Principal Engineer Job Trends in London
Principal Engineer
England > London
The median Principal Engineer salary in London is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 October 2026.
The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 23 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 187 | 284 | 252 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +97 | -32 | +83 |
| Permanent Principal Engineer jobs | 319 | 88 | 203 |
| As % of all permanent jobs in London | 1.22% | 0.74% | 1.15% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 1.32% | 0.82% | 1.21% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 213 | 68 | 145 |
| 10th Percentile | £80,250 | £79,250 | £70,000 |
| 25th Percentile | £90,000 | £92,625 | £75,000 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £100,000 | £110,000 | £100,000 |
| Median % change year-on-year | -9.09% | +10.00% | - |
| 75th Percentile | - | £121,250 | £118,750 |
| 90th Percentile | £118,500 | £150,000 | £147,500 |
| England median annual salary | £90,000 | £80,000 | £75,000 |
| % change year-on-year | +12.50% | +6.67% | -14.29% |
All Permanent IT Job Roles
London
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job adverts in London matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all permanent IT job adverts they make up.
| 6 months to 23 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent job adverts in London matching a recognised job title | 24,191 | 10,745 | 16,768 |
| % of permanent job adverts matching a recognised job title | 92.40% | 90.81% | 95.20% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 15,915 | 6,996 | 10,415 |
| 10th Percentile | £40,000 | £36,250 | £40,000 |
| 25th Percentile | £55,000 | £51,250 | £53,750 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £75,000 | £72,500 | £75,000 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +3.45% | -3.33% | - |
| 75th Percentile | £100,000 | £95,000 | £95,000 |
| 90th Percentile | - | £120,000 | £118,750 |
| England median annual salary | £59,999 | £54,000 | £57,500 |
| % change year-on-year | +11.11% | -6.09% | -4.17% |
Principal Engineer Job Vacancy Trend in London
Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent Principal Engineer job postings relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in London.
Principal Engineer Salary Trend in London
Salary distribution trend for Principal Engineer job vacancies in London.
Principal Engineer Salary Histogram in London
Salary distribution for Principal Engineer jobs in London over the 6 months to 23 October 2026.
Principal Engineer Job Locations in London
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in Principal Engineer jobs within the London region over the 6 months to 23 October 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 |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Salary Past 6 Months |
Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central London | +27 | 31 | £90,000 | -20.00% | 20 |
| West London | - | 15 | £95,000 | - | 3 |
| South London | -3 | 12 | £95,000 | +22.58% | |
| Principal Engineer England |
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Principal Engineer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London
For the 6 months to 23 October 2026, Principal Engineer job ads cited 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 Principal Engineer job ads across the London region.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Engineering | 40.8% | 130 |
| 2 | CI/CD | 26.0% | 83 |
| 3 | Technical Leadership | 24.8% | 79 |
| 4 | AWS | 24.5% | 78 |
| 5 | Infrastructure as Code | 21.9% | 70 |
| 6 | Java | 21.0% | 67 |
| 7 | Mentoring | 20.7% | 66 |
| 8 | Agile | 18.8% | 60 |
| 9 | Microservices | 17.9% | 57 |
| 10 | AI | 16.6% | 53 |
| 11 | Azure | 15.7% | 50 |
| 12 | Test Automation | 15.4% | 49 |
| 13 | SQL | 15.0% | 48 |
| 14 | Security Cleared | 14.1% | 45 |
| 15 | SC Cleared | 13.8% | 44 |
| 16 | DevOps | 12.5% | 40 |
| 16 | Kafka | 12.5% | 40 |
| 16 | Spring | 12.5% | 40 |
| 19 | Data Engineering | 12.2% | 39 |
| 20 | Spring Boot | 11.9% | 38 |
| 21 | Event-Driven | 11.3% | 36 |
| 21 | GitLab | 11.3% | 36 |
| 23 | Architectural Patterns | 10.7% | 34 |
| 23 | Coaching | 10.7% | 34 |
| 23 | Python | 10.7% | 34 |
| 26 | Platform Engineering | 10.3% | 33 |
| 27 | GCP | 9.1% | 29 |
| 27 | Terraform | 9.1% | 29 |
| 29 | BDD | 8.8% | 28 |
| 29 | End-to-End Testing | 8.8% | 28 |
Principal Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Principal Software Engineer | 33.2% | 106 |
| 2 | Principal Java Engineer | 16.0% | 51 |
| 3 | Principal Data Engineer | 11.9% | 38 |
| 4 | Infrastructure Engineer | 5.0% | 16 |
| 4 | Principal DevOps Engineer | 5.0% | 16 |
| 6 | Artificial Intelligence Engineer | 4.4% | 14 |
| 7 | Full-Stack Engineer | 3.4% | 11 |
| 7 | Palantir Engineer | 3.4% | 11 |
| 9 | Senior Software Engineer | 3.1% | 10 |
| 10 | AWS Engineer | 2.5% | 8 |
| 10 | Java Software Engineer | 2.5% | 8 |
| 12 | Full-Stack Software Engineer | 2.2% | 7 |
| 12 | Platform Engineer | 2.2% | 7 |
| 14 | Associate Engineer | 1.9% | 6 |
| 15 | AWS Software Engineer | 1.6% | 5 |
| 15 | Azure DevOps Engineer | 1.6% | 5 |
| 15 | Microsoft Engineer | 1.6% | 5 |
| 15 | Principal Systems Engineer | 1.6% | 5 |
| 15 | Python Software Engineer | 1.6% | 5 |
| 15 | Senior C++ Software Engineer | 1.6% | 5 |