | £631 | - | - |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £638 | - | £650 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | - | +18.18% |
| 75th Percentile | £644 | - | - |
| 90th Percentile | - | - | - |
| West Yorkshire median daily rate | £638 | - | £650 |
| % change year-on-year | - | - | +18.18% |
All Contract IT Job Roles
Leeds
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Leeds. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.
| 6 months to 20 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies in Leeds with a recognized job title | 986 | 646 | 632 |
| % of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title | 94.44% | 96.42% | 94.19% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 562 | 419 | 394 |
| 10th Percentile | £363 | £309 | £325 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £400 | £406 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £500 | £500 | £493 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | +1.52% | -6.19% |
| 75th Percentile | £588 | £575 | £575 |
| 90th Percentile | £650 | £651 | £646 |
| West Yorkshire median daily rate | £500 | £500 | £475 |
| % change year-on-year | - | +5.26% | -9.52% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 17 | 4 | 30 |
| 10th Percentile | £15.70 | £21.63 | £17.89 |
| 25th Percentile | £19.34 | £23.80 | £19.50 |
| Median hourly rate | £26.25 | £25.50 | £24.59 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +2.94% | +3.70% | +15.39% |
| 75th Percentile | £35.00 | £27.06 | £46.25 |
| 90th Percentile | - | £28.08 | £48.75 |
| West Yorkshire median hourly rate | £25.77 | £27.50 | £26.25 |
| % change year-on-year | -6.29% | +4.76% | +31.25% |
Principal Engineer Job Vacancy Trend in Leeds
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Principal Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Leeds.
Principal Engineer Daily Rate Trend in Leeds
Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in Leeds.
Principal Engineer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Leeds
For the 6 months to 20 October 2026, Principal Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Leeds region featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 100.0% | 3 |
| 1 | CI/CD | 100.0% | 3 |
| 3 | Amazon CloudWatch | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Amazon EventBridge | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Amazon Redshift | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Amazon S3 | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Amazon SQS | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | AWS CloudFormation | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | AWS Lambda | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | AWS Step Functions | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Brio | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Data Pipeline | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Data Transformation | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | DynamoDB | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | End-to-End Testing | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Event-Driven | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Event-Driven Architecture | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Infrastructure as Code | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Observability | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Python | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Serverless | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Spreadsheet | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Terraform | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Test Automation | 66.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Test Strategy | 66.7% | 2 |
| 26 | Accessibility | 33.3% | 1 |
| 26 | API Testing | 33.3% | 1 |
| 26 | Architectural Patterns | 33.3% | 1 |
| 26 | Coaching | 33.3% | 1 |
| 26 | Continuous Improvement | 33.3% | 1 |
Principal Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Leeds by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Principal Data Engineer | 66.7% | 2 |
| 2 | Lead Test Engineer | 33.3% | 1 |
| 2 | Principal Test Engineer | 33.3% | 1 |