Principal Engineer Jobs in the North West

Principal Engineer
England > North West

The median Principal Engineer salary in the North West is £47,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 51 207 261
Rank change year-on-year +156 +54 +45
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 411 82 39
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 5.43% 0.84% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.00% 0.89% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 94 20 33
10th Percentile - £55,000 £47,564
25th Percentile £45,628 £60,000 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,250 £65,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year -27.31% -3.70% -20.59%
75th Percentile £54,532 £75,000 £92,585
90th Percentile £78,375 £87,750 £102,500
England median annual salary £65,000 £80,000 £84,500
% change year-on-year -18.75% -5.33% -0.59%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 North West with a recognized job title 6,852 9,205 7,037
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.47% 94.71% 89.10%
Number of salaries quoted 4,054 7,083 4,090
10th Percentile £27,500 £27,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,620 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,055 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.11% -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £61,250 £65,000 £68,938
90th Percentile £77,500 £78,700 £81,500
England median annual salary £57,500 £53,773 £60,567
% change year-on-year +6.93% -11.22% +0.95%

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Engineer in the North West

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend in the North West

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Engineer in the North West.

Salary trend for Principal Engineer in the North West

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in the North West

Principal Engineer
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Engineer within the North West region over the 6 months to 1 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
Cumbria +18 352 £45,628 - 29
Manchester +76 35 £75,000 +4.98% 40
Lancashire -31 24 £80,000 - 15
Principal Engineer
England

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 1 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 North West region featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 375 (91.24%) Degree
2 230 (55.96%) Systems Engineering
3 201 (48.91%) BPSS Clearance
4 163 (39.66%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 161 (39.17%) Architectural Design
6 160 (38.93%) Telecoms
6 160 (38.93%) Automotive
7 125 (30.41%) Social Skills
8 123 (29.93%) Def Stans
8 123 (29.93%) IEC 61508
8 123 (29.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 68 (16.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 48 (11.68%) HNC
11 42 (10.22%) Stakeholder Management
12 40 (9.73%) Operations Management
12 40 (9.73%) Business Case
13 28 (6.81%) ISO 9001
14 20 (4.87%) Software Engineering
15 12 (2.92%) AWS
15 12 (2.92%) Problem-Solving
16 10 (2.43%) Electronics
17 9 (2.19%) Analytical Skills
17 9 (2.19%) Decision-Making
17 9 (2.19%) Software Assurance
18 8 (1.95%) CI/CD
18 8 (1.95%) Terraform
18 8 (1.95%) TypeScript
18 8 (1.95%) React
18 8 (1.95%) Process Improvement
18 8 (1.95%) ERP

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West 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 1 (0.24%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 12 (2.92%) AWS
2 4 (0.97%) Azure
3 3 (0.73%) GitHub
3 3 (0.73%) SaaS
4 2 (0.49%) Amazon EKS
4 2 (0.49%) IaaS
4 2 (0.49%) PaaS
4 2 (0.49%) Serverless
5 1 (0.24%) Amazon ECS
5 1 (0.24%) Amazon EventBridge
5 1 (0.24%) Amazon SQS
5 1 (0.24%) Azure AKS
5 1 (0.24%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (0.24%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (0.24%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.49%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.97%) MySQL
2 3 (0.73%) MongoDB
2 3 (0.73%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.49%) Redis
4 1 (0.24%) Amazon Aurora
4 1 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.24%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.24%) Hazelcast
4 1 (0.24%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.24%) JIRA
1 1 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
General
1 160 (38.93%) Automotive
1 160 (38.93%) Telecoms
2 125 (30.41%) Social Skills
3 10 (2.43%) Electronics
4 9 (2.19%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (0.97%) Retail
7 1 (0.24%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.24%) Games
7 1 (0.24%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.95%) React
2 5 (1.22%) Lambda Expressions
3 4 (0.97%) Node.js
4 3 (0.73%) .NET
5 2 (0.49%) CSS
5 2 (0.49%) GraphQL
5 2 (0.49%) HTML
5 2 (0.49%) React Native
6 1 (0.24%) MACH
6 1 (0.24%) Next.js
6 1 (0.24%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.24%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 5 (1.22%) Cloud Native
1 5 (1.22%) Product Ownership
2 2 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
2 2 (0.49%) Enterprise Cloud
2 2 (0.49%) Greenfield Project
3 1 (0.24%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (0.24%) Mobile App
3 1 (0.24%) Sports Betting
3 1 (0.24%) Tandem
3 1 (0.24%) Wiki
Processes & Methodologies
1 230 (55.96%) Systems Engineering
2 163 (39.66%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 161 (39.17%) Architectural Design
4 123 (29.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 68 (16.55%) Continuous Improvement
6 42 (10.22%) Stakeholder Management
7 40 (9.73%) Business Case
7 40 (9.73%) Operations Management
8 20 (4.87%) Software Engineering
9 12 (2.92%) Problem-Solving
10 9 (2.19%) Decision-Making
10 9 (2.19%) Software Assurance
11 8 (1.95%) CI/CD
11 8 (1.95%) ERP
11 8 (1.95%) Mathematics
11 8 (1.95%) Process Improvement
12 7 (1.70%) Physics
12 7 (1.70%) Project Planning
12 7 (1.70%) Regression Testing
12 7 (1.70%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 8 (1.95%) TypeScript
2 4 (0.97%) JavaScript
3 3 (0.73%) Python
3 3 (0.73%) SQL
4 2 (0.49%) Bash
4 2 (0.49%) Java
5 1 (0.24%) R
5 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 375 (91.24%) Degree
2 201 (48.91%) BPSS Clearance
3 48 (11.68%) HNC
4 7 (1.70%) Master's Degree
5 3 (0.73%) Security Cleared
6 2 (0.49%) SC Cleared
7 1 (0.24%) Chartered Engineer
7 1 (0.24%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.24%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 123 (29.93%) Def Stans
1 123 (29.93%) IEC 61508
2 28 (6.81%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.24%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.24%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.24%) NIST
System Software
1 4 (0.97%) Docker
Systems Management
1 8 (1.95%) Terraform
2 6 (1.46%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.24%) Grafana
Vendors
1 8 (1.95%) SAP
2 3 (0.73%) Microsoft
3 1 (0.24%) Micro Focus