Principal Engineer Job Trends in London

Principal Engineer
England > London

The median Principal Engineer salary in London is £110,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 September 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 309 273 332
Rank change year-on-year -36 +59 +76
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 87 197 163
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in London 0.73% 1.02% 0.74%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.80% 1.07% 0.78%
Number of salaries quoted 63 140 120
10th Percentile £80,000 £70,000 £77,500
25th Percentile £95,000 £75,000 £92,188
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £110,000 £100,000 £110,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +15.79%
75th Percentile £120,000 £116,250 £140,000
90th Percentile £135,500 £147,500 £160,000
England median annual salary £80,000 £75,000 £87,500
% change year-on-year +6.67% -14.29% +2.94%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
London

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

Permanent vacancies in London with a recognized job title 10,896 18,397 20,897
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 95.40% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 7,112 11,621 17,265
10th Percentile £37,500 £40,000 £41,000
25th Percentile £52,500 £52,500 £54,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £72,500 £73,000
Median % change year-on-year - -0.68% +4.29%
75th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £95,000
90th Percentile £120,000 £120,000 £115,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - -8.33% -

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Engineer in London

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend in London

Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in London.

Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in London

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram in London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer in London over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in London

Principal Engineer
Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Engineer within the London region over the 6 months to 18 September 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Central London +33 15 £112,500 +13.92% 1
South London +17 6 £80,000 +20.75% 1
Principal Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Principal Engineer 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 permanent job ads across the London region featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 40 (45.98%) Python
1 40 (45.98%) Software Engineering
2 38 (43.68%) AWS
3 34 (39.08%) Finance
4 29 (33.33%) CI/CD
5 26 (29.89%) Java
5 26 (29.89%) Mentoring
6 25 (28.74%) Azure
7 24 (27.59%) Kubernetes
8 23 (26.44%) Agile
8 23 (26.44%) Distributed Systems
9 22 (25.29%) Roadmaps
10 20 (22.99%) Cloud Native
11 18 (20.69%) Microservices
11 18 (20.69%) Artificial Intelligence
12 17 (19.54%) SQL
12 17 (19.54%) Problem-Solving
13 16 (18.39%) Technical Leadership
13 16 (18.39%) DevOps
13 16 (18.39%) React
13 16 (18.39%) GCP
13 16 (18.39%) Analytics
14 15 (17.24%) .NET
14 15 (17.24%) JavaScript
14 15 (17.24%) Law
14 15 (17.24%) Containerisation
15 14 (16.09%) Degree
15 14 (16.09%) NoSQL
15 14 (16.09%) Data Engineering
16 13 (14.94%) Fintech

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in 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 8 (9.20%) Apache Spark
2 4 (4.60%) Confluence
3 2 (2.30%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (2.30%) OpenStack
4 1 (1.15%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 38 (43.68%) AWS
2 25 (28.74%) Azure
3 16 (18.39%) GCP
4 7 (8.05%) Azure DevOps
4 7 (8.05%) GitHub
5 6 (6.90%) Amazon EMR
5 6 (6.90%) GitHub Actions
6 5 (5.75%) Serverless
7 4 (4.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 4 (4.60%) Amazon OpenSearch
7 4 (4.60%) Cloudflare
7 4 (4.60%) Google Gemini
8 2 (2.30%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (2.30%) Datadog
9 1 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (1.15%) Azure API Management
9 1 (1.15%) CloudFront
9 1 (1.15%) Microsoft 365
9 1 (1.15%) Nutanix
9 1 (1.15%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (3.45%) DNS
2 2 (2.30%) Multicast
3 1 (1.15%) Ethernet
3 1 (1.15%) Modbus
3 1 (1.15%) Profibus
3 1 (1.15%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (16.09%) NoSQL
2 13 (14.94%) MongoDB
3 8 (9.20%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (8.05%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (8.05%) DynamoDB
5 6 (6.90%) Apache Cassandra
5 6 (6.90%) Big Data
5 6 (6.90%) DataStage
5 6 (6.90%) Hadoop
5 6 (6.90%) MySQL
5 6 (6.90%) Neo4j
5 6 (6.90%) Pentaho
5 6 (6.90%) RDBMS
5 6 (6.90%) Relational Database
5 6 (6.90%) SQL Server
6 2 (2.30%) Data Lake
7 1 (1.15%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 11 (12.64%) Git
2 9 (10.34%) GitLab
3 6 (6.90%) JIRA
4 4 (4.60%) Jenkins
4 4 (4.60%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (3.45%) Burp Suite
5 3 (3.45%) Metasploit
6 2 (2.30%) Ant
6 2 (2.30%) Plastic SCM
6 2 (2.30%) SonarQube
6 2 (2.30%) TeamCity
6 2 (2.30%) webpack
General
1 34 (39.08%) Finance
2 15 (17.24%) Law
3 12 (13.79%) Social Skills
4 11 (12.64%) Banking
5 10 (11.49%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (9.20%) Public Sector
7 6 (6.90%) Military
8 5 (5.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (5.75%) Legal
9 4 (4.60%) Aerospace
9 4 (4.60%) Marketing
9 4 (4.60%) Publishing
10 3 (3.45%) Fire and Rescue
10 3 (3.45%) Front Office
10 3 (3.45%) Local Government
10 3 (3.45%) Telecoms
11 2 (2.30%) Investment Banking
11 2 (2.30%) Private Banking
12 1 (1.15%) Back Office
12 1 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (18.39%) React
2 15 (17.24%) .NET
3 13 (14.94%) Kafka
4 7 (8.05%) GraphQL
4 7 (8.05%) Node.js
5 6 (6.90%) REST
6 4 (4.60%) .NET Framework
6 4 (4.60%) ASP.NET
6 4 (4.60%) JSON
6 4 (4.60%) Micronaut
6 4 (4.60%) Quarkus
6 4 (4.60%) RESTful
6 4 (4.60%) Spring
6 4 (4.60%) Spring Boot
6 4 (4.60%) XML
7 3 (3.45%) Drools
7 3 (3.45%) OAuth
7 3 (3.45%) OAuth2
7 3 (3.45%) OpenID
8 2 (2.30%) Sass
Miscellaneous
1 23 (26.44%) Distributed Systems
2 20 (22.99%) Cloud Native
3 9 (10.34%) Product Ownership
4 6 (6.90%) Hybrid Cloud
4 6 (6.90%) Management Information System
5 5 (5.75%) Algorithms
5 5 (5.75%) NHS
6 4 (4.60%) Data Centre
6 4 (4.60%) Data Structures
6 4 (4.60%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (3.45%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (3.45%) Public Cloud
7 3 (3.45%) SCADA
7 3 (3.45%) Security Posture
8 2 (2.30%) Derivative
8 2 (2.30%) Equities
8 2 (2.30%) Fixed Income
9 1 (1.15%) Clustering
9 1 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.15%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 5 (5.75%) Linux
2 3 (3.45%) Windows
3 2 (2.30%) Android
3 2 (2.30%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (45.98%) Software Engineering
2 29 (33.33%) CI/CD
3 26 (29.89%) Mentoring
4 23 (26.44%) Agile
5 22 (25.29%) Roadmaps
6 18 (20.69%) Artificial Intelligence
6 18 (20.69%) Microservices
7 17 (19.54%) Problem-Solving
8 16 (18.39%) Analytics
8 16 (18.39%) DevOps
8 16 (18.39%) Technical Leadership
9 15 (17.24%) Containerisation
10 14 (16.09%) Data Engineering
11 13 (14.94%) Coaching
11 13 (14.94%) Fintech
12 12 (13.79%) Collaborative Culture
13 11 (12.64%) Continuous Improvement
14 10 (11.49%) Data Science
14 10 (11.49%) Stakeholder Management
15 9 (10.34%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 40 (45.98%) Python
2 26 (29.89%) Java
3 17 (19.54%) SQL
4 15 (17.24%) JavaScript
5 13 (14.94%) C#
6 9 (10.34%) C++
6 9 (10.34%) TypeScript
7 8 (9.20%) PowerShell
8 7 (8.05%) Bash
8 7 (8.05%) Go
9 4 (4.60%) Rust
10 3 (3.45%) Groovy
10 3 (3.45%) Ruby
11 2 (2.30%) Kotlin
11 2 (2.30%) Swift
12 1 (1.15%) Perl
Qualifications
1 14 (16.09%) Degree
2 3 (3.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
2 3 (3.45%) CCSP
2 3 (3.45%) Cisco Certification
2 3 (3.45%) CISSP
2 3 (3.45%) GCIH
2 3 (3.45%) Master's Degree
2 3 (3.45%) PhD
2 3 (3.45%) Security Cleared
3 2 (2.30%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (2.30%) Postgraduate
4 1 (1.15%) Chartered Engineer
4 1 (1.15%) HNC
4 1 (1.15%) HND
4 1 (1.15%) MCP
4 1 (1.15%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (6.90%) QA
2 3 (3.45%) Accessibility
2 3 (3.45%) GDPR
2 3 (3.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (2.30%) IEC 61508
4 1 (1.15%) Data Quality
System Software
1 13 (14.94%) Docker
2 3 (3.45%) Firmware
3 1 (1.15%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.15%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 24 (27.59%) Kubernetes
2 12 (13.79%) Terraform
3 6 (6.90%) Grafana
3 6 (6.90%) Prometheus
4 4 (4.60%) Ansible
5 3 (3.45%) Functional Safety
5 3 (3.45%) Nmap
6 2 (2.30%) Progress Chef
6 2 (2.30%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 7 (8.05%) Microsoft
2 6 (6.90%) Informatica
2 6 (6.90%) Oracle
2 6 (6.90%) Talend
3 4 (4.60%) Foundry
3 4 (4.60%) OpenAI
3 4 (4.60%) Palantir
3 4 (4.60%) Siemens
4 3 (3.45%) Cribl.io
4 3 (3.45%) Rapid7
4 3 (3.45%) Sonatype
4 3 (3.45%) TOWER Software
5 2 (2.30%) ForgeRock
5 2 (2.30%) Okta
5 2 (2.30%) Ping Identity
6 1 (1.15%) Databricks
6 1 (1.15%) VMware