Principal Engineer Job Trends in the East of England

Principal Engineer
England > East of England

The median Principal Engineer salary in the East of England is £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 25 March 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 147 148
Rank change year-on-year +51 +1 +80
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 81 11 63
As % of all permanent jobs in the East of England 1.48% 0.43% 1.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.64% 0.49% 1.22%
Number of salaries quoted 55 2 6
10th Percentile £50,000 £67,800 £68,125
25th Percentile £55,000 £69,000 £71,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £73,500 £77,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -5.16% +6.90%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,500 £83,750
90th Percentile £89,000 £83,200 -
England median annual salary £80,000 £70,600 £80,000
% change year-on-year +13.31% -11.75% -3.03%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
East of England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the East of England. 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 East of England with a recognized job title 4,942 2,251 5,160
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.26% 87.05% 93.80%
Number of salaries quoted 3,054 1,414 4,004
10th Percentile £28,500 £27,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £38,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,000 £48,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +11.34% -11.82%
75th Percentile £67,188 £66,254 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -9.09%

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Principal Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the East of England.

Principal Engineer job vacancy trend in the East of England

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend in the East of England

Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in the East of England.

Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in the East of England

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram in the East of England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer in the East of England over the 6 months to 25 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in the East of England

Principal Engineer
Job Locations in the East of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Engineer within the East of England region over the 6 months to 25 March 2026. 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
Hertfordshire +23 44 £57,500 - 8
Essex -2 18 £75,900 +13.28%
Cambridgeshire -3 12 £85,000 +6.25% 6
Norfolk -10 4 - -
Bedfordshire +17 3 £80,000 - 1
Principal Engineer
England

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England

For the 6 months to 25 March 2026, Principal Engineer 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 permanent job ads across the East of England region featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 26 (32.10%) Software Engineering
2 19 (23.46%) Systems Engineering
3 16 (19.75%) Degree
4 15 (18.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (14.81%) IBM
5 12 (14.81%) Rational DOORS
5 12 (14.81%) Test Planning
6 8 (9.88%) Mentoring
7 7 (8.64%) QA
8 5 (6.17%) CI/CD
8 5 (6.17%) Decision-Making
8 5 (6.17%) Microservices
9 4 (4.94%) Architectural Patterns
9 4 (4.94%) Azure
9 4 (4.94%) C#
9 4 (4.94%) Design Patterns
9 4 (4.94%) Event-Driven
9 4 (4.94%) High Availability
9 4 (4.94%) Problem-Solving
9 4 (4.94%) Product Roadmap
9 4 (4.94%) Roadmaps
9 4 (4.94%) Security Cleared
9 4 (4.94%) Test Automation
10 3 (3.70%) Ada
10 3 (3.70%) Ada 95
10 3 (3.70%) Agile
10 3 (3.70%) Chartered Engineer
10 3 (3.70%) Computer Science
10 3 (3.70%) Configuration Management
10 3 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 12207

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 1 (1.23%) CMS
1 1 (1.23%) Umbraco
Cloud Services
1 4 (4.94%) Azure
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.23%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (14.81%) Rational DOORS
General
1 18 (22.22%) Electronics
2 12 (14.81%) Social Skills
3 4 (4.94%) Manufacturing
4 3 (3.70%) Finance
5 2 (2.47%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.23%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.23%) Automotive
6 1 (1.23%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.23%) .NET
1 1 (1.23%) React
1 1 (1.23%) REST
1 1 (1.23%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 7 (8.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 5 (6.17%) Cloud Native
2 5 (6.17%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (1.23%) RISC-V
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (32.10%) Software Engineering
2 19 (23.46%) Systems Engineering
3 12 (14.81%) Test Planning
4 8 (9.88%) Mentoring
5 5 (6.17%) CI/CD
5 5 (6.17%) Decision-Making
5 5 (6.17%) Microservices
6 4 (4.94%) Architectural Patterns
6 4 (4.94%) Design Patterns
6 4 (4.94%) Event-Driven
6 4 (4.94%) High Availability
6 4 (4.94%) Problem-Solving
6 4 (4.94%) Product Roadmap
6 4 (4.94%) Roadmaps
6 4 (4.94%) Test Automation
7 3 (3.70%) Computer Science
7 3 (3.70%) Configuration Management
7 3 (3.70%) Software Architecture
7 3 (3.70%) UML
7 3 (3.70%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 4 (4.94%) C#
2 3 (3.70%) Ada
2 3 (3.70%) Ada 95
3 2 (2.47%) C++
4 1 (1.23%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.23%) SystemVerilog
4 1 (1.23%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 16 (19.75%) Degree
2 15 (18.52%) BPSS Clearance
3 4 (4.94%) Security Cleared
4 3 (3.70%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (8.64%) QA
2 3 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 1 (1.23%) GDPR
3 1 (1.23%) ISO 9001
3 1 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 17025
Vendors
1 12 (14.81%) IBM