Principal Systems Engineer Contracts

Principal Systems Engineer
UK

The median Principal Systems Engineer daily rate in the UK is £550, 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 499 515 708
Rank change year-on-year +16 +193 +135
Contract jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 21 67 10
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.072% 0.15% 0.017%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.078% 0.17% 0.018%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 0 4
10th Percentile £263 - £622
25th Percentile £475 - £624
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 - £725
Median % change year-on-year - - +39.42%
75th Percentile - - £800
90th Percentile £594 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £350 - £800
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 62 4
10th Percentile £62.79 £50.00 £51.54
25th Percentile £63.56 £52.50 £52.06
Median hourly rate £71.58 £65.50 £60.69
Median % change year-on-year +9.29% +7.93% -4.01%
75th Percentile £80.63 £75.16 £65.00
90th Percentile £83.13 £76.86 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.58 £67.27 £60.69
% change year-on-year +6.42% +10.83% -4.01%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer.

Daily rate trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

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

Hourly rate histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Top 10 Contract Locations

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 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
England +23 21 £550 - 80
UK excluding London +22 14 £350 - 72
London +39 7 £550 - 16
East of England +28 7 - - 11
South West +38 3 £625 - 13
Work from Home +36 2 £550 - 37
Midlands +19 2 £75 - 10
North of England +18 2 - - 17
North West +16 2 - - 14
East Midlands - 2 £75 - 2

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

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 featuring Principal Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 11 (52.38%) Security Cleared
1 11 (52.38%) Systems Engineering
2 10 (47.62%) SC Cleared
3 9 (42.86%) Validation
4 8 (38.10%) Problem-Solving
5 7 (33.33%) Self-Motivation
5 7 (33.33%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (33.33%) Verification and Validation
6 6 (28.57%) Social Skills
6 6 (28.57%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 6 (28.57%) Linux
7 5 (23.81%) Python
7 5 (23.81%) SharePoint
7 5 (23.81%) Red Hat
7 5 (23.81%) PDM
7 5 (23.81%) Teamcenter
7 5 (23.81%) Data Management
7 5 (23.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (23.81%) Confluence
7 5 (23.81%) Azure
8 4 (19.05%) Ansible
8 4 (19.05%) VMware
9 3 (14.29%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (14.29%) Software Testing
9 3 (14.29%) Ubuntu
9 3 (14.29%) Degree
9 3 (14.29%) Management Information System
9 3 (14.29%) Docker
9 3 (14.29%) Kubernetes
9 3 (14.29%) GitHub

Principal Systems 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 5 (23.81%) Confluence
1 5 (23.81%) SharePoint
2 1 (4.76%) WinCC
Business Applications
1 5 (23.81%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 5 (23.81%) Azure
2 3 (14.29%) GitHub
3 1 (4.76%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 2 (9.52%) DHCP
1 2 (9.52%) DNS
1 2 (9.52%) SSH
1 2 (9.52%) TCP/IP
2 1 (4.76%) Broadband
2 1 (4.76%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (14.29%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (9.52%) MariaDB
3 1 (4.76%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (9.52%) Git
1 2 (9.52%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (4.76%) Eclipse
2 1 (4.76%) Jenkins
2 1 (4.76%) NetBeans
General
1 7 (33.33%) Presentation Skills
2 6 (28.57%) Social Skills
3 2 (9.52%) Aerospace
4 1 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (4.76%) Electronics
4 1 (4.76%) Finance
4 1 (4.76%) Manufacturing
4 1 (4.76%) Marketing
4 1 (4.76%) Public Sector
4 1 (4.76%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (9.52%) FHIR
1 2 (9.52%) JSON
1 2 (9.52%) RESTful
1 2 (9.52%) XML
2 1 (4.76%) POSIX
Miscellaneous
1 7 (33.33%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (14.29%) Management Information System
3 2 (9.52%) PACS
4 1 (4.76%) Algorithms
4 1 (4.76%) IoT
4 1 (4.76%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 6 (28.57%) Linux
2 5 (23.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (14.29%) CentOS
3 3 (14.29%) Ubuntu
4 2 (9.52%) SUSE
5 1 (4.76%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (52.38%) Systems Engineering
2 9 (42.86%) Validation
3 8 (38.10%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (33.33%) Verification and Validation
5 6 (28.57%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 5 (23.81%) Data Management
6 5 (23.81%) PDM
7 3 (14.29%) Agile
7 3 (14.29%) CI/CD
7 3 (14.29%) Containerisation
7 3 (14.29%) Data Protection
7 3 (14.29%) Roadmaps
7 3 (14.29%) Software Testing
8 2 (9.52%) Acceptance Criteria
8 2 (9.52%) Architecture Roadmap
8 2 (9.52%) Data Sharing
8 2 (9.52%) Decision-Making
8 2 (9.52%) Regulatory Compliance
8 2 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 2 (9.52%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 5 (23.81%) Python
2 2 (9.52%) Bash
2 2 (9.52%) C++
2 2 (9.52%) JavaScript
2 2 (9.52%) MATLAB
2 2 (9.52%) Perl
2 2 (9.52%) SQL
3 1 (4.76%) C
3 1 (4.76%) C#
3 1 (4.76%) VB
Qualifications
1 11 (52.38%) Security Cleared
2 10 (47.62%) SC Cleared
3 3 (14.29%) Degree
4 2 (9.52%) DV Cleared
4 2 (9.52%) RIBA
5 1 (4.76%) Chartered Engineer
5 1 (4.76%) RHCE
5 1 (4.76%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (9.52%) DICOM
1 2 (9.52%) HL7
1 2 (9.52%) NIST
2 1 (4.76%) GDPR
2 1 (4.76%) IEC 61508
2 1 (4.76%) MISRA
2 1 (4.76%) MISRA C
2 1 (4.76%) QA
2 1 (4.76%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 3 (14.29%) Docker
1 3 (14.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (19.05%) Ansible
2 3 (14.29%) Kubernetes
2 3 (14.29%) Puppet
3 2 (9.52%) Failover Clustering
3 2 (9.52%) Progress Chef
3 2 (9.52%) Red Hat Satellite
4 1 (4.76%) Functional Safety
4 1 (4.76%) Graylog
4 1 (4.76%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 5 (23.81%) Red Hat
2 4 (19.05%) VMware
3 2 (9.52%) SolarWinds
4 1 (4.76%) Microsoft
4 1 (4.76%) Oracle
4 1 (4.76%) QNX
4 1 (4.76%) SAP
4 1 (4.76%) Siemens
91 Principal Systems Engineer jobs Nationwide