Principal Systems Engineer Job Trends in the South East

Principal Systems Engineer
England > South East

The median Principal Systems Engineer salary in the South East is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 October 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 215 263 277
Rank change year-on-year +48 +14 +6
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 132 33 56
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.70% 0.37% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.75% 0.41% 0.48%
Number of salaries quoted 47 15 16
10th Percentile £57,100 £70,000 £65,625
25th Percentile - - £73,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £70,600 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.31% -11.75% +68.42%
75th Percentile £87,200 - £82,500
90th Percentile - £75,900 £90,000
England median annual salary £80,000 £70,600 £70,000
% change year-on-year +13.31% +0.86% +7.69%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 17,706 8,036 11,780
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.44% 89.92% 96.41%
Number of salaries quoted 12,517 4,486 6,561
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £33,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,250 £82,500
England median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £56,000
% change year-on-year +7.27% -1.79% -6.67%

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Principal Systems Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Principal Systems Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Principal Systems Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Principal Systems Engineer job vacancies in the South East

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the South East

Principal Systems 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 Systems Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 11 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
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Hampshire +30 83 £80,000 +9.66% 20
Isle of Wight +12 31 £87,200 +23.51% 5
Surrey -23 11 £80,000 - 3
West Sussex - 5 £68,500 -
Thames Valley -22 1 - - 4
Berkshire - 1 - - 3
Sussex - 1 - - 1
Principal Systems Engineer
England

Principal Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 11 October 2026, Principal Systems Engineer job roles required 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 job ads across the South East region featuring Principal Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 68 (51.52%) Systems Engineering
2 58 (43.94%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (32.58%) Rational DOORS
4 40 (30.30%) Degree
4 40 (30.30%) Requirements Management
5 30 (22.73%) Customer Requirements
5 30 (22.73%) Validation
5 30 (22.73%) Verification and Validation
6 29 (21.97%) Technical Leadership
7 23 (17.42%) Chartered Engineer
8 22 (16.67%) Change Management
9 21 (15.91%) Decision-Making
10 20 (15.15%) IBM
11 18 (13.64%) Software Engineering
12 16 (12.12%) Test Planning
13 13 (9.85%) Problem-Solving
14 12 (9.09%) 5G
15 11 (8.33%) ISO/IEC 15288
16 10 (7.58%) SC Cleared
16 10 (7.58%) Security Cleared
16 10 (7.58%) Systems Thinking
17 9 (6.82%) Agile
17 9 (6.82%) Data Analysis
17 9 (6.82%) Impact Assessments
17 9 (6.82%) Xilinx
18 8 (6.06%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
18 8 (6.06%) SysML
18 8 (6.06%) TOGAF
18 8 (6.06%) UML
19 7 (5.30%) Asset Management

Principal Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 3 (2.27%) CMS
Applications
1 5 (3.79%) Mathcad
1 5 (3.79%) Simulink
2 4 (3.03%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 2 (1.52%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1 (0.76%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 12 (9.09%) 5G
2 5 (3.79%) Wireless
3 2 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
3 2 (1.52%) DHCP
3 2 (1.52%) DNS
3 2 (1.52%) Network Security
3 2 (1.52%) OSPF
3 2 (1.52%) TCP/IP
3 2 (1.52%) VLAN
3 2 (1.52%) VPN
3 2 (1.52%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.76%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.76%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 43 (32.58%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (3.03%) JIRA
2 4 (3.03%) LabVIEW
General
1 62 (46.97%) Aerospace
2 59 (44.70%) Finance
3 32 (24.24%) Electronics
4 22 (16.67%) Social Skills
5 17 (12.88%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (4.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (3.03%) Retail
8 1 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
Miscellaneous
1 9 (6.82%) FPGA
2 4 (3.03%) Augmented Reality
3 3 (2.27%) Acoustics
3 3 (2.27%) Management Information System
4 2 (1.52%) Product Ownership
5 1 (0.76%) Cloud Native
5 1 (0.76%) IoT
5 1 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.76%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.52%) Windows
1 2 (1.52%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (51.52%) Systems Engineering
2 40 (30.30%) Requirements Management
3 30 (22.73%) Customer Requirements
3 30 (22.73%) Validation
3 30 (22.73%) Verification and Validation
4 29 (21.97%) Technical Leadership
5 22 (16.67%) Change Management
6 21 (15.91%) Decision-Making
7 18 (13.64%) Software Engineering
8 16 (12.12%) Test Planning
9 13 (9.85%) Problem-Solving
10 10 (7.58%) Systems Thinking
11 9 (6.82%) Agile
11 9 (6.82%) Data Analysis
11 9 (6.82%) Impact Assessments
12 8 (6.06%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
12 8 (6.06%) SysML
12 8 (6.06%) TOGAF
12 8 (6.06%) UML
13 7 (5.30%) Supply Chain Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (4.55%) Python
2 5 (3.79%) MATLAB
3 1 (0.76%) Perl
Qualifications
1 58 (43.94%) BPSS Clearance
2 40 (30.30%) Degree
3 23 (17.42%) Chartered Engineer
4 10 (7.58%) SC Cleared
4 10 (7.58%) Security Cleared
5 6 (4.55%) DV Cleared
6 4 (3.03%) PhD
7 2 (1.52%) CCNA
7 2 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (8.33%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 6 (4.55%) Accessibility
3 3 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 2 (1.52%) Active Directory
1 2 (1.52%) VMware ESXi
1 2 (1.52%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 6 (4.55%) BMC PATROL
Vendors
1 20 (15.15%) IBM
2 9 (6.82%) Xilinx
3 4 (3.03%) EMC
3 4 (3.03%) Thales
4 2 (1.52%) Cisco
4 2 (1.52%) SolarWinds
4 2 (1.52%) Veeam
4 2 (1.52%) VMware
5 1 (0.76%) Microsoft