Principal Software Engineer Jobs in the South East

Principal Software Engineer
England > South East

The median Principal Software Engineer salary in the South East is £65,000 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 225 377 407
Rank change year-on-year +152 +30 -13
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Software Engineer 63 20 9
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 0.74% 0.12% 0.060%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.87% 0.13% 0.066%
Number of salaries quoted 57 10 6
10th Percentile - £70,000 £73,375
25th Percentile - £70,938 £78,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £75,000 £83,750
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -10.45% +24.07%
75th Percentile - £80,938 £87,500
90th Percentile £112,500 £83,750 £100,000
England median annual salary £65,000 £82,500 £84,500
% change year-on-year -21.21% -2.37% -3.43%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 7,275 15,664 13,569
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 85.95% 93.87% 90.54%
Number of salaries quoted 4,427 11,342 8,523
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £53,773 £60,567
% change year-on-year +6.93% -11.22% +0.95%

Principal Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Software Engineer in the South East

Principal Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Software Engineer in the South East.

Salary trend for Principal Software Engineer in the South East

Principal Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Software Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Principal Software Engineer in the South East

Principal Software Engineer
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Software Engineer within the South East 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
Isle of Wight - 44 £65,000 - 7
Thames Valley +72 10 £105,000 +40.00% 5
Berkshire +53 8 £105,000 - 2
Hampshire +67 3 £72,500 +3.57% 3
Kent - 3 £60,000 -
Oxfordshire +41 2 £57,500 -23.33% 2
Middlesex - 2 - -
Surrey - 1 - - 3
Principal Software Engineer
England

Principal Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Principal Software 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 South East region featuring Principal Software Engineer in the job title.

1 63 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 49 (77.78%) Degree
3 47 (74.60%) UML
4 45 (71.43%) Agile
5 44 (69.84%) Computer Science
5 44 (69.84%) Chartered Engineer
5 44 (69.84%) Waterfall
6 27 (42.86%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (25.40%) Python
8 14 (22.22%) C
9 12 (19.05%) C++
9 12 (19.05%) Kubernetes
10 10 (15.87%) Terraform
11 9 (14.29%) Rust
11 9 (14.29%) Go
12 7 (11.11%) Roadmaps
12 7 (11.11%) Microservices
12 7 (11.11%) Collaborative Working
12 7 (11.11%) Flutter
12 7 (11.11%) PostgreSQL
12 7 (11.11%) Ruby
12 7 (11.11%) Perl
12 7 (11.11%) Docker
13 6 (9.52%) Military
14 5 (7.94%) Law
14 5 (7.94%) Mentoring
14 5 (7.94%) Physics
14 5 (7.94%) CI/CD
15 4 (6.35%) React
15 4 (6.35%) Git

Principal Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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:

Applications
1 3 (4.76%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 2 (3.17%) Azure
2 1 (1.59%) AWS
2 1 (1.59%) Azure API Management
2 1 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (1.59%) Azure Logic Apps
2 1 (1.59%) Firebase
2 1 (1.59%) GitHub
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (11.11%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (6.35%) Git
2 3 (4.76%) GitLab
2 3 (4.76%) Jenkins
2 3 (4.76%) Subversion
3 1 (1.59%) CMake
General
1 6 (9.52%) Military
2 5 (7.94%) Law
3 3 (4.76%) Electronics
4 2 (3.17%) Aerospace
4 2 (3.17%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (11.11%) Flutter
2 4 (6.35%) React
3 3 (4.76%) Node.js
4 2 (3.17%) AngularJS
5 1 (1.59%) .NET
5 1 (1.59%) .NET Core
5 1 (1.59%) CSS
5 1 (1.59%) CSS3
5 1 (1.59%) HTML
5 1 (1.59%) HTML5
5 1 (1.59%) Jest
5 1 (1.59%) React Native
5 1 (1.59%) Redux
5 1 (1.59%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 4 (6.35%) Embedded Systems
2 2 (3.17%) Algorithms
3 1 (1.59%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (1.59%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.59%) Android
1 1 (1.59%) Apple iOS
1 1 (1.59%) Linux
1 1 (1.59%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 47 (74.60%) UML
3 45 (71.43%) Agile
4 44 (69.84%) Computer Science
4 44 (69.84%) Waterfall
5 7 (11.11%) Collaborative Working
5 7 (11.11%) Microservices
5 7 (11.11%) Roadmaps
6 5 (7.94%) CI/CD
6 5 (7.94%) Mentoring
6 5 (7.94%) Physics
7 3 (4.76%) Artificial Intelligence
7 3 (4.76%) Configuration Management
7 3 (4.76%) Full-Stack Development
7 3 (4.76%) Infrastructure as Code
7 3 (4.76%) Machine Learning
7 3 (4.76%) Power Management
7 3 (4.76%) Requirements Analysis
7 3 (4.76%) Software Architecture
7 3 (4.76%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 16 (25.40%) Python
2 14 (22.22%) C
3 12 (19.05%) C++
4 9 (14.29%) Go
4 9 (14.29%) Rust
5 7 (11.11%) Perl
5 7 (11.11%) Ruby
6 3 (4.76%) Java
6 3 (4.76%) MATLAB
7 2 (3.17%) JavaScript
7 2 (3.17%) SQL
8 1 (1.59%) C#
8 1 (1.59%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 49 (77.78%) Degree
2 44 (69.84%) Chartered Engineer
3 27 (42.86%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (3.17%) Accessibility
System Software
1 7 (11.11%) Docker
Systems Management
1 12 (19.05%) Kubernetes
2 10 (15.87%) Terraform
3 3 (4.76%) Ansible
3 3 (4.76%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 1 (1.59%) Apple