Principal Systems Engineer Jobs in the South East

Principal Systems Engineer
England > South East

The median Principal Systems Engineer salary in the South East is £70,600 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 97 354 402
Rank change year-on-year +257 +48 +62
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 277 46 2
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 2.91% 0.26% 0.014%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.34% 0.28% 0.016%
Number of salaries quoted 195 23 2
10th Percentile £70,000 £61,050 -
25th Percentile - £61,875 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,600 £80,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -11.75% +68.42% -29.86%
75th Percentile - - £53,750
90th Percentile - £90,000 -
England median annual salary £70,600 £70,000 £61,000
% change year-on-year +0.86% +14.75% -9.63%

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 8,283 16,379 12,707
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 86.89% 94.08% 90.21%
Number of salaries quoted 4,409 11,667 8,026
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £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 £77,500 £77,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £56,000 £52,500 £60,800
% change year-on-year +6.67% -13.65% +1.33%

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the South East

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

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

Salary trend 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 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
Isle of Wight - 203 £70,600 - 9
Hampshire +110 50 £70,000 -22.22% 5
Surrey - 10 - - 3
Kent - 7 - - 1
West Sussex - 5 £70,000 - 2
Thames Valley +31 2 - - 10
Buckinghamshire +31 2 - - 7
Principal Systems Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 29 May 2025, Principal Systems 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 Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 274 (98.92%) Systems Engineering
2 254 (91.70%) BPSS Clearance
3 210 (75.81%) Rational DOORS
4 189 (68.23%) Technical Leadership
5 188 (67.87%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 188 (67.87%) Signal Processing
5 188 (67.87%) Test Planning
5 188 (67.87%) Algorithms
5 188 (67.87%) Electronics
5 188 (67.87%) IBM
6 55 (19.86%) Degree
7 32 (11.55%) Verification and Validation
7 32 (11.55%) Validation
8 31 (11.19%) Windows
8 31 (11.19%) Linux
9 24 (8.66%) Chartered Engineer
10 23 (8.30%) Data Analysis
10 23 (8.30%) Wireshark
10 23 (8.30%) OOP
10 23 (8.30%) OO
10 23 (8.30%) Roadmaps
10 23 (8.30%) Containerisation
11 21 (7.58%) Requirements Management
12 18 (6.50%) Coaching
13 16 (5.78%) AWS
13 16 (5.78%) Military
14 13 (4.69%) Agile
15 10 (3.61%) Mathematics
15 10 (3.61%) Physics
16 8 (2.89%) Atlassian

Principal Systems 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:

Application Platforms
1 8 (2.89%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 16 (5.78%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (8.30%) Wireshark
2 1 (0.36%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.89%) MySQL
1 8 (2.89%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 210 (75.81%) Rational DOORS
2 8 (2.89%) Bitbucket
2 8 (2.89%) Git
2 8 (2.89%) JIRA
General
1 188 (67.87%) Electronics
2 16 (5.78%) Military
3 3 (1.08%) Aerospace
4 1 (0.36%) Social Skills
4 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.89%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 188 (67.87%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 31 (11.19%) Linux
1 31 (11.19%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 274 (98.92%) Systems Engineering
2 189 (68.23%) Technical Leadership
3 188 (67.87%) Signal Processing
3 188 (67.87%) Test Planning
4 32 (11.55%) Validation
4 32 (11.55%) Verification and Validation
5 23 (8.30%) Containerisation
5 23 (8.30%) Data Analysis
5 23 (8.30%) OO
5 23 (8.30%) OOP
5 23 (8.30%) Roadmaps
6 21 (7.58%) Requirements Management
7 18 (6.50%) Coaching
8 13 (4.69%) Agile
9 10 (3.61%) Mathematics
9 10 (3.61%) Physics
10 5 (1.81%) Requirements Gathering
11 1 (0.36%) Acceptance Criteria
11 1 (0.36%) Architectural Design
11 1 (0.36%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 8 (2.89%) C#
Qualifications
1 254 (91.70%) BPSS Clearance
2 55 (19.86%) Degree
3 24 (8.66%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 188 (67.87%) ISO/IEC 15288
Systems Management
1 8 (2.89%) Ansible
Vendors
1 188 (67.87%) IBM
2 8 (2.89%) Atlassian