Principal Engineer Job Trends in Hampshire

Principal Engineer
South East > Hampshire

The median Principal Engineer salary in Hampshire is £75,900 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 114 117
Rank change year-on-year +21 +3 +47
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 28 39 11
As % of all permanent jobs in Hampshire 1.13% 1.48% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.20% 1.53% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 16 12 3
10th Percentile - £70,000 £59,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £70,938 £68,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,900 £73,750 £85,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.92% -13.24% +54.55%
75th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £87,500
90th Percentile - - £89,000
South East median annual salary £75,900 £75,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year +1.20% -6.25% +14.29%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Hampshire

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in Hampshire. 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 Hampshire with a recognized job title 2,335 2,548 1,931
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.96% 96.37% 96.60%
Number of salaries quoted 1,608 1,575 1,348
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £45,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £80,000 £80,000
South East median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.04% +9.52% -4.55%

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Hampshire

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 Hampshire.

Principal Engineer job vacancy trend in Hampshire

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend in Hampshire

Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in Hampshire.

Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in Hampshire

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram in Hampshire

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer in Hampshire over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in Hampshire

Principal Engineer
Job Locations in Hampshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Engineer within the Hampshire region over the 6 months to 14 January 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
Portsmouth +9 8 £75,900 - 10
Lymington - 6 £65,000 -
Southampton +13 4 £85,000 +17.24% 2
Farnborough -9 4 £75,900 - 1
Petersfield - 2 - -
Waterlooville -3 1 £75,900 -
Southsea - 1 - -
Principal Engineer
South East

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Hampshire

For the 6 months to 14 January 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 Hampshire region featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 12 (42.86%) Technical Leadership
2 11 (39.29%) IBM
2 11 (39.29%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 11 (39.29%) Rational DOORS
2 11 (39.29%) Systems Engineering
3 10 (35.71%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (28.57%) Software Engineering
5 7 (25.00%) Signal Processing
5 7 (25.00%) Test Planning
6 4 (14.29%) Agile
6 4 (14.29%) CATIA
6 4 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 4 (14.29%) JIRA
6 4 (14.29%) Requirements Management
6 4 (14.29%) Waterfall
7 3 (10.71%) Network Design
8 2 (7.14%) Mentoring
8 2 (7.14%) Security Cleared
9 1 (3.57%) ArcSight
9 1 (3.57%) ATM
9 1 (3.57%) CCIE
9 1 (3.57%) CCNA
9 1 (3.57%) CCNP
9 1 (3.57%) Cisco
9 1 (3.57%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (3.57%) DV Cleared
9 1 (3.57%) EMC
9 1 (3.57%) ExtraHop
9 1 (3.57%) Frame Relay
9 1 (3.57%) HP

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Hampshire 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:

Applications
1 4 (14.29%) CATIA
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.57%) ATM
1 1 (3.57%) Frame Relay
1 1 (3.57%) LAN
1 1 (3.57%) MPLS
1 1 (3.57%) SNMP
1 1 (3.57%) TCP/IP
1 1 (3.57%) VoIP
1 1 (3.57%) WAN
Development Applications
1 11 (39.29%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (14.29%) JIRA
General
1 7 (25.00%) Electronics
2 1 (3.57%) Military
2 1 (3.57%) Presentation Skills
2 1 (3.57%) Public Sector
2 1 (3.57%) Social Skills
Miscellaneous
1 7 (25.00%) Algorithms
2 3 (10.71%) Acoustics
2 3 (10.71%) Augmented Reality
3 1 (3.57%) Private Cloud
3 1 (3.57%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.57%) Linux
1 1 (3.57%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (42.86%) Technical Leadership
2 11 (39.29%) Systems Engineering
3 8 (28.57%) Software Engineering
4 7 (25.00%) Signal Processing
4 7 (25.00%) Test Planning
5 4 (14.29%) Agile
5 4 (14.29%) Requirements Management
5 4 (14.29%) Waterfall
6 3 (10.71%) Network Design
7 2 (7.14%) Mentoring
8 1 (3.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 1 (3.57%) Presales
8 1 (3.57%) Product Strategy
8 1 (3.57%) Roadmaps
8 1 (3.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 1 (3.57%) Technical Discovery
Qualifications
1 10 (35.71%) BPSS Clearance
2 2 (7.14%) Security Cleared
3 1 (3.57%) CCIE
3 1 (3.57%) CCNA
3 1 (3.57%) CCNP
3 1 (3.57%) Cisco Certification
3 1 (3.57%) DV Cleared
3 1 (3.57%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (39.29%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 4 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 12207
Systems Management
1 1 (3.57%) OpenView
1 1 (3.57%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 11 (39.29%) IBM
2 1 (3.57%) ArcSight
2 1 (3.57%) Cisco
2 1 (3.57%) EMC
2 1 (3.57%) ExtraHop
2 1 (3.57%) HP
2 1 (3.57%) Riverbed
2 1 (3.57%) Siebel