Principal Engineer Jobs in London

Principal Engineer
England > London

The median Principal Engineer salary in London is £102,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 May 2025.

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

6 months to
29 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 344 303 387
Rank change year-on-year -41 +84 -2
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 48 201 257
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in London 0.38% 0.84% 0.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.89% 0.82%
Number of salaries quoted 33 155 188
10th Percentile £60,000 £70,000 £76,225
25th Percentile £65,000 £78,750 £78,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £102,500 £92,500 £107,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.81% -13.95% +19.44%
75th Percentile £125,000 £115,000 £150,000
90th Percentile £139,000 £125,000 £160,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £80,000 £85,000
% change year-on-year -12.50% -5.88% -

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 11,325 22,537 31,282
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.22% 94.40% 95.12%
Number of salaries quoted 6,851 16,746 23,073
10th Percentile £41,000 £37,500 £42,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £51,108 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £72,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -3.45% +3.57%
75th Percentile £100,000 £93,750 £95,000
90th Percentile £122,500 £115,000 £115,000
England median annual salary £56,000 £52,500 £60,800
% change year-on-year +6.67% -13.65% +1.33%

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

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Engineer in London.

Salary trend for Principal Engineer in London

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram in London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer in London over the 6 months to 29 May 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 29 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South London +2 11 £60,000 -36.84% 5
Central London +23 6 £112,500 -2.17% 11
Principal Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 29 May 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 26 (54.17%) Software Engineering
2 19 (39.58%) Agile
3 18 (37.50%) Finance
4 15 (31.25%) Python
5 14 (29.17%) Mentoring
6 13 (27.08%) Social Skills
7 11 (22.92%) DevOps
7 11 (22.92%) Java
8 10 (20.83%) Kubernetes
9 9 (18.75%) Microservices
9 9 (18.75%) Workflow
9 9 (18.75%) Degree
10 8 (16.67%) AWS
10 8 (16.67%) Analytics
10 8 (16.67%) TDD
10 8 (16.67%) Banking
10 8 (16.67%) Docker
10 8 (16.67%) CI/CD
10 8 (16.67%) Roadmaps
10 8 (16.67%) Distributed Systems
11 7 (14.58%) Technical Leadership
11 7 (14.58%) Computer Science
11 7 (14.58%) Azure
12 6 (12.50%) Atlassian
12 6 (12.50%) Waterfall
12 6 (12.50%) Earned Value Management
12 6 (12.50%) Node.js
12 6 (12.50%) Linux
12 6 (12.50%) UML
12 6 (12.50%) Problem-Solving

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 3 (6.25%) Confluence
2 1 (2.08%) CMS
Cloud Services
1 8 (16.67%) AWS
2 7 (14.58%) Azure
3 4 (8.33%) SaaS
4 3 (6.25%) Azure AKS
4 3 (6.25%) Entra ID
4 3 (6.25%) GCP
5 2 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (4.17%) dbt
5 2 (4.17%) Figma
5 2 (4.17%) Serverless
5 2 (4.17%) SonarCloud
6 1 (2.08%) Amazon EKS
6 1 (2.08%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (2.08%) GitHub
6 1 (2.08%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (2.08%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 2 (4.17%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.17%) MongoDB
1 2 (4.17%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (2.08%) Data Lake
2 1 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.08%) NoSQL
2 1 (2.08%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (10.42%) JIRA
2 4 (8.33%) GitLab
3 2 (4.17%) Jenkins
4 1 (2.08%) Artifactory
4 1 (2.08%) Git
General
1 18 (37.50%) Finance
2 13 (27.08%) Social Skills
3 8 (16.67%) Banking
4 4 (8.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 4 (8.33%) Marketing
5 3 (6.25%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (6.25%) Fire and Rescue
5 3 (6.25%) Public Sector
6 2 (4.17%) Front Office
6 2 (4.17%) Investment Banking
6 2 (4.17%) Law
6 2 (4.17%) Local Government
6 2 (4.17%) Private Banking
7 1 (2.08%) Advertising
7 1 (2.08%) Financial Institution
7 1 (2.08%) Games
7 1 (2.08%) Legal
7 1 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (2.08%) Publishing
7 1 (2.08%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (12.50%) Node.js
2 5 (10.42%) RESTful
3 3 (6.25%) Kafka
3 3 (6.25%) React
3 3 (6.25%) Spring Boot
4 2 (4.17%) Android Jetpack
4 2 (4.17%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (4.17%) Dagger
4 2 (4.17%) Express.js
4 2 (4.17%) Micronaut
4 2 (4.17%) OAuth
4 2 (4.17%) OAuth2
4 2 (4.17%) OpenAPI
4 2 (4.17%) OpenID
4 2 (4.17%) pytest
4 2 (4.17%) Quarkus
4 2 (4.17%) REST
4 2 (4.17%) Socket.IO
4 2 (4.17%) Swagger
4 2 (4.17%) SwiftUI
Miscellaneous
1 8 (16.67%) Distributed Systems
2 6 (12.50%) Data Centre
3 5 (10.42%) Derivative
4 4 (8.33%) Cloud Native
4 4 (8.33%) NHS
5 3 (6.25%) Algorithms
5 3 (6.25%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (6.25%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (4.17%) Equities
6 2 (4.17%) Fixed Income
6 2 (4.17%) Greenfield Project
6 2 (4.17%) Mobile App
6 2 (4.17%) Product Ownership
6 2 (4.17%) Wiki
7 1 (2.08%) Data Structures
7 1 (2.08%) Marketing Technology
7 1 (2.08%) PKI
7 1 (2.08%) Public Cloud
7 1 (2.08%) Renewable Energy
7 1 (2.08%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 6 (12.50%) Linux
2 4 (8.33%) Android
3 3 (6.25%) Windows
3 3 (6.25%) Windows Server
4 2 (4.17%) Apple iOS
5 1 (2.08%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (54.17%) Software Engineering
2 19 (39.58%) Agile
3 14 (29.17%) Mentoring
4 11 (22.92%) DevOps
5 9 (18.75%) Microservices
5 9 (18.75%) Workflow
6 8 (16.67%) Analytics
6 8 (16.67%) CI/CD
6 8 (16.67%) Roadmaps
6 8 (16.67%) TDD
7 7 (14.58%) Computer Science
7 7 (14.58%) Technical Leadership
8 6 (12.50%) Coaching
8 6 (12.50%) Data Engineering
8 6 (12.50%) Earned Value Management
8 6 (12.50%) Line Management
8 6 (12.50%) Platform Engineering
8 6 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
8 6 (12.50%) UML
8 6 (12.50%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 15 (31.25%) Python
2 11 (22.92%) Java
3 6 (12.50%) Kotlin
3 6 (12.50%) Rust
4 4 (8.33%) Go
4 4 (8.33%) SQL
5 3 (6.25%) C++
5 3 (6.25%) PowerShell
6 2 (4.17%) C
6 2 (4.17%) JavaScript
6 2 (4.17%) Swift
6 2 (4.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 9 (18.75%) Degree
2 5 (10.42%) Chartered Engineer
3 2 (4.17%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.08%) Master's Degree
4 1 (2.08%) PhD
4 1 (2.08%) Postgraduate
4 1 (2.08%) SC Cleared
4 1 (2.08%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (8.33%) QA
2 2 (4.17%) Accessibility
2 2 (4.17%) Data Quality
System Software
1 8 (16.67%) Docker
2 3 (6.25%) Active Directory
2 3 (6.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (20.83%) Kubernetes
2 4 (8.33%) Terraform
3 2 (4.17%) Ansible
4 1 (2.08%) Grafana
4 1 (2.08%) Progress Chef
4 1 (2.08%) Prometheus
4 1 (2.08%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (2.08%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 6 (12.50%) Atlassian
2 3 (6.25%) Cisco
2 3 (6.25%) Citrix
2 3 (6.25%) Microsoft
2 3 (6.25%) Siemens
2 3 (6.25%) TOWER Software
2 3 (6.25%) VMware
3 1 (2.08%) ForgeRock
3 1 (2.08%) Foundry
3 1 (2.08%) Okta
3 1 (2.08%) Palantir
3 1 (2.08%) Ping Identity