Principal Systems Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Principal Systems Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £350, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 322 344 453
Rank change year-on-year +22 +109 +56
Contract jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 14 55 9
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.11% 0.26% 0.037%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.29% 0.040%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 3
10th Percentile £129 - £656
25th Percentile £209 - £710
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 - £800
75th Percentile £497 - -
90th Percentile £581 - -
UK median daily rate £550 - £725
% change year-on-year - - +39.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 51 4
10th Percentile £62.79 £50.00 £51.54
25th Percentile £63.56 £56.25 £52.06
Median hourly rate £71.58 £67.27 £60.69
Median % change year-on-year +6.42% +10.83% -4.01%
75th Percentile £80.63 £75.16 £65.00
90th Percentile £83.13 £76.86 -
UK median hourly rate £71.58 £65.50 £60.69
% change year-on-year +9.29% +7.93% -4.01%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,767 19,240 22,667
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.63% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,552 11,748 15,893
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,243 1,165
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.45
25th Percentile £17.61 £15.75 £18.09
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%
75th Percentile £64.50 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
East of England +28 7 - - 13
South West +38 3 £625 - 16
Midlands +19 2 £75 - 12
North of England +18 2 - - 20
North West +16 2 - - 16
East Midlands - 2 £75 - 2
Principal Systems Engineer
UK

Principal Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Principal Systems Engineer contract 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 contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Principal Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 10 (71.43%) Security Cleared
1 10 (71.43%) Systems Engineering
2 9 (64.29%) SC Cleared
3 8 (57.14%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (50.00%) Presentation Skills
4 7 (50.00%) Verification and Validation
4 7 (50.00%) Self-Motivation
4 7 (50.00%) Validation
5 6 (42.86%) Social Skills
5 6 (42.86%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 5 (35.71%) Confluence
6 5 (35.71%) SharePoint
6 5 (35.71%) PDM
6 5 (35.71%) Teamcenter
6 5 (35.71%) Data Management
7 3 (21.43%) Management Information System
7 3 (21.43%) Roadmaps
8 2 (14.29%) Acceptance Criteria
8 2 (14.29%) Decision-Making
8 2 (14.29%) Technical Leadership
8 2 (14.29%) Architecture Roadmap
8 2 (14.29%) RIBA
8 2 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 2 (14.29%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (14.29%) Risk Management
8 2 (14.29%) Aerospace
8 2 (14.29%) MATLAB
8 2 (14.29%) Cryptography
8 2 (14.29%) Document Management
8 2 (14.29%) DV Cleared

Principal Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 5 (35.71%) Confluence
1 5 (35.71%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 5 (35.71%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1 (7.14%) Azure
1 1 (7.14%) Cloud Computing
Development Applications
1 2 (14.29%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (7.14%) Eclipse
2 1 (7.14%) NetBeans
General
1 7 (50.00%) Presentation Skills
2 6 (42.86%) Social Skills
3 2 (14.29%) Aerospace
4 1 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (7.14%) POSIX
Miscellaneous
1 7 (50.00%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (21.43%) Management Information System
3 1 (7.14%) Algorithms
3 1 (7.14%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 1 (7.14%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (71.43%) Systems Engineering
2 8 (57.14%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (50.00%) Validation
3 7 (50.00%) Verification and Validation
4 6 (42.86%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 5 (35.71%) Data Management
5 5 (35.71%) PDM
6 3 (21.43%) Roadmaps
7 2 (14.29%) Acceptance Criteria
7 2 (14.29%) Architecture Roadmap
7 2 (14.29%) Cryptography
7 2 (14.29%) Decision-Making
7 2 (14.29%) Document Management
7 2 (14.29%) Requirements Management
7 2 (14.29%) Risk Management
7 2 (14.29%) Software Testing
7 2 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 2 (14.29%) SysML
7 2 (14.29%) Technical Leadership
8 1 (7.14%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 2 (14.29%) MATLAB
2 1 (7.14%) C
2 1 (7.14%) C++
Qualifications
1 10 (71.43%) Security Cleared
2 9 (64.29%) SC Cleared
3 2 (14.29%) Degree
3 2 (14.29%) DV Cleared
3 2 (14.29%) RIBA
4 1 (7.14%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (7.14%) GDPR
1 1 (7.14%) IEC 61508
1 1 (7.14%) MISRA
1 1 (7.14%) MISRA C
1 1 (7.14%) QA
1 1 (7.14%) Software Quality Assurance
Vendors
1 1 (7.14%) Microsoft
1 1 (7.14%) QNX